Monsters University Character Posters and IDs

Pixar continued their roll out of advertising for their fourteenth feature film, Monsters University, yesterday, when Total Film unveiled a slew of new character posters and ID cards. As we've come to expect from Pixar, the designs are fun, inventive and look absolutely great!

Hilarious New Monsters University Trailer

Brave is picking up some serious awards steam, but now Pixar start planning for the future, as today Walt Disney Studios UK's YouTube channel unveiled a new trailer for this summer's Monsters University! We saw a new clip in the extended preview for the film a few days ago, but this trailer gives us our biggest indication as to the plot of Pixar's first prequel.

The trailer's embedded above and be sure to watch it in HD! The trailer itself is absolutely hilarious, Mike and Sulley are on top form and the new characters seem brilliant; Monsters U promises to be an absolute hoot - and a damn good looking film to boot.

Monsters U is directed by Dan Scanlon and produced by Kori Rae, it opens on 21st June in the US and 12th July in the UK.

Behold: Brave Easter Eggs Found!

A113 in Brave, carved in Roman numerals (ACXIII) above the doorway.

UPDATE: 20:33 (GMT) - you can now check out the references (including a newly found one, paying homage to the late-great Cars co-director Joe Ranft) in hi-res below; again via The Pixar Post.

It's not quite out over here yet, but Pixar's thirteenth feature film, Brave, is now out on Blu-ray and DVD in the US, and it's jam-packed with special features! The most special feature of all, though, is the film itself, and Pixar fans all over the web have returned to the film to try and nail down the few Easter Eggs that eluded us all in cinemas!

Those wonderful guys over at The Pixar Post have a breakdown of all the Easter Eggs you can see, ranging from Pixar-mainstays to some rather more interesting ones. We've already seen some of them before - the Pizza Planet Truck, Sulley from Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University, and a newt reference - but we also, finally, now know the location of A113 in the film (and the Luxo ball pops up as well).

A113 (top) isn't the most highly-defined and visible in the world, but it's there, and we'll add it to our A113 page ASAP! Check out the rest, of the slightly more visible Easter Eggs, below!

The Luxo ball, clearly - well, maybe not clearly - visible in the Witch's clutter.

The Witch's carving of the Pizza Planet Truck, which appears in every Pixar film except for The Incredibles.

Sulley from Monsters, Inc., who will also appear in next year's Monsters University, doubling up as a reference to past and future Pixar films.

A newt, paying reference to Pixar's cancelled film of the same name.

A carving of the late-great Joe Ranft's face.

Brave hits Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on 26th November - you can pre-order it below. In the meantime, to whet your Pixar appetite, Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 2 is out now in the UK and you can buy it here, and check out our exclusive review of Monsters, Inc. 3D (released 19th December, US; 18th January, UK).

Pictures and Easter Egg-spotting courtesy of The Pixar Post.

New Monsters University CG Character Art

Upcoming Pixar has some exclusive CG character art from Pixar's upcoming, highly anticipated, prequel, Monsters University. A few weeks ago Pixar rolled out their viral website for the film, and we can surely expect the second trailer for it with Disney's Wreck-It Ralph this coming Friday - or soon thereafter.

Check out the great CG renders of the characters - including Mike and Sulley, and new characters Don, Squishy, Squishy's Mom, Art and Terry & Terri - via Upcoming Pixar's Flickr page. Monsters U looks set to have just as lively a cast of characters as the original Monsters, Inc. did 11 years ago - and they're sure as hell going to sell a lot of Monsters plush toys!

Monsters University is directed by Dan Scanlon, and produced by Kori Rae, and arrives in cinemas next year, on 21st June (US) and 12th July (UK) - and the original Monsters, Inc. is re-released in 3D on 19th December (US) and 18th January, 2013 (UK)

Monsters University Plot Details Emerge

With Brave's US theatrical run pretty much over (though it's just started in the UK!), eyes begin to turn towards Pixar's fourteenth feature film, Monstsers University. Aside from the fact that it's a prequel to Pixar's 2001 classic, Monsters, Inc., and that it's set in college, when best-friends Mike and Sulley were rivals, we know little about the plot of Monsters U thus far. However, Billy Crystal is here to enlighten us a bit.

Though he famously turned down the role of Buzz Lightyear, Crystal leapt at the opportunity to lend his voice to Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc. and has a great love for the character and the film. So it's no surprise that in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the topic of the hotly anticipated prequel came up. Crystal spoke about the plot of the film, saying:

"[Mike and Sully] end up in the same fraternity where they have this scare competition — like Greek Games in college. They have to mobilize a group, sort of like Revenge of the Nerds-monsters, and get them ready to be scary.”"

So, expect to see more hilarious pranks and college-antics, like we saw in the teaser trailers a couple of months ago. Crystal also said that the duo are 17 and 18 in the film, adding "My guy has a retainer, even."

Monsters University is released on 21st June, 2013 in the US and 12th July in the UK, and the original Monsters, Inc. is re-released in 3D on 19th December (US only - UK re-release date likely in early 2013).

Via The Pixar Times.

Three New Monsters University Stills

Although Pixar's latest film, Brave, is still to open in a lot of territories (including here in the UK), it's run is coming to an end in US cinemas; after grossing over $200 million! So, eyes have now began to turn to the Toy Story studio's 14th feature film, the prequel to 2001's Monsters, Inc., Monsters University.

Set while the best-friend duo of Sulley and Mike were in college - and rivals - Monsters University is Pixar's first prequel and is sure to do very well. We can expect to be hearing more and more from Pixar's next film in the next year, and today, a PDF found on Pixar's Graphics Research website, with the catchy title of  "Multiresolution Radiosity Caching for Efficient Preview and Final Quality Global Illumination in Movies", about lighting, rendering and global illumination/colour bleeding in computer animated movies brings us three brand new stills from the film.

Admittedly, the images are unfinished and unpolished, but they still show a startling amount of detail and give us a glimpse into the film and the rivalry between the two eventual-best friends. The red-boxes around the second two images featured here are because later in the document these highlighted areas are enhanced and compared; the document (read it in full here) describes new, faster, techniques for rendering and global illumination in Pixar's films.

Monsters University is directed by Dan Scanlon (Mater and the Ghostlight) and is due for release on 21st June, 2013 in the US, and in the UK on 12th July, 2013.


Via The Pixar Times.

A Look at Monsters University: Updated Character Designs and More

Out of D23 yesterday, we learned a lot about Pixar's upcoming slate: big details on their 2 new films, as well as learning about a particular scene from Brave, but we also got a lot more light upon their first film in 2013, Monsters University.

Monsters U. is a prequel to the 2001 original, Monsters, Inc., set years before the events of that film, and described by Pixar and Disney CCO John Lasseter as an "animated college movie", as such the character designs had to be suitably adjusted. Both characters are said to be 18 in the film, so changes were needed, but (as you can see), the characters still look like the ones we know and love from Monsters, Inc., but in a slightly different light.

Mike is shorter, freckled, has smaller horns and is sporting a retainer.

Whereas, Sulley is thinner, hairier and shaggier.

The Pixar Times also reports that several actors were announced for the film, obviously John Goodman and Billy Crystal reprise their roles as Sulley and Mike respectively, Steve Buscemi also returns, to voice the villainous Randall. In terms of new talent, Dave Foley returns to Pixar (after previously voicing Flik in A Bug's Life) to voice a new character, and Peter Sohn (director of Partly Cloudy and co-director of the new dinosaur film), who voiced Emile in Ratatouille, also lends his voice to the film; Joel Murray and Julia Sweeney also star.

For more information and over 20 character images from the event, head over to The Pixar Times.

Monsters University Logo and Synopsis Revealed

Disney and Pixar have revealed a little bit more about Monsters University, the 2013 prequel to 2001's Monsters, Inc.

Firstly, we have the above logo, the official logo for the film, it's simple, but it's effective. It's a nice combination of the classic Monsters, Inc. logo and vintage varsity writing.

Secondly, Disney and Pixar have also released the official synopsis for the film (below):

Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan are an inseparable pair, but that wasn’t always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn't stand each other. Monsters University unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends.

As is to be expected from Pixar, it sounds great, a nice way to break up the massive stack of Pixar sequels as of late (with Toy Story 3 last year and Cars 2 due out this year) and I can't wait to see what Pixar'll do with a prequel.

The film is set to be directed by Dan Scanlon and produced by Kori Rae (A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles, Up) and is due to be released on 21st June, 2013.

Monsters University

Months after all of the rumours that Monsters, Inc. 2 might in fact not be the sequel we expected, but rather a prequel, we get confirmation. We now know that not only is the film a prequel, but that it is not Monsters, Inc. 2 at all, the title for the film is Monsters University. This more or less confirms the rumours about the plot.

This announcement was made at today's CinemaCon event in Las Vegas and is, needless to say, very exciting.

Now if we could just find out who the director is...