Monsters University

"Before they were incorporated, they had to be...educated."

- Teaser Tagline. Monsters University is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Dan Scanlon is the director and Kori Rae is the producer. It is be the fourteenth film produced by Pixar and is the prequel to 2001's Monsters, Inc. John Goodman reprises his role as James P. Sullivan, with Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, and Frank Oz, reprising their roles as Mike Wazowski, Randall Boggs, and Jeff Fungus, respectively. The film iwas released on June 21, 2013. Despite what was said in the Monsters, Inc. trailer and in the scene when Mike and Sulley were walking to work, the two might've gotten separated during middle school or high school. This marked the first prequel Pixar had ever produced. The film was accompanied by a short film titled The Blue Umbrella, with a score provided by Jon Brion.

Plot
Set about 10 years before the events of Monsters, Inc., ever since a childhood school field trip, Michael "Mike" Wazowski (voiced by Noah Johnston) has ever sinced dreamed of attending the prestigious Monsters University. Now 17-years-old, Mike (now voiced by Billy Crystal) is excited to finally enter, and begins majoring in scaring. On his first day, Mike befriends the nerdy and shy Randall "Randy" Boggs (voiced by Steve Buscemi), who has difficulty controlling his invisibility power. While studying scaring one night, Mike encounters an 18-year-old playful, all-brawn, large blue monster named James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman), who is in the same fraternity as he and breaks into Mike's room to hide a scare an unknown specie's animal named Archie, who is the mascot of rival college, Fear Tech. After greeting each other, Archie steals Mike's hat and he and Sulley follow Archie outside where they have a struggle with Archie that gets Sulley to be in the top fraternity Roar Omega Roar. Mike tries to join, but an argument with Sulley leads a rivalry between the two.

While the duo compete to see who's the better scarer for part of the semester, Dean Hardscrabble (voiced by Helen Mirren), the stern headmistress of the MU scaring program, says to the students in Professor Knight's (voiced by Alfred Molina) class that an exam will be given at the end of the semester, with the ones who failed being forced out of the scaring program. Eventually, Mike and Sulley's petty competition gets out of hand and causes a mistake that Dean Hardscrabble expels them from the program and also results in Sulley getting kicked off his fraternity. Sulley and others have a hard time believing that Mike could be a good scarer. Mike finds out that Dean Hardscrabble will probably let him rejoin the program if he joins a fraternity competing in the upcoming Scare Games, a series of physical challenges that tests a monster's scaring ability. However, he is ostracized by all the fraternities.

But hope arises when he joins Oozma Kappa, a group of misfit monsters; consisting of founder and mature student Don Carlton (voiced by Joel Murray), nervous and shy Scott "Squishy" Squibbles (voiced by Peter Sohn), free-spirited and eccentric Art (voiced by Charlie Day), and bickering siblings Terri Perry (voiced by Sean Hayes) and Terry Perry (voiced by Dave Foley), who share the same body. Mike tries to enter Oozma Kappa into the scare games, but needs one more player. When the other students have reservations, Mike reluctantly lets Sulley join the team and makes a deal with Dean Hardscrabble to leave Monsters University if he loses the games. Sulley is concerned since Oozma Kappa has a high level of ineptitude when it comes to scaring, but Mike decides to train them to be more scary. Meanwhile, Randy joins Roar Omega Roar, leaving Mike alone at first.

As the movie proceeds, we see Oozma Kappa proceeding to the next rounds surprising everyone. Mike trains Oozma Kappa for the scare game. During a party at ROR house, the ROR pranks Oozma Kappa and humiliates them in front of the whole university. Mike brought them to Monsters Inc. to lift their spirits, in result the Oozma Kappa made it to the final round against ROR. Even as the final round arrives, Sulley has a hard time believing Mike to be a good scarer. So, in the final round, he jeopardizes the equipment so that Mike can register a good score and make Oozma Kappa win the tournament. When Mike realizes this, he is heartbroken and decides to prove to everyone that he is capable of being a good scarer. So, he ventures out into the human world while Sulley in the meantime, feeling guilty, confesses to Dean Hardscrabble about the cheating. Mike arrives at a closet in a camp and fails to scare the whole camp.

Back in the university, the Dean has been warned that someone broke into the door lab. Sulley enters the door and arrives at the camp looking for Mike. At the camp, the police has arrived looking for intruders. Sulley finds Mike by the lake and they both run back to the camp to go back to the university. However, Dean Hardscrabble deactivates the door until the authorities arrives. This traps Mike and Sulley in the human world. But when Mike devices a genius plan to power the door from the outside(from the human world itself). They both manage to scare adult humans so much that not only they are able to power the door, the door blasts off from the surplus energy. This causes Mike and Sulley to be detained by the CDA, thus expelling them from MU.

While they are leaving MU, Dean encourages them to keep "surprising". The movie ends showing that Mike and Sulley are employed at the Monsters, Inc. as mailmen. During credits, it is shown that both of them rise from being mailmen to an efficient scare team, thus establishing the story for Monsters, Inc.

Voice cast

 * Billy Crystal as Michael "Mike" Wazowski
 * John Goodman as James P. "Sulley" Sullivan
 * Steve Buscemi as Randall "Randy" Boggs
 * Joel Murray as Don Carlton, a middle age student and the founding member of Oozma Kappa fraternity
 * Sean Hayes as Terri Perry, an Oozma Kappa fraternity member
 * Dave Foley as Terry Perry, an Oozma Kappa fraternity member
 * Peter Sohn as Scott "Squishy" Squibbles, an Oozma Kappa fraternity member
 * Charlie Day as Art, an Oozma Kappa fraternity member
 * Frank Oz as Jeff Fungus
 * Helen Mirren as Dean Hardscrabble, the headmistress at Monsters University.
 * Alfred Molina as Professor Knight
 * Nathan Fillion as Johnny Worthington, president of Roar Omega Roar
 * Aubrey Plaza as Claire Wheeler, Greek Council president
 * Tyler Labine as Brock Pearson, Greek Council vice-president
 * John Krasinski as "Frightening" Frank McCay
 * Bonnie Hunt as Karen Graves, Mike's grade school teacher
 * Bobby Moynihan as Chet Alexander, a Roar Omega Roar fraternity member
 * Julia Sweeney as Mrs. Squibbles, Scott's mother
 * Beth Behrs as Carrie Williams, leader of Python Nu Kappa sorority
 * John Ratzenberger as a Yeti the Abominable Snowman, a Monsters, Inc. mailroom employee
 * Noah Johnston as Young Michael "Mike" Wazowski

Production
Pete Docter isn't returning to direct the prequel. It was confirmed during a Cars 2 press open house that Dan Scanlon (the co-director of the short film Mater and the Ghostlight) will be the director.

The film was originally going to be released on November 16, 2012, but was pushed back to November 2 to avoid competition with another film, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. It was finally set for a release on June 21, 2013.

In 2005, Disney had set up Circle 7 Animation to produce sequels to Pixar films. Work was started on a Monsters, Inc. sequel. In 2006 however, following Pixar's acquisition by Disney, all projects of Circle 7 animation were cancelled and the studio closed. Circle 7's version of the sequel, called "Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in Scaradise" would have seen Mike and Sulley, who after realizing Boo has moved, are trapped in the Human world in the quest of finding her back.

A sequel made by Pixar was confirmed in 2010. In January 2011, rumors surfaced that Monsters, Inc. 2 was going to be a prequel to Monsters, Inc., saying that the film would follow Mike and Sulley when they were at the Monstropolis University of Fear, and how they go from being enemies to best friends. These rumors were confirmed soon after.

On August 12, 2011 Billy Crystal attended a 20th anniversary screening of City Slickers. When asked about his return to the role of Mike Wazowski he replied, “That’s why I’m a little hoarse. I spent five-and-a-half hours today for our fourth session on Monsters, Inc. 2." Crystal says that he and co-star John Goodman are having a blast together and describes the script as "really great" and "hilarious". Crystal also gave little details of the plot of the film saying, “It’s college pranks with monsters. And I wear a retainer. Mike has a retainer." Dan Scanlon, Crystal and Ricky Nierva were present at the D23 Expo talking about the film and showcasing concept and development sketches. Scanlon pointed out that this time, Sulley is not as bulky as he was in the first movie, and Mike is smaller. "We all looked a little different when we were in college. Mike we made a little smaller to either straighten or loosen his teeth. I’m not really sure what the desired effect is in the monster world." John Goodman did not attend the expo. Crystal said, "College is a long way away for me, but bringing this world together at Pixar, where only this could happen, it’s hilarious, it’s funny, and different from anything you could possibly imagine that Monsters Inc. could become." On December 3, 2012, Georgian Progressive Metal band Mastodon announced via their Twitter page that they were writing a song for the film. The soundtrack will be released by Walt Disney Records on June 18, 2013.

Release
Monsters University will premiere on June 18, 2013, at Los Angeles Film Festival, and will be released in theaters on June 21, 2013. The theatrical release of the film will be accompanied by Pixar's short film titled The Blue Umbrella.

The first teaser trailer for Monsters University was released on, 2012. Four versions of the trailer exist, with Mike muttering different excuses not to go to class in his sleep in each one like "I can't go to class, I'm not wearing any clothes", "My homework ate my dog.", "Class President?", and "My pony made the Dean's List."

On October 8, 2012, Pixar revealed a fully functional website for Monsters University, complete with admissions, academic and campus life info and a campus store to purchase MU apparel. On April Fools' Day 2013 the website was stylized to look like a rival college, Fear Tech, had hacked the website and vandalized it by changing the colours to orange and black and adding photos of the Fear Tech mascot, Archie, over the top of the existing photos. It was also set so whenever the user would click on the website, the Fear Tech logo, Archie the scare pig or "Fear Tech Rulz" would pop up. In addition, the first TV commercial for the film was aired during the 2013 Rose Bowl Game, parodying ads that participating schools air during college football telecasts.

Marketing
The teaser trailer for the film was released online on June 20, 2012 and was screened in theaters with Brave. Four versions of the teaser were released, each featuring Mike saying a different line in his sleep. Each of the four versions were released by a different news outlet, namely YouTube, Itunes Trailers, Yahoo! Movies and The Huffington Post. The versions are "My pony made the deans list" (link), "I can't go to class, I'm not wearing any clothes" (link), "My homework ate my dog" (link) and "Class President - ha, ha, ha, ha" (link).

In October 2012, Disney/Pixar started a viral campaign by launching a complete, fully functional website for the Monsters University. The website covers all subjects of a real university website, and includes a store where related merchandise can be bought. In addition, the first TV commercial for the film was aired during the 2013 Rose Bowl Game, parodying ads that participating schools air during college football telecasts. On April's fool day, the website was change to look like it had been hacked and vandalized by Fear Tech, Monsters University's rival school. The colors were changed to orange and Fear Tech symbols would invade the screen upon clicking.

Another viral website surfaced in March 2013. Called The Grumblr, it takes the form of a tumblr blog who would be run by a student at Monsters University. At the occasion of the NCAA March Madness, ESPN presented a short clip showing Monsters University players violently reacting as their team gets eliminated from the competition. This clip was subsequently posted on the Grumbler.

An extended preview of the film was released on February 8, 2013, followed by a full-length trailer for the UK on February 11, 2013, and a clip shown on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon two days later.

On February 15, 2013, another college ad parody was released that showed a few new scenes from the film. The video was entitled "A Message from the Dean." An all-new sneak peek of the film was released on the Monsters, Inc. 3D Blu-ray on February 19, 2013. On February 20, 2013, new character posters, and Student and Faculty ID cards were released. On March 8, 2013, a Japanese trailer was released, revealing a little Mike, and new plot details - with one animator from Pixar going so far as to attest that it "spoils the entire movie." On March 24, 2013, another TV spot was shown at the Kids' Choice Awards.

Reception
Monsters University has received positive reviews from critics. The film holds a 77% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 83 reviews with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "It doesn't scale the heights of Pixar's finest efforts, but Monsters University is still funny and thoughtful family entertainment for viewers of any age." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 63 based on 30 reviews, or "Generally favorable."

Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A–, saying "Monsters University is exactly the rebound Pixar needed after 2011's Cars 2 left some wondering if the studio had lost its magic. The delightful story of When Mike Met Sully puts those concerns to rest." Ty Burr of The Boston Globe gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "This is not a bad movie, and to small children it will be a very good one, but it’s closer to average than one would wish from the company that gave us “Up,” “Wall-E,” “The Incredibles,” and the “Toy Story” series." Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "The artwork is accomplished, and intricate. The G-rating is genuine, without any gross-out gags. And there's none of the usual winks to the adults with tired, pop-culture references." Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News gave the film three out of five stars, saying "The movie is not up to the company's highest standards, but it's certainly better than most other kid flicks you'll see this year." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two out of four stars, saying Monsters University, the weirdly charmless sequel to the animated 2001 Pixar hit Monsters, Inc., is no better or worse than the average (and I mean average) time-filling sequel cranked out by other animation houses." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It's all infectious fun, despite the lack of originality. In the art of tickling funny bones, Crystal and Goodman earn straight A's."

Lou Lumenick of the New York Post gave the film two out of four stars, saying "The under-5 set may find it funny, though I suspect their parents will be checking their watches a lot, as I did." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times gave the film two and a half stars out of five, saying "Both the originality and stirring emotional complexity of Monsters, Inc., with its exquisitely painful and touching parallels with the human world, are missing." Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Monsters University" has an emotional quality that its whimsical predecessor lacked. It has a happy ending, of course, but this movie also feels -- in its monstery way -- very real." Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the the film three out of four stars, saying "Monsters University may not be as inventive as Inc., but it's an amusing and amiable addition to Pixar's roster of animated coming-of-age stories." Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It may be children’s terror that powers the movie’s fictional universe, but it’s the energy of its stars that lights up “Monsters University."  Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, saying "Monsters University never surprises, goes off in unexpected directions or throws you for a loop in the manner of the best Pixar stories. Nor does it come close to elating through the sheer imagination of its conceits and storytelling; Toy Story 3, three years and three Pixar films back, was the last time that happened. Mike spends his entire university career trying to prove to himself that he's “something special.” “But I'm not,” he must finally confess. And neither is the film."

Trivia

 * The beginning of the teaser trailer makes a nod to both Monsters, Inc.'s teaser trailer and the film's opening scene, using similar shot techniques and narration.
 * In the teaser trailer, the snake monster from the intro of Monsters, Inc. appears on a poster to the right of Mike's room.
 * Monsters, Inc. is the first Pixar film to have a prequel.
 * Monsters, Inc. is the third Pixar film to become a franchise after Toy Story and Cars.
 * A monster-stylized blue AMC Pacer can be spotted in the trailer at mark 0:17. The Pacer was featured in Cars 2 as part of the film's villains, the Lemons. The color makes it look like the die-cast version of Petey Pacer. A pink, deformed Zündapp Janus can also be spotted in the same scene.
 * The Greek alphabet depicted in this film will be 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.
 * Argma, Slugma, Oozma, and Python's symbols resemble Lambda, Sigma, Omicron, and Rho, respectively.
 * Slugma is also the name of a Fire-type Pokémon introduced in Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions that resembled a slug made of lava. Its evolved form is Magcargo, which resembles a snail made of lava with a shell made of hardened lava.
 * This movie creates an inconsistency with the original, in which it was verbally stated by Mike (who'd mentioned they'd been acquainted in the 3rd grade), along with Sulley in the very first trailer (mentioning they'd studied geography together in the 5th grade), that Mike and Sulley had known each other since elementary school. But in this movie, they are presented as meeting each other for the first time - The only plausible explanation would be they did know each other in elementary but at some point they didn't see each other anymore (forgetting about the other) and didn't meet again until going to Monsters University.