50 Fun Facts About Monsters University

Monsters University was Pixar's first film of which kind?

A prequel was not what was first announced: a Monsters, Inc. sequel was confirmed in 2010, and only the following year was it revealed that the story would go back to college instead.

Who directed Monsters, Inc. but not Monsters University?

Pete Docter stayed on as an executive producer, and when an old line of dialogue clashed with the new story he told its director, Dan Scanlon, to do what was right for the film.

Who composed the score for Monsters University, returning from the first film?

Randy Newman had won his first Oscar for a song in Monsters, Inc., on his sixteenth nomination, and opened his speech with 'I don't want your pity!'

Who voices Mike Wazowski in Monsters University?

Billy Crystal first took the part because he regretted turning down Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, and he came back to it twelve years later for the college film.

Which actor from Monsters, Inc. returns in Monsters University as a different character?

Bonnie Hunt trained new scarers as Ms. Flint in the first film; in Monsters University she is Karen Graves, the schoolteacher who takes little Mike on a class trip.

Which actress voices Dean Abigail Hardscrabble in Monsters University?

Helen Mirren's dean, a legendary scarer who insists she is not easily impressed, ends the film admitting that Mike and Sulley are the first students to surprise her.

Who voices James P. "Sulley" Sullivan in Monsters University?

John Goodman's Sulley was redrawn to look college-aged, with shorter horns, a slimmer build and an unruly tuft of teenage hair.

In Monsters University, as in Monsters, Inc., what do monsters believe about human children?

That they are toxic is why scaring counts as dangerous work, and the first Scare Games event has teams dodge stinging urchins that stand in for a child's toys.

Which Pixar short film played in cinemas before Monsters University?

The Blue Umbrella began when its director, a Pixar technician, came across an abandoned umbrella on a rainy San Francisco street and imagined its story.

Which film knocked Monsters University off number one?

Despicable Me 2 took the top of the US box office over the Independence Day holiday with a weekend almost identical to the Pixar film's own debut, and Monsters University's takings fell 57%.

What happens when Monsters University's top fraternity invites Mike's team to its party?

They are pranked and humiliated, doused in paint, flowers and soft toys, and by morning photographs of it are plastered all over the campus.

In Monsters University, which scarer does young Mike follow into the human world on a school trip?

Frank McCay scolds Mike for the stunt, then admits he never noticed him in the room and hands over his own MU cap, which Mike still treasures when he enrols.

Who is assigned as Mike's roommate when he enrols at Monsters University?

Randall Boggs, the scheming rival of Monsters, Inc., turns up here as shy, nerdy 'Randy', who longs to be popular and cannot yet control his vanishing trick.

In Monsters University, which top fraternity welcomes Sulley but turns Mike away?

Roar Omega Roar drops Sulley the moment he fails his scare exam, and when it later wants him back he turns the invitation down.

In Monsters University, what prized possession of the dean's do Mike and Sulley break on exam day?

A scream canister goes flying in the middle of their quarrel; the dean calmly calls it an accident, then takes over their exams herself and fails them both.

By the end of Monsters University, what is Mike's job at Monsters, Inc.?

Sulley's scare assistant: the pair work their way up from the bottom of the company until Sulley makes the scare team, with Mike coaching at his side.

Which small fraternity of misfits does Mike join for the Scare Games?

Oozma Kappa turns out to meet in one member's family home, where his mother wanders through the candlelit initiation on her way to do the laundry.

Why does Mike's side survive the Scare Games' first round despite finishing last?

A rival team is disqualified for cheating: the jocks of Jaws Theta Chi are caught wearing a banned protective gel, so the last-placed misfits stay in.

On a secret night outing in Monsters University, Mike lifts his team's spirits by showing them what?

Professional scarers at work on the factory floor turn out to come in every shape, size and age, which convinces the misfits that their own oddities could be strengths.

What do Mike's teammates leave behind in disgust once they learn how the Scare Games final was won?

The winners' trophy is abandoned on the spot, leaving Sulley to carry it across campus alone before he owns up to the dean.

How did Sulley secretly guarantee Mike's winning score in the Scare Games final?

He rigged the simulator settings, turning Mike's machine down to its easiest level, and Mike finds out only when the dummy screams at a snap of his fingers.

In Monsters University, where does Mike end up when he sneaks through the experimental door?

A summer camp cabin full of girls is the worst possible test: they think Mike is funny and cute and want to touch him, and nobody screams.

In Monsters University, whom do Mike and Sulley scare to generate the energy to get home?

A group of park rangers get the fright of their lives in the dark, and their screams send such a surge through the door that it explodes behind the escaping pair.

In which department do Mike and Sulley start their careers at Monsters, Inc.?

The mailroom is only the first rung: a closing montage shows the pair as janitors, kitchen hands and can wranglers before they finally reach the scare floor.

In Monsters University, why does Mike reluctantly let Sulley onto his Scare Games team?

The team is one member short of the entry rules, and Sulley, who sees the games as his own ticket back into the scare program, is the only one willing.

The cancelled sequel Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in Scaradise had Mike and Sulley visit Boo's room, only to find what?

Her family had moved, so the pair set out across the human world to find her and ended up stranded there; the project was scrapped when Disney bought Pixar in 2006.

Which Disney chief's feud with Steve Jobs led Disney to plan a Monsters, Inc. sequel without Pixar?

Michael Eisner set up a studio called Circle 7 to make sequels to Pixar's films without Pixar; his successor bought Pixar outright in 2006 and closed Circle 7.

Which of Mike's fraternity brothers in Monsters University is a middle-aged former salesman who has gone back to college?

Don Carlton founded the fraternity, and he ends the film engaged to another member's mother, to her son's obvious discomfort.

In Monsters University, what does Mike agree to do if his team loses the Scare Games?

Leave the university: that is the price the dean names when Mike bets her that a win should put his whole team back in the scare program.

Monsters University's first release date, November 16, 2012, went instead to which film?

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 opened that day; Pixar's film waited until June 2013 because, as a Disney executive put it, summer had been so good to the studio.

In Monsters University, what does Sulley coast on in his first term instead of studying?

His family's famous name and a natural roar carry him as far as the final exam, where he roars before the dean has finished describing the task and fails.

In Monsters University, what ends Mike's friendship with his first-year roommate?

He joins the top fraternity and tells Mike not to spoil it for him, so the former friends end up on opposite sides in the Scare Games final.

Which actor voices Johnny Worthington, the president of Monsters University's top fraternity?

Nathan Fillion's Johnny posts a near-perfect score in the last round of the Scare Games, only to be outscored by the little green student he had sneered at all year.

In Monsters, Inc., Mike says Sulley has envied his looks since when?

Fourth grade is impossible if the two first met at university, as Monsters University shows, so its director now jokes that the line is just an old monster expression.

What did Pixar's artists give Mike Wazowski to make him look college-aged in Monsters University?

A dental retainer went on after the animators had studied how frogs age and found that a smoother, slimmer Mike still did not look young enough.

Which real creature was the model for Dean Hardscrabble's body in Monsters University?

A giant centipede from the Amazon, a species that can grow a foot long, was brought into the studio so that the artists could model the dean's scuttling legs on the real thing.

In Monsters University, what kind of animal is Archie, the rival college's mascot that Sulley smuggles into Mike's room?

A pig: Archie the Scare Pig bolts with Mike's treasured MU cap, and although it is Mike who finally rides him down, Sulley gets all the credit.

Monsters University's researchers went to a Bonfire Rally before the Big Game at which campus?

Berkeley holds the rally on the eve of its football game against Stanford, and Pixar's crew went along, and to fraternity houses too, as homework on campus life.

In Monsters University, what does the dean do on learning that a student has gone through the experimental door?

Has it shut down: she seals the door until the authorities can arrive, which strands Mike and Sulley among the humans with no way back.

Which familiar Monsters, Inc. character leads the agents who arrive after the door-lab break-in in Monsters University?

Roz, the secret number one of the Child Detection Agency, warns the students that her agents will be watching the pair from now on: 'Always watching.'

In Monsters University's post-credits scene, which slow-moving student finally reaches his first class?

A slug who set off for class on the first day of term arrives to find a janitor mopping an empty room, because the school year is already over.

In the world of Monsters University, which city is home to the Monsters, Inc. factory?

Monstropolis is powered by the screams its scarers collect, which is why little Mike grows up dreaming of nothing but joining them.

On April Fools' Day 2013, the Monsters University website was made to look hacked by which rival college?

Fear Tech 'vandals' sprayed the site orange for the day, a prank on a page Pixar had built to work like a real university's, admissions section and all.

Which actor, a voice in every Pixar feature up to then, plays the Yeti in Monsters University?

John Ratzenberger's Yeti is still a cheerful company man here; by Monsters, Inc. he has been banished to the Himalayas, where he welcomes the exiled Mike and Sulley.

Which Disney online game hosted a Monsters University Takeover event?

Club Penguin's makers, self-declared Pixar fans, let players dress as monsters and compete in their own Scare Games for two weeks around the film's release.

How does Mike and Sulley's time as students at Monsters University end?

They are both expelled for the break-in at the door lab, yet the teammates they coached are let into the scare program on the strength of the games.

Which Disney+ series follows a Monsters University graduate who joins Monsters, Inc. just as it switches to laugh power?

Monsters at Work opens the day after the events of Monsters, Inc., so its hero, trained at MU as a scarer, arrives to find the company no longer wants scarers.

How do Mike and Sulley save an empty party in the Pixar short Party Central?

They steal a rival's guests and food through a pair of borrowed door stations, on a route that runs through a sleeping couple's bedroom closet.

Monsters University was left off the Oscar shortlist for Best Animated Feature in the year which film won?

Frozen won the 2014 award, while Monsters University, which had tied it with ten nominations at the Annie Awards, was not even among the five nominees.

Monsters University's $82 million debut was Pixar's second-biggest opening weekend at the time, behind which film?

Toy Story 3 had opened to $110 million in 2010, and the new film's weekend kept a streak alive: fourteen Pixar features in a row had now debuted at number one.