Monsters University is Pixar's fourteenth feature length film, and is the prequel to the 2001 film Monsters, Inc.' It was directed by Dan Scanlon and produced by Kori Rae. John Goodman and Billy Crystal returned for the film. Randy Newman returned to compose the film's score. The film was released in theatres and 3D on June 21, 2013. This marks the first prequel Pixar has ever produced. The film was accompanied by a short film titled The Blue Umbrella. Monsters University was released in the UK on July 12, 2013.
Lodo and Tini on the set
Trivia[]
- This is Pixar's first prequel.
- Monsters, Inc. is the third Pixar film to become a franchise, after Toy Story and Cars.
- Monsters University is the fourth Pixar film to have a post credits sequence, after Finding Nemo, Cars, and Brave.
- Monsters University is also the second Pixar sequel or prequel that isn't based on Pixar's first movie Toy Story, after Cars 2, although Mike and Sulley's rivalry in MU is seen similar to Buzz and Woody's rivalry inToy Story.
- The technology of monsters in the film appears to be older than that in Monsters, Inc., which emphasize on the fact Monsters University takes place some time before the first film, possibly 10 years. For example,door supports are larger, more bulky and complicate in appearance, Monsters, Inc.'s leaderboard is made of a table rather than TV screens, and Scare simulators are much less realistic, with rather crude crash test dummies-style children animatronics.
- When Mike receives the Scare Games trophy, the music has a resemblance to the A Bug's Life opening theme.
- The Greek alphabet depicted in this film is Argma (A), Gamma (G), Slugma (E), Theta (O), Eta (H), Howl (H), Kappa (K), Nu (N), Oozma (O), Python (P), Roar (R), Hiss (S), Phi (O), Chi (X) and Omega (O). Of the 15 letters, only Gamma, Theta, Eta, Kappa, Nu, Phi, Chi and Omega are real.
- Both Eta and Howl are represented by an "H", which adds to confusion.
- According to story supervisor Kelsey Mann, they produced 227,246 storyboard drawings, the most of any Pixar film to date.
- The first major rewrite of Pixar's hair and cloth simulation software occurred for Monsters University. This software was first introduced on Monsters, Inc., where it was used to simulate a single garment, Boo's shirt. In Monsters University, 127 garments were simulated.
- The new Global Illumination software Pixar introduced on this film required a doubling in size of their render farm.
- It took over 100 million CPU hours to render the entire film. Each frame took an average of 29 hours to render.
- Mike, Sulley and Randall Boggs are the only three monsters from the original film to have big roles in the prequel.
- This is the fourth Pixar film to feature a post-credits scene (also known as a stinger or a "monk's reward") at the end of the film, after Finding Nemo, Cars, and Brave.
- In the US release, the cupcakes that Randy shows Mike say: "Be My Pal". In the UK release, they have faces on them.
- For some reason, the scarers in this film do not return in Inc. However, given the fact that the original film took place during an energy crisis, it's implied that the scarers in University either retired or got laid off at some point between the two films.
- Conversely, the scarers in Inc. do not return in University, implying that they may have attended a different school such as Fear Tech, some other university, are too young to have been in college at the same time as Mike and Sulley, or may have been employed through the scare try-outs, like Mike and Sulley.
- This is the only 2013 film to be G-rated.
- This is the third Pixar film to begin when the main character was a child, the first being Up, the second being Brave.
- There are at least 127 different garments (Mike Wazowski's hat, Sulley's T-shirt, Don Carlton's T-shirt and glasses, Terri and Terry's turtleneck, Squishy's sweater, Art's armbands, Roar Omega Roar's jackets, etc.) worn in the film.
- In the original film, Mike says Sulley has been "jealous of his good lucks since the third grade." This is a plothole as Mike and Sulley do not meet until college.
- The human world is noticeably portrayed as being completely dark, dreary and minimalistic (aside from the flashing lights on the rangers' trucks), as opposed to the bright and colorful appearance of the monster world. This is probably due to the fact that the human world's bleak appearance is the result of how exactly monsters view humans.