We couldn’t be more excited about the imminent launch of Monsters University(opens July 12th, eeeek!) and given that we're all about the post-school/college step at Not Going to Uni, we thought we'd celebrate the return of Mike and Scully by sifting through the Disney/Pixar back catalogue and discovering what they've taught us about going to uni.
Monsters University: Learning New Skills Might Backfire On You Monsters University is a prequel to the action of the ever-excellent Monsters, Inc. This means that as an audience we already know that in just a few short years after spending the time and effort to graduate in scaring, the hard-won skills of the entire Class will be redundant (because the laughter of children is a way more valuable energy source for Monstropolis, remember?)That's kind of a mellow harsher when you think about it.
WHAT'S THE LESSON: Acquiring new skills is fantastic but you should never imagine that they'll keep you in work for life. It's flat-out unlikely that Sulley and Mike will have made even a scratch in their uni debt by the time their skills are already past the sell-by-date. You should definitely get new skills, just look at how much they'll cost to acquire and never stop learning.
Toy Story: Going To University Is The End Of An Era Well, durr, of course it's the end of an era. It's an unsurprising take from a company whose whole shtick is the kids that they view the end of childhood as a bad thing.But even considering this fact they lay it on pretty thick in Toy Story 3. Watch this scene and if you don't get a teensy bit moist-eyed then you should probably see a doctor about YOUR COLD, DEAD HEART.Sheesh, it’s almost like they want you to stay in a state of arrested development forever.
WHAT'S THE LESSON:Frankly, we're struggling with this one. John Lasseter (the head honcho behind Pixar) is on record as being a big fan of educationbut we can't help but think that there is a stronger theme of sadness to Andy going to college than there is any sort of "this is an exciting new beginning" thing. In short, the lesson seems to be that you should take plenty of Kleenex for when you get dropped off at uni.
The Incredibles: The Smart Guys Are Usually Bad It's a trope right across the fictional universe, but more often than not, some kind of brains means that you'll be bad. Just check out Lex Luthor's CVif you don't believe us, and remember that he'd just be plain old Mr Doom, without his PhD. So it's no surprise that the smartest character in The Incredibles, Syndrome, is also the supervillain (he also lives in a volcano to really drive the point home). From recent animation you can add to that list Megamind and Monsters vs Aliens Gallaxhar.
WHAT'S THE LESSON? Although there are honourable exceptions (Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Reed Richards...) the good guys are usually pretty dumb and have to overcome the brainy bad guys with heart, pluck and probably some kind of magical ring. What's the dealio world of animation?Are we really saying that if we go off and get a degree, work hard on a Masters and extend it into a PhD, that the next logical step is enslaving the entire world to our cruel dominion? What are you - monsters?
What about you - have you learned any lessons about education from years spent watching Disney/Pixar films?
