MU: Did You Know?

So the “monstrous” amount of promotion that a certain Disney*Pixar film is getting at Disney Parks only means one thing. The Disney summer movie season is upon us and with the tremendously successful release of “Iron Man 3” just last week, we feel like now is the appropriate time to shift to the next Disney movie coming this season – “Monsters University.”

Pixar’s prequel to the award-winning Monsters Inc. will tell the story that I’m sure that we all like telling our friends – how did we become friends in the first place? For Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan, it started in college and we have a few other fun facts about the University (and the film) below!

Did you know…?

• The original Monsters, Inc. originally released on November 2, 2001, was nominated for four Oscars^®: Best Animated Feature Film, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing and Best Original Song—“If I Didn’t Have You,” for which it won.
• Monsters University is Pixar’s 14th feature film and its first prequel.
• Pete Docter, director of Monsters, Inc. played a key role in the development ofMonsters University and helped to build some of the film’s key themes. “One theme that came out really early was this idea that when one door closes, another door opens,” says Docter.
• The production team built over 400 characters just to populate the campus which is a Pixar record. There are as many as 25 characters in every shot.
• Monsters U director Dan Scanlon previously co-directed the short, Mater and the Ghostlight.
• Producer Kori Rae has been with Pixar since 1993. She worked on early Pixar commercials and was an associate producer for Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles.
• In Monsters Inc. there was only one simulated garment and that was Boo’s T-shirt, versus 127 garments that were built for Monsters University.
• The first version of Pixar’s hair and cloth simulator was deployed on Monsters Inc. The first major rewrite of the simulator happened for Monsters University.  Sullivan has 5.5 million rendered hairs.  Which is about a fivefold increase fromMonsters Inc.
• Dean Hardscrabble’s character was modeled after a type of centipede called Scolopendra Gigantea, also known as the Amazonian giant centipede.
• The design of Archie the Scare Pig was inspired by director Dan Scanlon’s dog Carol, a Japanese Chin.
• Don Carlton’s business card lists his address as 1200 Dark Ave. Pixar’s Emeryville address is 1200 Park Ave.
• There were 100,856 storyboards delivered for Monsters University — the highest number on any Pixar film.
• Monsters University’s library is called Bohol Hall, named after Pixar artist Nelson Bohol who designed it.
• Monsters University was founded in 1313.
• 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 address of the Oozma Kappa fraternity house is the same address as the house where director Dan Scanlon grew up.
• The score was composed by Randy Newman who previously scored Monsters, Inc. and the Toy Story films. He was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• With 30 legs, spectacular wings and a lifetime of experience, Dean Hardscrabble knows Scaring.

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After reading all that, we’re pretty convinced that Pixar will be telling another great story that we ALL can relate to even more so when the film hits theaters when school’s out on June 21.

What are you all most excited about in the film? Are you ready for another great Pixar story or do you have your doubts already? Comment and share what you think below!