I loved sharing my MonstersU experience with my family and friends. One comment that stood out to me after I graduated from the program was, “Wow, what a cool experience. I want to hear more about Monsters University. I didn’t even realize that people could go to a college like that. Your classes sound amazing and I can’t wait to hear more about it.” That’s when it hit me that this friend thought that I DID go back to school, to Monsters University! {grinning} Director Dan Scanlon (Tracy, Mater and The Ghostlike), revealed that John Lasseter and the Pixar team wanted to create a Monsters University commercial and a web site to give the feel that Monsters University was a real college. John was adamant about this and he didn’t want any links directed back to the movie. He wanted it to just seem real. I think they accomplished this goal AND I give myself a pat on the shoulder for accomplishing this goal as well! Go Monsters U!
Dan sat with my former classmates and I and spoke further about the development of of the movie as well as his personal college experience.
Monsters University Director Dan Scanlon
What is Monsters University about and was it always a college scenario?
This is the story of how they met. I think the reason college came up was, in the early stages of the first movie, Mike and Sulley talked about both of them being in college. They had versions of the story that they talked about their old college days. And so I think when the idea of the prequel came up, we thought great college stuff! It also gives you an opportunity to just get to see another place for monsters to go that seemed classic. And we’d never done a college movie.
What about the line, “You’ve been jealous of my good looks since the fourth grade.” Why didn’t their relationship start there?
In the first film Mike says to Sulley, “You’ve been jealous of my good looks since the fourth grade.” This is something that a lot of people have brought up and we certainly noticed it right away when we started developing the idea. And it can be really tough when you have a moment like that. We explored it a lot. We did several versions of the film where we actually showed the guys meeting when they were younger. In order to service that particular line, we were hurting the story. We were hurting the story that we wanted to tell, which was the story of how these guys met and how they became friends.
It became clear that in order to respect that line we would had to have made Monsters Elementary, which was not a story we wanted to tell. Pete Doctor and John Lassiter came to me and said you’re going to have to let that line go. It’s gonna hurt both movies if you don’t tell this story right. And the spirit of that line in the first film was to say-these two guys have known each other a long time. So we felt that it still supports that idea to have them meet in college. Let’s just imagine that, “You’ve been jealous of my good looks since fourth grade’s” is just a monster expression.
Dan Scanlon and Pixar employees creating the story of Monsters University. Photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar
Were you Sulley or Mike when you were in college?
When I was in school, I was probably more like Mike. I was pretty focused on trying to get good grades, or maybe I was more like Squishy where I just didn’t really have a lot of friends for awhile. Which I didn’t even realize until someone asked that question. I realized that sounds so sad. I didn’t have a lot of wild crazy college stuff going on. The movie is more on an emotional level and I can connect with it. That feeling of showing up at an art school, and realizing that, though your mom puts your drawings on the refrigerator, you’re actually not the greatest artist in the world. It’s horrifying. And it’s humbling. I think that people have that experience a lot. And that part of it, that idea of Mike being up against that was what I felt would be the heart of the story. What I connected to personally is- what do we do when things don’t work out inevitably? It’s so wonderful that we tell people you can be anything you want if you never give up. But sometimes it happens, and we are there for people to help them realize that no, maybe you’re not this, but you’re this. And that’s what I love about this story.
Monsters University is in theaters on June 21st. Click here to view all of our #monstersuevent coverage.
