Monsters University

Disney, as the rights holder, had plans for a sequel to Monsters, Inc. since 2005. Following disagreements with Pixar, Disney tasked its Circle 7 Animation unit to make the film.^[6] An early draft of the film was developed; Disney's purchase of Pixar in January 2006 led to the cancellation of Circle 7's version of the film.^[7] A Pixar-made sequel was confirmed in 2010^[5] and in 2011, it was confirmed that the film would instead be a prequel titled Monsters University.^[8]


Monsters University premiered on June 5, 2013, at the BFI Southbank in London, England, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 21. It was accompanied in theaters by a short film, The Blue Umbrella, directed by Saschka Unseld.^[9] The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $743 million worldwide against its $200 million production budget, making it the seventh highest-grossing film of 2013.^[2][4] An animated short film titled Party Central, which takes place shortly after the events of Monsters University, premiered in fall 2013 before being released theatrically with Muppets Most Wanted in 2014.^[10][11]

Plot[edit]

As a child, Mike Wazowski visits the Monsters Inc. factory on a class field trip to learn about how "scarers" harness human children's screams for energy to power the monster world. He secretly follows a scarer through a door to the human world to watch him work; the scarer compliments Mike for the latter's stealth, which inspires him to become one as well.


Years later, Mike enrolls in the scaring program at Monsters University (MU) and is assigned Randall "Randy" Boggs as a roommate. On the first day of class, Abigail Hardscrabble, the dean of the scaring program, warns that students who fail the first semester's final exam will permanently leave the scaring program. Mike then encounters James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, the son of a famous scarer. Sulley gets into the top fraternity on campus, RΩR (Roar Omega Roar), which rejects Mike for not looking scary enough. Over the next few months, Mike works and studies hard to improve himself while Sulley slacks off, relying on his family name and natural talent. An intense rivalry forms between Mike and Sulley throughout the semester, seeing each other as the antithesis of their views on success. On exam day, the duo's rivalry gets out of control when they inadvertently destroy Hardscrabble's prized scream canister. She personally tests and fails them both; Sulley for a lack of technical knowledge, and Mike for not being physically "scary." Sulley is promptly kicked out of RΩR.


Determined to prove his worth, Mike enters the annual Scare Games with OK (Oozma Kappa), a small fraternity of misfits, as his team, and makes a deal with Hardscrabble; if OK wins, they and Mike will return to the scare program, or else the whole team will have to leave MU. Short one team member for full entry into the games, Sulley volunteers. With Randy joining RΩR's team and thus ending his friendship with Mike, he begrudgingly accepts Sulley. Initially, OK places last in the first round but are saved from elimination when another team is disqualified for cheating, and barely passes the second round. The RΩRs invite OK to a mid-game party, then stage a humiliating prank on them and post pictures of it all over campus. The team becomes discouraged, so Mike takes them to Monsters Inc., where they sneak in and watch the scarers using their differences as advantages. After being chased off by security, the rejuvenated team begins to work together under Mike's coaching and passes the next two challenges right behind RΩR. In the final challenge, OK and RΩR face off in a simulator in 1v1 matches, each trying to frighten a dummy child. OK wins after Mike racks up a maximum score with his scare.


However, Mike later discovers the simulator's settings for him were rigged by Sulley to guarantee a win, leading to a heated argument between the two. The rest of OK discard the trophy in disappointment. Ashamed of what he had done, Sulley confesses to Hardscrabble that he cheated. Outraged at Sulley’s betrayal and still determined to prove he is scary, Mike sneaks through an experimental door to the human world into a summer camp cabin full of children, only to find that none of them are frightened of him. Feeling responsible for Mike's predicament, Sulley sneaks past security and Hardscrabble to go after Mike, to him he admits his own failures and they make amends. Hardscrabble deactivates the door to keep the other monsters safe.^[c] The two collaborate to scare the rangers, creating enough energy to power the door from their side, and they escape just as it explodes.


Sulley and Mike are expelled from MU for their actions, but the other OK members are invited back into the scaring program. As Mike and Sulley leave, Hardscrabble admits they surprised her and changed her outlook on a monster's potential as scarers, and expresses her hope that they can continue to surprise others moving forward. The two go to work for Monsters Inc. in the mailroom and over the years work their way up through the ranks until Sulley becomes a scarer, with Mike as his coach/scare assistant.