‘Monsters University’ Fun Facts Part Two

Walt Disney Studios and Pixar Animation Studios have provided us with even more fun facts from their upcoming prequel, Monsters University, which you can read below.

Ever since college-bound Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) was a little monster, he has dreamed of becoming a Scarer — and he knows better than anyone that the best Scarers come from Monsters University. But during his first semester at MU, Mike’s plans are derailed when he crosses paths with hotshot James P. Sullivan, ‘Sulley’ (voice of John Goodman), a natural-born Scarer. The pair’s out-of-control competitive spirit gets them both kicked out of the University’s elite Scare Program. To make matters worse, they realize they will have to work together, along with an odd bunch of misfit monsters, if they ever hope to make things right.

BACK TO SCHOOL

• Monsters University was founded in 1313 — it celebrates its 700-year anniversary this year.
• There are six different schools of study at Monsters University: School of Scaring, School of Engineering, School of Liberal Arts & Monstrosities, School of Science, School of Business and School of Aquatics.
• The campus newspaper is called The Campus Roar.
• The address of the Oozma Kappa fraternity house is the same address as the house where director Dan Scanlon grew up.
• Popular Monsters University foods are chili cheese flies, top roarmen, hot sludge sundaes and clawpuccino.
• Top Scaring techniques include Shadow Approach with a Crackle Holler, Stealth Roll with a Fully Exposed Roar, Seasonal Creep and Crawl,?Full Moon Scamper and Smash, Ogre’s Slump, Zombie Snarl, Johnson Crackle and Howl, Johnson Pounce?the Old, Johnson Slash and Pounce, and The Macdoogle Fake-Out.
• In the film, the Scare final Mike crams for all semester is on Dec. 8 — which just happens to be the birthday of director Dan Scanlon’s mother. Coincidence?
• Directly inspired by a tradition that members of the Monsters University production team witnessed while on a university research trip, students entering the MU Hall of Scaring on their first day of school touch a statue’s toe for good luck.

IT’S GOT CHARACTER

• Don Carlton’s business card lists his address as 1200 Dark Ave. Pixar’s Emeryville address is 1200 Park Ave.
• Don Carlton became the character model for Professor Brandywine, who teaches scream can design at MU. Artists just added fur.
• At the beginning of the film, Young Mike is in first grade.
• A young version of Earl ‘The Terror’ Thompson can be seen in the opening sequence of Monsters University on the Scare Floor at Monsters, Inc. during young Mike’s field trip.
• Dean Hardscrabble was originally a male character.
• The current version of Dean Hardscrabble was modeled after a type of centipede called Scolopendra Gigantea, also known as the Amazonian giant centipede. One of these was brought in to Pixar for reference; the MU crew named it Kendra the Scolopendra.
• Art was initially inspired by Pixiarian Dale Ruffolo.
• Terri Perry became a dance major during a recording session with Sean P. Hayes — who was encouraged by filmmakers to improvise.
• The design of Archie the Scare Pig was inspired by director Dan Scanlon’s dog Carol, a Japanese Chin.
• In Monsters, Inc., George Sanderson does a little dance on the Scare Floor just before the human sock is discovered and he’s sanitized by the Child Detection Agency (CDA). In Monsters University, George makes a brief cameo, doing the same dance at a ROR house party.

COUNT IT

• Sulley has 5,475,458 hairs on his body. He weighs 985 pounds.
• There are a total of 500 monster characters in Monsters University.
• There is an average of 25 characters in each shot, the highest of any Pixar film. Previous Pixar films averaged less than 10 characters in each shot.
• There were 422 background characters designed for the film and more than 25% had hair and/or clothing (which would’ve been unheard of when Monsters, Inc. was released.
• Monsters University took 100 million CPU hours to render, which is equivalent to 10,000 years for a single computer — the most in Pixar history. Each frame, if rendered on a single computer, would take an average of 29 hours to render.
• There were 100,856 storyboards delivered for Monsters University — the highest number on any Pixar film. There were 227,249 storyboards created during the story process for Monsters University. Not all storyboards represented scenes that made it into the final film.

BEHIND THE SCENES

• Each background character was named after a Monsters University production member and each member is credited for the shots in which their character appears.
• Production designer Ricky Nierva’s daughter drew a crayon drawing of ‘Frightening’ Frank McCay that appears in a human child’s bedroom in the film.
• The industrial area around Monsters, Inc. was inspired by the Alameda Naval Air Base, Oakland Estuary and Port of Oakland.
• Monsters University’s library is called Bohol Hall, named after Pixar artist Nelson Bohol who designed it.

Screaming with laughter and oozing with heart, Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University is directed by Dan Scanlon, produced by Kori Rae and features music from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and award-winning composer Randy Newman. The film also stars the vocal talents of Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, Dave Foley, Sean P. Hayes, Joel Murray, Peter Sohn, Charlie Day, Nathan Fillion, Bobby Moynihan, Julia Sweeney, Aubrey Plaza, Tyler Labine, John Krasinski, Bonnie Hunt, Beth Behrs and John Ratzenberger and opens in U.S. theaters on June 21, 2013, and will be shown in 3D in select theaters.