Nearly 12 years ago, Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. was released as a revolution in animation and storytelling. Many KSU students cherish this film as an animated masterpiece of their generation and will be thrilled to know that it is getting an appropriate prequel this summer.
Monsters University, which will hit theaters June 21, will be the perfect mix of nostalgia and relevance for those at the ripe college ages of 18-20.
Director Dan Scanlon and producer Kori Rae got together to provide all the juicy details on what went into crafting the prequel. Fans of the original film, as well as Scanlon and Rae, absolutely loved the relationship between the main characters, Mike Wazowski and Sulley.
Scanlon and Rae wanted to show how that relationship started and grew into what we saw and loved in Monsters, Inc. The college setting seemed like the best way to showcase their friendship.
“We knew that we wanted the characters to be somewhat familiar. If we went back to Monsters Elementary, we didn’t feel like that would be the Mike and Sulley that we remember and love,” Scanlon said.
Scanlon also pointed out that he liked the university setting because it gave the opportunity to show the difficulty of transitioning into a completely different world with brand new people.
The film takes place 10 years prior to the events of Monsters, Inc., so the art department at Pixar had the tricky job of making monsters appear younger. For the character of Mike Wazowski, who is simply a green sphere with one large eyeball, the art department had to study how to make an eyeball look younger.
For Sulley, the team decided to thin him up and lighten his fur. “We were all a little thinner in college, as you will find out once the harsh reality comes your way,” Scanlon said.
Original voice actors Billy Crystal and John Goodman return for the film, reprising their roles of Mike and Sulley respectively. So the job of restoring youth to their characters’ voices fell on them.
“The guys had to find a new take on the characters that was still familiar but felt younger,” Scanlon said.
The characters will sound much more energetic, with more yelling than one would expect from the older versions of the characters. To create a realistic and familiar university setting, the creators had to visit college campuses for research.
They quickly realized that most of the team at Pixar had gone to art schools and had never really gotten to see what campus life is like. In the film, Mike and Sulley meet through being in the same fraternity. So much of the research time was spent in fraternity houses where Rae said she got plenty of strange looks from students.
Scanlon said artists also came out to draw campus buildings so that they could create a campus that “although it is original to Monsters University, hopefully if feels familiar to everyone.”
Scanlon and Rae each deeply enjoyed their respective roles on the film. As director, Scanlon said he was fascinated to be able to see every aspect of what goes into making a Pixar film. As producer, Rae learned about how difficult the creative process really is.
“It made me more aware and surprised at how we ever pull this off,” Rae said.
The team will surely pull it off, as they do with every Pixar film. “We always want to touch something in people emotionally with our films,” Scanlon said. “This film is about how you let go of the thing that you think you absolutely have to be in order to be happy and how to find out who you truly are.”
Be sure to catch this humorous story of self- discovery when it hits theaters June 21 this year.
Monsters rule.