QZ qz thoughts
a blog from Eli the Bearded

Monster University (2013)


I can echo many of the comments made so far about originality (little in plot), emotional punch (none), humor (good), and animation (good). I'd also like to add that I saw this in 3-D.

I don't know if was bad glasses for the 3-D or bad seating (a little closer than I'd have liked; we were at the Kabuki which does assigned seating); but I couldn't keep the whole screen in 3-D at once. Beyond that complaint, I found the 3-D very smooth, unneeded for the story, and never gratuitous.

It runs with a short The Blue Umbrella, apparently demoing some new lighting and rendering algorithms.

That short was very photo-realistic. It was a little while before I realized I was watching a new Pixar short. Blue Umbrella, however, seemed to have 3-D that was added in post-production. The images seemed to be flat shapes floating on one of six planes. The bad 3-Dness was a distraction at the start for me. Blue Umbrella sets a great scene, but the story seemed lacking.

Final thought: we've been repeating lines from the movie, like "I want to touch it"