The Film's Weak Point...

Pixar's Feature Films Monsters, Inc. / University
#1

Okay, I know that this may be an unpopular opinion, but…

I think that as strong as the film is, with its storyline, characters, setting, plot, and everything is just downright amazing, there’s always a downside, even in the best and most amazing, top-notch stories.

For MU, I would have to say that a rather weak point in the entire movie was:

The Prank Scene, a.k.a. Cute-Ma Kappa

For me, I can understand the point of the scene: OK is trying to prove they are scary, but then Johnny and the rest of ROR humiliate them by making them look adorable. To a point, you can sympathize with OK, especially when they’re actually being laughed at right then and there at the party. However, once the picture was taken, I completely lost all sympathy.

And that is one of the reasons I think the scene ultimately fails. And the ones who I believe are going to laugh the most are the target audience: little children. The imagery used will elicit smiles and laughter in children, teens, and even adults, rather than genuine sympathy and sorrow (the only ones who would feel sympathy would be people who have actually lived through such experiences and worse). Not only that, since this film was released worldwide, we don’t know how many people would understand (presumably) American college culture. In fact, I’ve hear some people across the internet (I recall on Tumblr and possibly Pinterest, some comments regarding this as their favorite picture and “the best Pixar moment”)

However, the biggest reason that it is a weak point is Oozma Kappa themselves.

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If you take a look at the picture, you’ll notice that with the exception of Mike and Sulley, all the other OK brothers pretty much made it worse for themselves. Art jumped for joy when the stuffed dolls landed, Squishy picked up a heart and smiled, the Perry brothers give goofy smiles, and Don poses like a ballerina (seriously Don, what up?) And although not smiling, Mike inadvertently strikes a “cute” pose, and Sulley’s face is just priceless (and is the reason this turned out hilarious for me).

The only thing I could assume is that the OK brothers had been through some pranks themselves in the past, and just decided to roll with it, while Mike and Sulley didn’t know how to respond. In the end, this scene turned out to be more of a fan service for the kids and anyone who enjoys cute and adorable imagery (on that note, this movie is laden with fan service, especially for the older fans of the first movie but it actually serves a purpose in telling the story rather than just pointless amusement).

Again, this is just my personal opinion. I’m open to hear anyone’s opinions on whether this was a strong or weak point in the film.

#2

I sort of agree with you. I know a lot of people liked this scene, but I never really was too fond of it. For me, it seemed a little too lighthearted, I couldn’t really feel sympathy for them at this point in the film.

#3

I’d pointed out this exact same thing on Tumblr many times, only to be attacked for supporting the ROR’s, whom many see as the equivalent of Nazis or serial murderers on Tumblr.

Here’s the thing: in American college culture, pranking by fraternities is every bit as much a part of that culture as overpriced textbooks and take-out pizza. It is accepted that if you attend a frat party, you WILL eventually be the recipient of a major prank, and it is almost equally as likely that you will instigate a prank against someone else, too. MOST college students understand and accept this unwritten rule. I do believe that the other OK’s, being older and having attended the university longer, understood this, and knew that the best way to take the “sting” out of a prank played on them was, as you said, to roll with it. That would take away a lot of the “thunder” from Johnny and the ROR’s, too. If it seemed as though the OK’s were having fun with the prank themselves, it took away a lot from Johnny’s little “victory”. Mike and Sulley, though, were freshmen, and didn’t know this. They also both had personal “beefs” against Johnny and the ROR’s that the other OK’s didn’t have. Sulley was still irked that they’d kicked him out, even though it was no one’s fault but his own that he’d failed to maintain the minimum grade standards AND got himself kicked out the Scare Program. That’s why he didn’t want to go to the party in the first place. Mike was trying to show up Johnny and prove him wrong about Mike not being scary. Mike had been personally insulted at the Rush party earlier when Johnny told him to join the OK’s, that they were “more his speed” and was determined to prove to everyone, Johnny especially, that he WAS a big scary monster. I don’t even think that the other OK members would ever have had any big issue with the prank, not even with the “charity” event that followed, and probably would have played along with that, too, had it not been for Mike and Sulley being so upset, Mike especially. They were all looking to him as their leader, after all, and if the leader is upset, then they all might as well be. I really couldn’t sympathize much with the OK’s, either, because of that understanding that if you CHOOSE to attend a fraternity party, you WILL eventually be on the receiving end of a big prank; in fact, it’s really a sign that you’ve “arrived” and finally been recognized. It’s just an accepted risk, and Mike had made a point of flaunting his good grades in Johnny’s face at every opportunity, so he should have known that eventually there would be repercussions for that. This movie is set in the early '90’s, as well, before everyone became so hyper-sensitized about bullying, before every insult, slight, disagreeing opinion, prank, etc. were thought of as bullying, although judging from the reactions on Tumblr you’d think that Johnny had initiated the fire-bombing of a children’s hospital or sacrificed live puppies or something. In that time frame this would just have been considered a fairly typical frat prank, not even a really bad one, and I’ve seen much worse in my college days, trust me.

pitbulllady

#4

JSWC, you make a good point about the OKs reputation and some-what “readiness” for the prank. The OKs, as seen and told by their members, were the “geek” fraternity. As such, going with the popularity “rule of school”, they are pranked, probably often, and have grown accustom to it as a practice, to take it stride.
Though, as seen, they take it still as slightly demoralizing afterward.

Still, the “cute” picture was, yeah, emphasized for the joke…as per to the younger crowd. Nothing really wrong with that, as the film wasn’t full of such things…
I wouldn’t think of it as…weak…maybe…contrary to the plot advancement. They got their first win, a feeling of over-confidence should have overtook them…but then again, maybe they saw the prank more as a right of passage. Maybe they weren’t really “pranked” as much as thought…maybe they were just, flat-out, ignored. Maybe the fact that they were ‘finally’ pranked made them feel like part of the “real” fraternities, so they took it in stride at first.