Set at Monsters University, the film is the story of how freshmen* monsters Mike (voice of Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman) — students of the fine art of scaring* — met and became friends. It’s also the story of how they became, more importantly, themselves. Where “Monsters, Inc.” was a heavily plot-driven tale, “Monsters University” is a two-man, er, two-monster, character study.

    When the film opens, they are not exactly the characters we know and love from the 2001 film. Mike is much more wide-eyed and Mike, the tiny, cyclopean* cueball, and Sulley, the jumbo-size*, furry* blue beast, are both kicked out of the scaring department at the university, where they’ve enrolled* to learn how to make kids scream. As in the first film, children’s emotions supply the power grid* of the monsters’ universe, accessible* through closet doors in children’s bedrooms.

    Sulley is driven out because he is lazy and arrogant*, a legacy kid whose father was a school hotshot* and who thinks he can simply coast through his coursework because of his family connections. In Mike’s case, it’s because he is just not scary.

    In order to get back into the scaring program, Mike and Sulley are forced to team with a fraternity* of losers to compete in the Scare Games, a campus-wide competition. If they win, they’ll be accepted back in the department. If they lose, they’re not just out of the department, but out of the school for good*.

    Of course, all the collegiate* trappings — fraternities, cliques*, athletic rivalries*, academic struggles — are jokes mainly for Mom and Dad’s benefit. Young viewers, however, should learn the lessons about cooperation*, hard work and honesty that underlie* Mike and Sulley’s coming of age.(SD-Agencies)