I LOVE two girls one cup!
Monsters, University gives Pixar a chance to be more creative witjh the monster wirkd, Yhe most creative thing about the first film e=was the odorants…other than that the movie was just the hyman worlld replaced with monsters. Now tjat Cars and Cars 2 have been released, maybe we’ll see some creativity here.
Actually, contrary to the low hopes in this thread, I could see a “Monsters” prequel working. All it took was half an hour of racking my brain with the process of reverse-engineering the characters of Mike and Sully. And I’d like to share my process on this thread.
Before I begin, the question arises: why reverse engineer? Because in order to understand how a character goes through a dynamic growth, you must know where they’re going to end up at the end of the story. If a character starts out selfish, he must become selfless by the end of the story (Cars). If he starts out overprotective, he must become trustful by the end of the story (Finding Nemo). If she starts out blindly obedient, she must become self-deciding by the end of the story (Wall-E). See where I’m going with this? That’s how a story works. For a prequel, it’s simply a matter of going backwards in a character arc. Now we can begin.
Let’s start with Sully. In the movie, he began as a confident and highly effective scarer. He was a gentle giant type who put honesty first in all his interactions with the characters around him. Sure, he had his differences with his roommate in their apartment, but what solid and healthy friendship doesn’t have that? Besides, they were minor differences that they could easily iron out over the course of the story.
Hits the “Reverse Engineer” button
What could be Sully be in a college setting? Something that is polar opposite of what how his sociological and psychological components were portrayed in “Monsters”. The prequel could start with him being this phony tough, all-bark-no-bite student of scareology (or whatever his major is) who wants all the fame but none of the hard work that goes into achieving that level of greatness. As far as social interaction goes, the only friends he has are fair weather friends with no discernable goals or direction in life. Sound like somebody you know?
From the character, the story can spring forth. It is the writer’s job to put obstacles in the way of the character and take him from selfish to selfless, from greedy to charitable, whatever.
More to come…
The reversal concept is an interesting…concept.
I always pictured Sullivan as a “jock type” in school, with good sports-oriented talent with plenty of “friends” and followers. Of course he might have been a bit of a slacker, but I don’t know…depends on when he “buckled down”. And since this is university, college, it’s a safe bet that THAT has already happened.
Perhaps he’d be tempted to have more “college fun” rather than actually working. And with the folks gone, who probably encouraged him up to normal graduation, he wouldn’t have much of a blocker for such things. A struggle between “I’ve got to work harder” to “I’ve graduated, I SHOULD have some fun”…
Now Wazowski? He doesn’t seem deeper. I mean him in college? Yeah he’d be aiming for the college fun more than actually working. But the difficult part is that if the two “butted heads” before becoming friends then…perhaps Wazowski drags him away from studying for an important test or gets him in trouble with the Dean. shrugs Who can say.
On the other scale, pun? , there’s Randall. I wouldn’t guess he was too popular for some reason. But one things for sure, he’s no slouch when it comes to work, or a cheater for that matter. Hard worker as well, even when he’s got more piled up than he can handle. And if HE is going to be in this…
There’s like 2 strings here. Wazowski would offer Sullivan some much needed “loosening up” which he might need depending on what he’s facing. Randall, meanwhile, would be better in getting him focused on what he needs to do to get that shiny degree. But…given that Sullivan and Wazowski become friends in the end, and that Sullivan’s prowess (in Scareing at least) is top notch…I’m unsure what could happen.
A lot of open field here, plentiful with development.
Love the way you’re contributing to this, Nexas. Though for this post of mine, I thought I’d take a different route with his prequel personality. Nothing against your input, just adding my own.
Indeed, I can picture Randall in that same college setting. He could part of their graduating class, but I’m getting ahead of myself in terms of character development in this prequel speculation. First comes Mike Wazowski.
In the movie, Mike was introduced as the fun-loving character that motivated his roommate physically and mentally to be at his peak performance. He consists of ideal sidekick qualities that help offset the focused and down-to-earth attitude of his roommate (e.g. he wanted to dig a tunnel with spoons to release Boo into the wild). In a sense, he’s the plucky comic relief, and he’s fully aware of what happens around him, as evidenced by his acts of motivations that help Sully to make the money to pay the bills on their apartment. Yes, he tends to want to take the easy route sometimes (in the beginning, he wants to drive his car to work instead of walking in spite of the power outages Monstropolis was having), but Sully is there to keep him in check. All in all, he’s equal parts comical and supportive.
Hits the “Reverse Engineer” button
What would Mike be in a college setting? Something that is polar opposite of what how his sociological and psychological components were portrayed in “Monsters”. The prequel could start with him being this serious, no-nonsense student who knows the meaning of hard work, but achieves it at the price of alienating everyone else around him. He basically lives by his studies and has no time for goofing off, let alone have a girlfriend. As far as social interaction goes, his only friends are the faculty and his books.
He and Sully are in this instance (and in “Monsters, Inc.”) a dynamic pair of pivotal characters. Make them share a college dorm room for a few semesters and you’re bound to have fun-loving conflict.
Coming up next: Randall.
I’ve actually been at this for awhile. Randall was easy enough to figure out, Wazowski was even easier. Sullivan perhaps had one of the most progression of the three.
By all means go ahead and share.
prods head I’d agree on that one. Randall’s younger than Sullivan and Wazowski some say, but he’s smarter and more ahead in getting into Monsters Inc. than either of them. taps finger Hmm…which of course would mean that Randall’s nearing the end of his educational service while Sullivan and Wazowski are starting there’s. And given Sullivan’s development…I would say that Randall might take an interest in him academically.
I always figured that the “Sullivans” were a scarer family. His father was one in my opinion, and rose to be…ahem heh heh…well…I’ll get to that someday, and probably knew Waternoose as well, hence how James got so chummy with Henry. So, maybe Randall knows that and wants to see how a “Sullivan” does.
School-wise I always saw Randall as the hard working loner. Not a geek per-say, though maybe one that eventually held his own. Sullivan, on the other hand, was the popular type. Essentially making them at ends of the pole in terms of educational achievement (achievement, not as in one was bad and the other was good, they both were good justh had different paths)
Though Wazowski’s not very heh heh…contributive with his own paycheck. Heard he spent a gaggle on a CD collection heh.
Oooh…I doubt polar opposite. Again, personal opinion, not assaulting yours. Wazowski, to me, just seems…hard to change. It takes something…pivotal to change his personality. I see him…as an only child in some regards. Father IS the hard working type, perhaps a lawyer, and tries to instill such things into his son. His mother, on the other hand, spoils him. I can easily see THAT “walk off” when they drop him off in college.
Father: Son…you gotta buckle down now…these are the important days…
Wazowski: dullard look as if he’d heard this speech too many times
I would think Wazowski’s goals in college would be…“get a car” (if he doesn’t already have one) and “get a girl” (which I would think he DOESN’T have one hehehe).
Though…the pivotal thing…I just thought…what if it was Celia. Perhaps it was SHE who influenced him to crack down. Afterall take those notes in his locker, which are accompanied by her picture. SHE may have offered the idea that he put them there to keep him focused.
Of course there’s also his nails-on-chalkboard relationship with Randall as well. rubs temple Wazowski…I’d picture…wanted to be a Scarer simply because of it being a popular, and perhaps “easy”, job to take on. However…he wasn’t cut out for it. I always thought the one who TOLD him that or SHOWED him that was Randall. And that THAT was the reason the two butted heads. Randall was a scarer, Wazowski wasn’t. Hence in the end why Wazowski road on Sullivan’s coattails since HE was a scarer.
Though the whole “no-nonsense” thing. If such was Wazowski back then…then it would prove an interesting interaction with Randall consider he probably has the same opinion. The thought of THOSE two as friends makes me turn green, but it is possible, however briefly.
It’s…complicated…I mean I honestly see Wazowski as hard to change…and with the above, maybe it was Randall telling him he WASN’T cut out to be a scarer (which he honestly wasn’t), is what was the driving force (perhaps along with Celia) that made him buckle down.
rubs hands Oh he’s next…well…lets uhh see.
Shock Video Trolling aside, I’m not really excited for MU either. I’m just going to have to take it like a man. Now Brave on the other hand? I’m all there. 
To be honest, the only real concern I have about this film at all right now is really just possible continuity issues. I believe it was either Nexas or mentalguru who pointed out a line in the original of Mike telling Sulley that they were friends since the 4th grade or something like that. How would that make sense if they didn’t become friends until college? I’m not sure how they’re going to get around that, but I can only think of two things:
The story gets a rewrite later on in production so that Mike and Sulley are already friends when they go to college.
They get Billy Crystal to dub over his line in the original to “since college” for some future re-release on Blu-Ray or DVD.
Even if they go with option 1 however, it could just make the idea of a prequel seem even more pointless, cause I have to think that prequels work best when they’re some kind of origin story or a backstory that tells us how these well-established characters first came to know each other. For example, who would have thought before George Lucas made The Phantom Menace that Darth Vader was a little kid that created C-3PO? I’m sure I didn’t.
I honestly can’t remember. I’ve done many pointing outs, and Mental seems to share my wavelength so I can’t be certain.
But to reiterate…it was actually Kindergarten when they first met. Sullivan accidentally thought Wazowski was a footstool. Apparently they became friends ever since.
Good not about re-writes. They have 2 years to make this story. So maybe making the sets, such as the university itself will be universal in any circumstance with what script is made, as well as additional characters. So during that time, the script could be refined and changed.
Doing such a dub purely for such a thing would seem…petty…and depending…costly 0_0
I just can´t see Mike as the typical popular cool kid surrounded by boys/girls, i just can´t
And Sulley as the shy, hard-working type 
And about the importance of the sequel, i think Mike and Sulley are two of the best character in all the Pixar movies, and since they have a backstory which can be explotaible, why not?
I agree entirely. I see no reason to make a prequel to MI. I was very excited in the sequel(maybe more than Cars 2) but I have never seen a good prequel, and I don’t think the source material is appropriate for one, anyway.
It might be too late to stop Pixar from making this. Now I can understand why people aren’t excited about this movie. But being Pixar, I can say that what ever they put out, I’ll be more than happy to watch.
I’ll watch anything with the Pixar label on it, but that doesn’t include enjoying it. Personally, for me, I can’t possibly see myself enjoying an MI prequel.
Well i’m not all for a Monsters university and i’m not against it either. So i come in between with a “I wish monsters university wasn’t coming” and a “Um pixar has done a pretty good job on there films before, so i chose to trust them” 
I’ve wanted another MI movie since I walked out of the theater after seeing the first one. Was it a good idea for Pixar to make another MI movie? Frankly, I don’t know. But I’m still looking forward to seeing it.
I’m kinda on the fence about the Monster’s Inc prequel. Although its not a bad idea, it probably won’t be great to me. If anything, I was hoping for a sequel where Mike and Sully want to see Boo grown up. Well, seeing its Pixar and MI was my favorite non-Toy Story movie from Pixar, I’ll probably give this a shot.
You know, Pixar has the right to make sequels if they want to, guys.
Seriously.
I’m just sick of all the bashing every time Pixar announces a new installment of a preexisting franchise. We reacted the same to Toy Story 3, for crying out loud, and now the fandom pretends that never happened, sweeps any evidence under the rug, and moves on to complain about the next sequel. And because Cars 2 wasn’t a critical favorite, it’s gone from some skepticism to the point where any sequel Pixar makes is automatically going to be horrible and is just for the cash.
If a prequel really disrupts people so much, don’t go see it. Don’t support it with your money. But I’m guessing that you’ll be missing out on, if nothing more, a fun time.
I agree with Netbug. Pixar can do stories they want to see. If they think it’s great enough, they will go ahead. Must we really bash the company that this board is dedicated to?
I’m not against it. I’m just disappointed that it’s a prequel. I want to find out what happens NEXT!
Prequels and midquels really disappoint me. I feel like it’s going nowhere with the story.
EXACTLY! I agree. Anything that isn’t progress is no fun for me. 
I’m just now reading this thread for the first time, but I have to say I concur with almost every single thing you’ve said. You’ve expressed your and my views very well. As much as I adore Monsters Inc. and the characters of the movie, I don’t quite understand why the film is being made, but that’s not to say it shouldn’t be made, because much of the story remains a mystery. I may be very critical of the prequel unless something innovative and clever is done with the story or character development. And while I have faith in Pixar, as you put it… there’s a slight chance of Monsters University will be on the level of Cars 2, though I do expect greater things. I want depth and not mere entertainment.
I also disagree with the sentiment that we are not allowed to criticize Pixar. I should be able to openly criticize whatever movie made by whatever studio, and it’s not a simple solution to avoid seeing the movie, because I’m too much of a fan of Pixar. And being a devoted fan doesn’t mean I will blindly adore everything or keep quiet about my opinion on a Pixar fan forum.
Really, Pixar wouldn’t release the movies to the public if they were not meant to be appreciated/watched by others. I understand if people at Pixar have attachments to certain characters and therefore wish to base an entire movie off them without much substance to contribute (see Cars 2), but I’m not trying to attack anyone on a personal level when I criticize a film or decision in making a film. Basically, I want more awesome, emotionally moving films from Pixar. Monsters University could be one of those, but I’m just not sure yet. Hey, with Stanton and Docter writing the script, that’s something promising. 