The Town of Odyssey

One thing that really stuck out to me was how much I got involved in the story. People had said that since this was a prequel, it couldn't be as deep, because we'd know how it was going to end. But I think the opposite may be the case. With a prequel, the creators know that the audience is coming to the movie with a certain amount of knowledge about the future. The smart thing to do in that case, and this is what Pixar did, is to tear down all of your preconceived ideas of the characters and make you wonder the whole movie how in the world they're going to get back to "normal" in time for the beginning of the original movie. A few examples of this: Randall is Mike's roommate. (Could anyone have seen that coming?) Randall is a nice guy. Both Mike and Sully can be quite conceited at times. Mike is convinced that he can be the best scarer ever. And there were many more. But things like those were what got me way more interested in the movie than I thought I would be.

Then there was one other part that really struck me as fantastic. When it was up to Mike to deliver the monumental scare to win the Scare Games for Oozma Kappa, and then he actually did it, I was quite disappointed. My immediate thought was, "Wow, that was a really anticlimactic cop-out." And I was pretty shocked that it was going to have that cliche of an ending. I had loved the movie up to that point, and my thought was, I could get that sort of happy ending from any movie; with Pixar I should be able to expect something better. And that was the brilliance of it! That was exactly how I was supposed to feel! So when Mike discovered that Sully had rigged the simulator for him, I was absolutely blown away. Even though it was fairly simplistic, because of the emotions that had been wrought in me, I thought it was the best plot twist I've seen in a movie in a long time.

Anyway, the tremendous execution and progression of the plot, coupled together with some hilarious jokes (My favorite part was Squishy's simulator scare; I was dying laughing! xD), made for an amazing movie all-around. I thought it was about as original as it could have been while still keeping the same characters from the first movie. Hopefully I'm not the only one who had these thoughts about it. I'm very eager to hear what Jelly thought.

Mike's run in the Scare Simulator. The moment he got the record breaking scare needed, I was thoroughly disappointed. My first thought was "cheesy". Because the truth is, Mike wasn't scary enough for that score. The discovery of Sulley's cheating completely changed everything. Had it been real, and Mike had really gotten that score, I would have hated the movie, quite honestly. But that moment just brought it all together for a spectacular ending. Which I also loved. Mike deciding to go into the human world was a stroke of genius. And it brought a wonderful moment between Mike and Sulley, and brought about a wonderful end with Dean Hardscrabble. That end scene, and especially the line "You surprised me." really was the perfect way to end it.