Monsters University

Monsters University is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Dan Scanlon and produced by Kori Rae, with John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich as executive producers. It is the fourteenth feature film produced by Pixar and is a prequel to 2001's Monsters, Inc., marking the first time Pixar has made a prequel film.

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. An early draft of the film was developed; however, Disney's purchase of Pixar in early 2006 led to the cancellation of Circle 7's version of the film. A Pixar-made sequel was confirmed in 2010, and in 2011, it was confirmed that the film would instead be a prequel titled Monsters University.

Monsters University tells the story of two monsters, Mike and Sulley, and their time studying at college, where they start off as rivals, but slowly become best friends. John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, Bob Peterson, and John Ratzenberger reprise their roles as James P. Sullivan, Mike Wazowski, Randall Boggs, Roz, and the Abominable Snowman, respectively. Bonnie Hunt, who played Ms. Flint in the first film, voices Mike's grade school teacher Ms. Karen Graves. The music for the film is composed by Randy Newman, marking his seventh collaboration with Pixar.

Monsters University premiered on June 5, 2013, at the BFI Southbank in London, United Kingdom and was released on June 21, 2013, in the United States. It was accompanied in theaters by a short film, The Blue Umbrella, directed by Saschka Unseld. The film grossed $743 million against its estimated budget of $200 million. An animated short film titled Party Central, which takes place shortly after the events of Monsters University, premiered in Fall 2013.

Plot
The film begins where a preschool class of little monsters, including a very young Mike Wazowski, take a field trip to Monsters, Inc., with their teacher. A tour guide leads them through the factory. When they reach the scare floor however, they aren't allowed to actually go inside, for it is too dangerous. This is because monsters believe that the children they scare are highly toxic if you touch one. They see a bunch of scarers coming in, and among them is a professional scarer named Frank McCay. He tells the class that he became such a great scarer, because he was educated at the greatest scaring school ever, Monsters University. Mike becomes interested in scaring, and tries to go into the scare floor to see Frank scare children. He sneaks into the door, with Frank, who doesn't notice. However, the class' teacher notices, and tries to get help. Mike is very quiet, and sees what a professional scarer, he is. When Frank comes outside the door, a bunch of other monsters are waiting outside, with first-aid kits. That is when Frank realizes that Mike was behind him the whole time. At first, he gets very disappointed in Mike, but then realizes how well Mike did, sneaking into the room without even noticing. He gives Mike his Monsters University cap. Mike then decides that he wants to become a scarer.

Mike spends his whole life studying to get accepted into Monsters University, and become the greatest scarer of all time. All of his studying then pays off, for he gets accepted into the school. On his first day, he meets his roommate, another scaring student named Randall Boggs. Randall wants nothing more, than to be with the cool guys. On their first day of class, led by Professor Knight, Dean Hardscrabble, head of the MU scaring program, warns all of the students that there will be a test to see if they all are worthy to continue. If they fail the test, then they will be forced to leave the scaring program. This urges Mike to want to study as hard as possible.

One night, a student party is held at one of the MU fraternity houses. Randall wants to go, so he can make some friends, but Mike wants to skip it, so he has more time to study for the big test. Randall still decides to go, and Mike decides to stay. While he studies, Sulley, a fun-loving monster who comes from a family of legendary scarers, comes in through the window, thinking that it was his room. He came in to hide from students at Fear Tech, Monsters University's rival school, because he stole their school mascot, Archie the Scare Pig, as a prank. Mike kindly asks Sulley to leave, but Archie steals Mike's MU hat, so he and Sulley both go after him. They chase him throughout the courtyard of the school, when Mike manages to catch him with a garbage can. Johnny Worthington III, leader of the school's top fraternity, Roar Omega Roar, noticed Sulley's skills when they were chasing the pig, and invited him to come to the party, as well as maybe join their fraternity. Mike also tries to get their attention, but they think he's just a nobody.

As the semester goes by, Mike and Sulley start to form a rivalry between each other. Mike tops Sulley with his good grades, which causes Johnny Worthington to not allow Sulley into Roar Omega Roar, until he gets better grades, for Roar Omega Roar is meant to be for the best students. Eventually, time leads up to the final exam to test if the students are fit to continue into the scaring program. Mike and Sulley start to argue and bicker during the exam, causing Hardscrabble to throw the both of them out of the scaring program, which forces the two of them to instead transfer to a different major in the school.

Desperately wanting to be let back into the scaring program, Mike tries to find a way to show Hardscrabble that he is a great scarer, and that she was wrong to kick out such a legend. He eventually learns about the Scare Games, a scaring competition where fraternities from all over MU compete in a series of contests, to prove that they are the best of the scarers. Not being accepted into any other fraternity, Mike joins a group of misfits called Oozma Kappa. All of Oozma Kappa's members have long ago been kicked out of the scaring program, and hope to someday be allowed back in. However, even with Mike joining, there aren't enough players in their fraternity to qualify for the Scare Games. Luckily, Sulley decides to join, also hoping to be allowed back into the scaring program. Hardscrabble says to Mike that if they win, he, Sulley, and the rest of Oozma Kappa will be allowed back in. However, if they lose, Hardscrabble will expel him and Sulley from Monsters University for good. They make a deal.

Sulley, along with Mike, comes to Oozma Kappa's fraternity house. He is introduced to the members: a purple and wild monster named Art, a kind mama's boy named Scott "Squishy" Squibbles, a pair of twins who share the same body named Terri and Terry Perry, and the oldest and most mature, named Don Carlton. The team gets really impressed with Sulley, much to Mike's jealousy. The next morning, they get a message from the Scare Games, telling them to meet in the sewers beneath the school for their first competition. The first round is all about the importance of avoiding children and any item they touch, for every monster knows that children carry toxic germs, that are fatal to monsters. All of the fraternity teams must make it to the finish line of a long tunnel, while avoiding toxic balls that they say are similar to the germs that children carry. The last team to get through loses, and is out of the Scare Games. While all of the other teams plan to get through using teamwork, Mike and Sulley are just worried about beating each other, completely excluding the rest of the team. They make it to the finish line without the rest of the team, but it is required that the whole team makes it through, and the others end up making it in last place. Luckily, just before Oozma Kappa can be eliminated from the Scare Games, it is revealed that one of the fraternities, Jaws Theta Chi, was using a special ointment on their skin, that protects them from the toxic balls, causing them to be disqualified from the competition instead of Oozma Kappa.

In the next competition, Mike tries to work with the team more, but Sulley just wants to win alone. The next competition is about the importance of not getting caught by the children's parents, when they enter the room. It takes place in the MU library, where they must be very quiet, and not get caught by the very strict librarian. The team must make it to the front of the library, where there are flags of all of the teams. They must get the flag with their team symbol on it to win. If just one of the team members gets caught by the librarian, or if they are the last team to get to their flag, the whole team is out of the Scare Games. When Sulley attempts to get to the flag quickly, his noise summons the librarian to turn into a giant monster, and tries to catch him. Before she can get to him, the rest of the teammates make a bunch of noise to attract her to them. All of them make it out of the library, without getting caught, and Squishy got the flag for the team.

Later that day, Oozma Kappa gets invited to a party that celebrates the remaining fraternities in the games. When they go, all of the people, unexpectedly, welcome them with joy. However, Johnny Worthington and the rest of Roar Omega Roar turn their backs on Oozma Kappa, and humiliates them in front of the entire school. This lets down the whole team, thinking they aren't meant for scaring. Everybody, except for Mike. Mike takes the team to Monsters, Inc., where he shows them that no monster was meant for one thing, and that they are free to make their own choice in life. Mike and Sulley also get to know more about each other, and believing that they should start working together, where they can make a great team.

As more competitions in the Scare Games go by, Oozma Kappa grows to get better and better, with Mike training them with all of the knowledge of scaring that he's been knowing for the past years. It all leads up to the final competition, where the only remaining teams are Oozma Kappa and Roar Omega Roar. Each teammate must go into a simulation of a children's bedroom, where they will scare a robot child. How much each monster scares the simulated child, will determine how much the child screams, which will give the team points. The team who gets the most points wins. When Sulley has a private conversation with Hardscrabble, she tries to discourage him, by saying that Mike isn't scary. Sulley starts to get a bit concerned about Mike, so he tries to give him some of his skills that night. The next day, the final competition begins. The first round begins with Don against one of the Roar Omega Roar members, Reggie Jacobs. It all leads up to Mike against Johnny, and Mike lets out such a huge scare, that Oozma Kappa wins the Scare Games, as well as Hardscrabble letting the entire team back into the scaring program.

Later that night, Oozma Kappa is still out in the field of the final round, celebrating. However, Mike finds out that Sulley tampered with the equipment, that caused Mike to get a good score. Heartbroken, he runs off. Sulley later comes across Hardscrabble, where he confesses about the entire thing, causing Hardscrabble to expel Sulley the next day. Meanwhile, Mike comes across the door construction classroom. He breaks in, and uses one of the doors the class made, to go into the human world, and see if he really is scary. He goes into the child's bedroom, and tries to scare the child in it. However, she doesn't get scared of Mike at all, and just says that he looks funny. It's revealed that the room he went into was actually a summer camp cabin, filled with tons of children. They all wake up and start to surround Mike. He tries to escape them by using the door back into the monster world, but the door doesn't work, and he can't get out. Back in the monster world, it is revealed that Hardscrabble found out that Mike used the door, and turned out the door's power until the CDA comes to safely get Mike out, without letting any children coming through the door. Sulley, Squishy, Art, Don, Terri, Terry, and many other students, are outside of the classroom, looking through the windows with fear. Sulley barges in, turns on the door, and enters to save Mike by himself. He sees, however, that nobody is in the cabin. He sees outside, that the children from the cabin are reporting to a group of park rangers that they saw a monster in the cabin. Sulley leaves the cabin, and finds Mike at the shore of a lake, near the cabin. Sulley reconciles with Mike, and the two go back to the cabin to leave. However, Hardscrabble turned off the door again.

The park rangers come in the cabin, where Mike and Sulley hide. With Mike's full knowledge of scaring, and Sulley's skill at scaring, they work together and devise a plan to scare the park rangers so much, that they can power the door. Their plan succeeds, and they make the humans scared so bad, their screams not only power the door, but completely overloads it, causing it to explode, much to Hardscrabble's amazement. The CDA comes, and helps them clean up, and check for any toxins. The next day, both Mike and Sulley are expelled from the school. However, Hardscrabble let the rest of Oozma Kappa back into the scaring program, for she was impressed with their skills during the Scare Games.

Mike and Sulley decide to stick together, becoming best friends. They decide to get a job at Monsters, Inc., where they work at the company's mail room. Eventually, they are promoted to being janitors. They work their way up through their promotions, and become the famous scare team that we all know, thus beginning the story of Monsters, Inc.

Cast

 * Billy Crystal as Mike Wazowski
 * John Goodman as James P. Sullivan
 * Steve Buscemi as Randall Boggs
 * Joel Murray as Don Carlton
 * Peter Sohn as Scott "Squishy" Squibbles
 * Sean Hayes as Terri
 * Dave Foley as Terry
 * Charlie Day as Art
 * Nathan Fillion as Johnny Worthington III
 * Bobby Moynihan as Chet Alexander
 * Helen Mirren as Dean Hardscrabble
 * Julia Sweeney as Sheri Squibbles
 * Alfred Molina as Professor Knight
 * Aubrey Plaza as Claire Wheeler
 * Tyler Labine as Brock Pearson
 * Beth Behrs as Carrie Williams
 * John Krasinski as Frank McCay
 * Bonnie Hunt as Karen Graves
 * John Ratzenberger as The Abominable Snowman
 * Noah Johnston as Young Mike
 * Bob Peterson as Roz
 * Bill Hader as the Referee and the Yellow Slug
 * John Cygan as Big Red
 * Lori Alan as Bus Driver
 * Jess Harnell as Omega Howl brother
 * Mona Marshall as Emmet
 * Marcia Wallace as the Librarian

Additional Voices

 * Ken Jeong
 * J. B. Smoove
 * Rob Riggle
 * Ricky Gervais
 * Ben Kingsley
 * David Spade
 * Carlos Alazraqui
 * Jack Angel
 * Bob Bergen
 * Gregg Berger
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Neil Campbell
 * Patrick Carlyle
 * Sean Conroy
 * Greg Dykstra
 * Paul Eiding
 * Jessica Evans
 * Bill Farmer
 * Keith Ferguson
 * Andy Fischer-Price
 * Don Fullilove
 * Teresa Ganzel
 * Daniel Gerson
 * Mike Hanford
 * Jess Harnell
 * Brandon Johnson
 * John Kassir
 * Elissa Knight
 * Lindsay Lefler
 * Dawnn Lewis
 * Sherry Lynn
 * Danny Mann
 * Jason Marsden
 * Tricia McAlpin
 * Mickie McGowan
 * Allan McLeod
 * Alec Medlock
 * Matthew Mercer
 * Pam Murphy
 * David Neher
 * Laraine Newman
 * Colleen O'Shaughnessey
 * Bret Parker
 * Donovan Patton
 * Dannah Phirman
 * Jeff Pidgeon
 * Cristina Pucelli
 * Jan Rabson
 * Dan Scanlon
 * Patrick Seitz
 * Betsy Sodaro
 * Joel Spence
 * Mindy Sterling
 * Tara Strong
 * Dave Theune
 * James Kevin Ward
 * Colette Whitaker
 * April Winchell

Additional Children's Voices

 * Ava Acres
 * Isabella Acres
 * Casey Barden
 * Ileanna Bravos
 * Jack Bright
 * Tyree Brown
 * Mason Cook
 * Makenna Cowgill
 * Natalie Jane Dang
 * Gage Davenport
 * Ethan Louis Samuels DiSalvio
 * Clayton Drier
 * Tyler Ganus
 * Faith Goblirsch
 * Montse Hernandez
 * Calum John
 * Brooke Klinger
 * Gia Michailidis
 * Nikolas Michailidis
 * Madison Moellers
 * Raymond Ochoa
 * Marley Pearson
 * Alexis Poindexter
 * Davin Ransom
 * Samantha Sadoff
 * Kristen Sarkisian
 * Joseph John Schirle
 * Aramé Scott
 * Erica Teeple
 * Khiara Symone Threets