Monsters University (2013)
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When waking up after sleeping on Sulley's hand, Mike is heard saying "I know you're a Princess and I'm just a stable boy." The line refers to one of Billy Crystal's previous screen credits as Miracle Max in The Princess Bride (1987) a story focusing on the love between a Princess and a stable boy.
As the students enter the School of Scaring building, they all touch the front paw of the statue in front of the building. This is a reference to a tradition at Harvard University where students touch the left foot of the statue of John Harvard for good luck. As a result, the foot of the statue of Harvard is shiny and polished down. The animators included that onto the statue in the movie as well.
There is a line in Monsters, Inc. (2001) where Mike says that Sulley has been jealous of his looks since the fourth grade. Since this movie was going to show Mike and Sulley meeting in college, it obviously contradicts that line. Director Dan Scanlon admitted that there was some conflict behind that, and even had one treatment showing Sulley and Mike meeting in the fourth grade, then skipping ahead to their university years. Pete Docter (director of Monsters, Inc. (2001)) and John Lasseter personally told Scanlon that they loved that he was honoring that one line said in the movie, but he "...had to do what was best for the story". As a result, the line was put aside and Sulley and Mike would be shown meeting in university. As a joke, Scanlon said that Mike's line in the first movie is "an old monster expression."
Despite being offered the role of Dean Hardscrabble outright, Dame Helen Mirren requested that she audition for the role anyway to ensure that the filmmakers were satisfied with her performance.
When James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (John Goodman) enters Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) and Randall's (Steve Buscemi's) room with Fear Tech's pig, a motivational poster can be seen above Randall's bed that reads "Winds of Change: Shh... Can you hear them?" Randall says the same line to Mike in the locker room during Monsters, Inc. (2001).
STUDIO TRADEMARK: The Pizza Planet truck, given a slight overhaul to fit the Monster World, first featured in Toy Story (1995), can be seen parked by the left of the JOX fraternity house during the party as Mike is riding Archie the Scare Pig.
When Ms. Squibbles (Julia Sweeney) drops the boys off and states, "I'll be in the car listening to my tunes", she is listening to "Island" by metal band Mastodon.
Mike's parents were originally planned to be included in the story. They would drop Mike off for his first day at Monsters University. Director Dan Scanlon decided to drop them from the finished movie to make Mike seem just that much more vulnerable.
The first prequel to a Pixar movie, taking place ten years before Monsters, Inc. (2001).
STUDIO TRADEMARK: Professor Knight's lecture hall is room A113, a room at CalArts where animation classes are taught.
Celia Mae and Mr. Waternoose actually "appear" in this movie. In the closing portion, there's a note from Celia in Mike's locker asking him to call her. Also, there's a photograph showing Mr. Waternoose a few seconds afterwards.
In Squishy's (Peter Sohn's) basement, a poster of Mike Wazowski's (Billy Crystal's) six-wheel drive can be seen on the wall.
Early drafts included Sulley and Mike in grade school together (to respect the "fourth grade" quote in Monsters, Inc. (2001)) and appearances by the characters of Celia, Fungus, and Henry J. Waternoose (recast as Kelsey Grammer, replacing the late James Coburn, who died a year after the release of Monsters, Inc. (2001)). Grammer never made it into the final movie; and Waternoose appeared only in a photograph.
Scarer cards were a special feature on the original 2-Disc Monsters, Inc. (2001) DVD.
At the end, you see the careers of Mike and Sulley in Mike's locker, from starting in the mailroom to becoming scarers. For a split second, there is a picture of his mom and dad.
The melody of the background music present when Mike first enters the university is based directly on the traditional Anglican hymn, "All Things Bright And Beautiful". Movie songs inspired by this hymn include Monty Python's "Every Sperm is Sacred" song from The Meaning of Life (1983), which is essentially the same song. The school song for Faber University in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) is similar to the hymn without being a copy and it may be a more direct inspiration for the Monsters University school song.
The area code on Don Carlton's (Joel Murray's) business card is 510, which is the same as Emeryville, California, where Pixar Animation Studios is located.
The School of Scaring building is a visual homage to the famous H.P. Lovecraft monster, Cthulhu. The green central dome is clearly designed in the shape of a head (with skylights placed strategically as eyes) and the columns flanking the main entrance (which itself is lined with teeth) bear a strong resemblance to Cthulhu's mouth-tentacles.
The Monsters University campus is based largely on the University of California at Berkeley campus, which is very close to Pixar's headquarters in Emeryville, California. The Monsters University gate is based on UC Berkeley's famous Sather Gate, and the clock tower in this movie was based on Berkeley's Campanille clock tower. (UC Berkeley also carries the 510 area code, seen in this movie.)
STUDIO TRADEMARK: Pixar's Luxo, Jr. (1986) ball appears as a drawing on the stone wall at the beginning of the first Scare Games task.
When Mike is riding the pig through a fraternity house, one can spot a poster of the 1976 KISS album "Rock And Roll Over" on the wall in the right corner.
Writer and director Dan Scanlon provided the voice of the Blue Furry Improv Club Monster that Mike walks past when he first arrives on campus at the start of the movie.
Though one of the voice actresses from Monsters, Inc. (2001), Bonnie Hunt, returned, she has a different role in this movie. In the first movie, she voiced Flint, the scaring trainer for Bile, but in this movie, she voiced Mrs. Karen Graves, Mike's school teacher. Both those roles were minor ones only appearing at the start of the movie.
In addition to Don's (Joel Murray's) phone number on his business card being an Emeryville/Oakland, California area code, his street address is "1200 Dark Ave." with no city given. Pixar Animation Studios are at 1200 Park Ave., Emeryville, California.
During the final challenge of the Scare Games, Arlo from The Good Dinosaur (2015) makes a cameo along with some other dinosaurs as a toy on the floor. At the time of this movie's production and release, The Good Dinosaur (2015) was supposed to be Pixar's next movie, but after its eighteen month delay, it instead became Inside Out (2015).
Mike's training program for Oozma Kappa is similar to the morning training he gives Sulley in the first movie, complete with "Scary Feet" and brooms used as kid dummies.
The hairy monster teacher that lectures on Scream Can Design, which almost puts Mike to sleep, is a parody of Ben Stein's portrayal of the boring lecturer on "Voodoo Economics" from Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986).
During the final Scare Games event, a monster, who is tall, walks into a scare simulator. When he walks out after being beaten by one of the Oozma Kappa team members, he is shorter (this is a pun of a shrinking defeat).
Roz (from Monsters, Inc. (2001)) is featured in the end of this movie. She repeats the lines she is known for from the first movie: "I'll be watching those two, always watching."
This is the second follow-up to a Pixar movie where the protagonist and the sidekick switch roles (Sulley was the main protagonist of Monsters, Inc. (2001), but he became the sidekick in this movie with Mike becoming the main protagonist). The first one is Cars 2 (2011) (with Lightning McQueen and Mater).
During the "Don't Scare the Teen" challenge, one of the traps quotes Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1989): "But daddy, I love him!"
As the animation end credits begin, there's a poster from Phil about his missing eyeball. Three minutes later in the Render Pipeline credits, another poster shows that Rick has found the eyeball. It's possible that someone saw the poster, found it, and returned it to him.
When this movie was in development, writer and director Dan Scanlon described each of the misfit characters to sketch artists Jason Deamer and Chris Sasaki, but with Art, he just said: "think mysterious." They went variation after variation and got really frustrated. Finally, Chris Sasaki drew an "A" for his name and put two eyes in there. The character slowly evolved from there.
"Hardscrabble", actually means, "very poor reward", regardless of "hard work", which appropriately describes how she treats her students: anyone who does not live up to her expectations or performs poorly cannot attend her program.
When Mike first meets Randall outside of his dorm at the start of this movie, Mike insists that he does away with the glasses to help him camouflage better, which could explain why his eyes would usually squint in the first movie. This also gave him an advantage over his enemies.
This movie was originally intended to release on November 2, 2012, the same day Monsters, Inc. (2001) released in 2001, but was pushed back to June 21, 2013, due the fact that the Pixar movies which released in summer were a success, according to Disney Distribution Executive Chuck Viane. It's original intended release date was then given to Wreck-It Ralph (2012) (fitting perfectly with the fact of Fix-it Felix, Jr.'s 30th Anniversary, thirty years since it debuted in 1982 in the movie), which was originally intended to release in March 2013.
Mike has "File paperwork!" sticky notes in his locker which both remind us of a habit of his and look very similar to those he has there in the first movie.
Randall "ditching the glasses" early on gives a hilarious explanation for his squinty eyes throughout the first movie; his formerly scary expression can now be read as him just not being able to see, which could explain why he mistook Mike for Boo in her room to bring to the Scream Extractor in the first movie.
Sulley's pink spots appear blue when he is out in sunlight and return to pink when he is indoors or when it's nighttime.
Joel Murray (Don) is the younger brother of Bill Murray, one of the actors that was considered to voice Sulley in Monsters, Inc. (2001).
Disney's last animated theatrical movie to be rated G by the MPAA, seeing how the MPAA has started to get stricter since 2010, up until Cars 3 (2017), which was also by Pixar.
In the German dub of this movie, the voice of Frank McCay was provided by world-famous soccer goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
The Greek alphabet depicted in this movie is Argma (A), Gamma (G), Slugma (E), Theta (O), Eta (H), Howl (H), Kappa (K), Nu (N), Oozma (O), Python (P), Roar (R), Hiss (S), Phi (O), Chi (X), and Omega (O). Of the fifteen letters, only Gamma, Theta, Eta, Kappa, Nu, Phi, Chi, and Omega are real. Eta and Howl are represented by an "H", which adds to the confusion.
As of 2017, this movie, along with Toy Story 2 (1999), are the only follow-up movies of Pixar's where none of the characters were re-cast. In the studio's other sequels and prequels, at least one of the characters had been given a new voice actor due to their previous actor having passed away, their voice no longer being able to perform the character because of how they've aged, or reasons unknown (the latter reason applied with Michael Keaton in Cars 3 (2017)).
Doug Sweetland, who directed the Pixar short Presto (2008), was originally set to direct, before being replaced with Dan Scanlon.
The names of the Greek Council President and Vice President of the Scare Games are Claire Wheeler and Brock Pearson, respectively, but their names are never used in the movie.
Dave Foley's fourth Pixar movie after A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), and Cars (2006) as Flik the Ant (including a car version of himself).
Throughout this movie we are subtly shown the importance of a scarer creating an atmosphere of tension and unease, which Sulley is very bad at, but Mike has spent years studying and is one of his strengths. At the climax, they use every tool and tactic they can that Mike can think of to get home.
Mike as a young monster at the start of this movie, voiced by Noah Johnston, does not have a New York accent like he does an adult.
Stickers above Mike Wazowski's dorm room bed include one for Monsters, Inc. (2001) and this movie in that order, signifying the order of the movies.
During the "Don't Scare the Teen" portion of the Scare Games, one of the teen boards that pops out while Art is navigating the maze has a teen girl latching onto her boyfriend who's wearing a sleeveless skull shirt. She screams, "...but daddy I love him!" This line is exactly the same one screamed by Ariel to her father King Triton in The Little Mermaid (1989).
In this movie, Mike is friends with Randall while enemies with Sulley; but towards the end of the movie and Monsters, Inc. (2001), Mike is friends with Sulley while Randall becomes his enemy, tying into the events of the first movie where Randall starts referring to Mike by his surname, Wazowski, as well.
Terry and Terri's heads are shaped like the letters at the end of their names, especially judging by the shapes of their horns: "i"'s horn resembles a tittle (the dot above the lowercase i and j) while "y"'s horns resemble the arms of a Y and his neck resembles its tail.
The way Mike (Billy Crystal) steals the key card to the door lab is very similar to the way he got the card to the door with the yodeler inside in the first movie. Roz (Bob Peterson) appeared at the end as one of the CDA Agents arresting Mike and Sulley (John Goodman), and remarks to Dean Abigail Hardscrabble (Dame Helen Mirren) that she will be "always watching" them.
Dave Foley and Peter Sohn are the only ones to voice a Member of Oozma Kappa (Terri and Squishy respectively), to have also voiced a character in a previous Pixar movie, being A Bug's Life (1998) and Ratatouille (2007).
Marcia Wallace's last movie before her death four months later. She voiced the librarian in the second challenge of the Scare Games.
It is implied that the Monsters seen in the first movie not present in this movie, such as Randall's future three-eyed assistant Jeff Fungus were students at Fear Tech, Monsters University's rival campus.
The room number of the dorm room that Randall and Mike share is 319 on the second floor, which references 2319 (with the initials for white sock being the 23rd and 19th letters of the alphabet, respectively), the CDA code that gets used as a running gag in Monsters, Inc. (2001).
This is one of the only non-documentary movies of 2013 to be rated G by the MPAA alongside Khumba (2013). The rest were rated PG or higher.
The year that Monsters University was established, 1313, is a reference to the address to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California (1313 Disneyland Drive, Anaheim, California 92802).
This is the second Pixar movie that follows up a previous movie to have a different director, with Dan Scanlon taking over from Pete Docter, who directed Monsters, Inc. (2001), since Docter had been busy working on Inside Out (2015). The first one being Toy Story 3 (2010), which was directed by Lee Unkrich instead of John Lasseter, who directed the first two movies.
The Roar Omega Roar fraternity's symbol resembles the logo R.U.R from the play "Rossum's Universal Robots" by Karl Capek. The play is a science fiction horror story where robots rise up and destroy humanity.
This movie released one day after the 61st birthday of John Goodman (James P. "Sulley" Sullivan).
The third highest grossing animated movie of 2013, after Frozen (2013) and Despicable Me 2 (2013).
In the scene where Sulley gets hit with the urchins, it hits his shoulder and then he takes it off with his hand and his hand puffs up. This is like what happened to Mr. Incredible when he was getting hit by the sludge balls in The Incredibles (2004).
John Goodman and Steve Buscemi appearing in Barton Fink (1991), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), The Big Lebowski (1998), and Monsters, Inc. (2001).
Although there are twelve total fraternities and sororities, we only see seven fraternities and sororities (four fraternities and three sororities) in this movie, all but the Omega Howls competed in the Scare Games.
In the first trailer, the slug monster student who runs late for school did not have buck teeth as he has in the final movie.
Third animated movie for John Krasinski, after Shrek the Third (2007) and Monsters vs. Aliens (2009).
Randall's first establishing shot shows him briefly cast in a sinister shadow, paying tribute to his villainous role from the first movie.
The second theatrically released animated prequel after Puss in Boots (2011), which was a spin-off to DreamWorks Animation's Shrek film franchise.
The first Pixar movie composed by Randy Newman to not receive any Oscar nominations.
This is the only movie to be rated G by the MPAA that featured Bill Hader. Hader's other movies are rated PG or higher.
During the lead-up to release of this movie, the main lobby of Pixar was decorated with large vertical banners depicting the Greek names of the fraternities in this file.
At about 34 minutes, a disco ball in the Oozma Kappa frat house drops from the ceiling and crashes into the floor. This could be an homage to Alien Song, a short YouTube video created by Victor Navone, one of the animators for Monsters University.
Sean Hayes and Dave Foley, who voiced the monster Terry/Terri, were also partnered on Will & Grace (1998). Sean Hayes was a series regular as "Jack McFarland", and Dave Foley had a five-episode arc as Stuart Lamarack, Will's client turned Jack's boyfriend.
Pixar's only movie of the 2010s outside the Toy Story and Cars franchises to be rated G by the MPAA.
When Hardscrabble makes her first appearance she's hidden in self-created darkness, enhancing her demonic appearance. However, when she leaves, she's shrouded in light, hinting she might not be as bad as she lets on. This is given a subtle callback at the end when she flies off after encouraging Mike and Sulley. She's similarly shrouded in the light of the sun. In addition, it makes a nice little reference to Waternoose's advice for effective, professional scaring in the first movie. "It's all about PRESENCE! About how you enter the room!"
Dave Foley, Jack Angel, Bob Bergen, Jan Rabson, Corey Burton, Rodger Bumpass, Dee Bradley Baker, Phil Proctor, Jim Ward, Patrick Pinney, Bill Farmer, Mona Marshall, Jess Harnell, David Cowgill, Sherry Lynn, Danny Mann, Carlos Alazraqui, Debi Derryberry, Tara Strong, and Frank Welker were voices in A Bug's Life (1998).
On Terri and Terry's Roll-A-Scare card, Terry's major is listed as Biology instead of English, contradicting several official sources.
It is likely that Frank's surname is a tribute to pioneering animator and cartoonist Winsor McCay.
The design of Archie the Scare Pig was inspired by writer and director Dan Scanlon's dog Carol, a Japanese Chin.
Monsters University's library, Bohol Hall, named after Pixar artist Nelson "Rey" Bohol, who designed it.
Argma, Slugma, Oozma, Roar, Jaws, and Python's symbols resemble Lambda, Sigma, Omicron, Rho, Iota, and Pi, respectively.
The third Pixar movie where characters voiced by studio members (in the case of Scott "Squishy" Squibbles) are listed during the casting call of main cast members outside the credits. The previous two like this had been Ratatouille (2007) with Lou Romano and Up (2009) with Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, and Jerome Ranft.
It can be implied that Mike and Sulley's alternate plan on getting to the Scare Floor at the end of this movie as the same way that Smitty and Needleman from the first movie were working to do so, whereby the events of Monsters, Inc. (2001), they'd already been promoted to door shredding and making cubes of garbage.
The scream used by Mike when being pulled across the floor by Archie the Scare Pig is the same scream used twice in Monsters, Inc. (2001) when Roz slams the door onto his hands, and when bitten on the hand by Baby Smitty.
Squishy often scares Mike and Sulley by sneaking up on them. This becomes his scare tactic in the final Scare Game challenge.
This is the second Disney Pixar movie to make use of the Greek alphabet. The first being Up (2009).
Bobby Moynihan (Chet) and Brian Cummings (who filled in for John Goodman in Sulley's video game appearances) had been in DuckTales shows. Moynihan was in DuckTales (2017) as Louie Duck, and Cummings was in DuckTales (1987) as Doofus Drake.
Dame Helen Mirren's fourth animated movie, after The Snow Queen (1995), The Prince of Egypt (1998), and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010).
Slugma Slugma Kappa's name is not to be confused with the Pokémon of the same name introduced in the franchise's 2nd Generation.
In some ways, Dean Abigail Hardscrabble appears to be the complete opposite of Henry J. Waternoose. While Waternoose appeared friendly and kind-natured, but is actually cruel and evil, intent on extracting screams out of children due to the scream shortages, and is, therefore, the original movie's main antagonist as revealed during the climax. Hardscrabble, on the other hand, appears stern and unpleasant, seen being dismayed each time Mike's team doesn't get eliminated from the Scare Games, but is actually caring and benign, and therefore eventually became an ally to Mike and Sulley in the end of this movie.
Unlike its rival Fear Tech (whose mascot is Archie the Scare Pig), it is unknown what Monsters University's sports mascot is.
Sulley brings up the idea of cheating to win the Scare Games by "making some other guys look like these guys", and then immediately realizes it's a stupid idea. Still, it does show that he's willing to cheat to win the Games, which he later does.
Alfred Molina's only movie to be rated G. The rest were rated PG or higher.
Writer and director Dan Scanlon's only Pixar movie rated G. The others will be rated PG.
Terri is the second Pixar character to be voiced by Dave Foley, the first being Flik from A Bug's Life (1998).
Some scenes of the making of this movie, it can be noticed that Don Carlton was meant to be light green with darker green spots.
Don's business card lists his address as 1200 Dark Ave. Pixar's Emeryville address is 1200 Park Ave.
There is a slight difference in Chet's size compared to Mike's in two separate scenes. In one scene, it showed that he was slightly larger than Mike when he told him off at the fraternity/sorority party, but later on, in the movie, it somehow showed that they were almost the same size when Chet appeared beside Mike sipping his mug.
The School of Scaring Building is based on Hamerschlag Hall at Carnegie Mellon University. It also resembles the H.P. Lovecraft monster Chthulhu, with its green dome resembling its head (and its skylights as eyes), and the columns around the entrance (which are decorated with fang-like protrusions) resembling its mouth tentacles.
The campus resembles that of the University of California at Berkeley, right down to the entrance gate and clock tower. UC Berkeley is the university that's closest to Pixar headquarters.
During Mike's childhood scene, one of the kids resembles a younger version of George Sanderson, except with purple fur instead of orange fur.
As Mike sits in the bus leaving M.U., Sulley jumps at the bus window similar to when he burst through Mike's dorm window with Fear Tech's pig. Sulley even alludes to the event shortly after his bus jump.
Mike used the same routine that Frank McCay used at the start of the movie to win the scare games, albeit the game was rigged by Sulley.
The sixth of several theatrically released animated movies of the 2010s to be rated G by the MPAA. the previous five animated movies rated as such were Toy Story 3 (2010), Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), Cars 2 (2011), Winnie the Pooh (2011), and Zambezia (2012) the next seven animated movies of the 2010s rated as such were Khumba (2013), Rio 2 (2014), The Hero of Color City (2014), The Peanuts Movie (2015), Cars 3 (2017), Charming (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019).
This movie ends Pixar's eight-year streak of releasing movies every year, which had begun with Cars (2006), due to a few movies have been at least cancelled or moved to a different year, though another streak began with Inside Out (2015) in 2015.
This movie was rumored to receive a video game adaption for traditional video game consoles such as PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo Ds, Wii U, and Nintendo 3Ds and the adaption's E10+ rating for cartoon violence, comic mischief, and crude humor. However, the final movie did not receive one, which makes this movie the first of Pixar's to not receive a video game adaptation for traditional video game consoles (not counting mobile games).
Big Red (one of the members of Jaws Theta Chi) is the fifth character voiced by John Cygan in a Pixar movie, after Richard Clayton Kensington in Cars (2006), one of the Axiom Passengers in WALL·E (2008), one of Muntz' Dogs in Up (2009), and Twitch in Toy Story 3 (2010), as well as his third Pixar movie not voicing one of the villains with the former being the first two.
John Goodman (James P. Sullivan), and Bill Hader (The Slow Slug Monster and The Referee) have also appeared on 90s episodes of Saturday Night Live (1975). That show also featured David Spade and Andy Samberg, who appeared alongside Goodman and Hader in animated movies of the 2000s such as The Emperor's New Groove (2000) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009), as well as the late Chris Farley. Steve Buscemi (Randall Boggs) also appeared alongside both those actors in the Hotel Transylvania film franchise from Columbia Pictures and Sony Animation.
Alfred Molina's second animated movie, after Rango (2011).
When Mike enters the human world to prove once-and-for-all that he's scary, he fails to scare a child, who just tells him that he "looks funny". This is possibly a reference to how he and Sulley solved the energy crisis in the first movie.
Even though Mike and Sully study to be scarers including the simulation during the Scare Games the first time they done so was actually the video game Monsters Inc: Scare Island.
The first theatrically released animated film to star Mariel Sheets, later she'd go onto voice Sally Brown in The Peanuts Movie (2015) and one of the Villagers in Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) as well as doing additional voices in Frozen (2013), Big Hero 6 (2014), Inside Out (2015), Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016), Zootopia (2016), The Angry Birds Movie (2016), Finding Dory (2016), The Lego Batman Movie (2017), The Boss Baby (2017), Cars 3 (2017), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019), and Frozen II (2019).
The first Pixar film to not receive a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Feature Film since the category was introduced in 2006.
Dean Abigail Hardscrabble keeps the canister that holds her record-breaking scream in Professor Knight's classroom, but later it was destroyed, suggesting that Scream Canisters are actually quite fragile.
Frank was never referred to in this movie by his real name, though the credits still list him by name. A Scare Card of him showing his real name also appeared in the credits.
Scott "Squishy" Squibbles's nickname is the same name that Dory had put on a small jellyfish in Finding Nemo (2003).
In a deleted scene where Mike and Sulley are participating in an improv session at a drama class, Claire suggests "bunny" for Sulley's role. In this piece, she seems to have a different characterization, with a more enthusiastic personality.
Bobby Moynihan's first time voice acting in a theatrically released animated movie. He went on to voice Forgetter Bobby in Inside Out (2015), Mel the Pug in The Secret Life of Pets film franchise, and Mayor Muldoon in The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (2017).
The slow motion "Power Walk" the monsters do on Mike's field trip looks like the one in which Sulley participates in the first movie. This has the added context of emphasizing that Mike and, especially, Sulley, are now in the jobs of which they've always dreamed, after having the shot introduced in the previous movie.
Sulley and Randall are paired against each other in the final Scare Games round, foreshadowing their rivalry when they're older with Randall constantly trying to be a better scarer then Sulley.
The teaser trailer features narration from Kelsey Grammer which parallels the narration James Coburn gave in the first movie's trailer. Grammer would have replaced Coburn as the voice of Henry J. Waternoose III following his death in 2002, but the character was cut.
The fourth animated Disney follow-up movie where none of the characters are given new voice actors, after The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Toy Story 2 (1999), and Kronk's New Groove (2005).
John Goodman (Sulley) and Dave Foley (Terry) appeared on the short lived NBC animated sitcom Father of the Pride (2004) as Larry the Lion and Kelsey Grammer's cat.
Bill Hader's first of three animated movies of 2013. The others being Turbo (2013) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013).
Bill Hader's fifth theatrically released animated movie after Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009), Megamind (2010), and Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011).
Dan Scanlon's only Pixar movie not composed by Rupert Gregson-Williams.
During the pig chase scene, Sulley runs through a small gathering of students and accidentally smashes the guitar of a monster who is singing a ballad to some other monsters. This is likely a reference to a famous scene in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) where "Charming Guy" is crooning to a couple of women on the stairs during a toga party at the Delta Tau Chi fraternity. Bluto (John Belushi) listens to a couple lines, but suddenly grabs the guitar and smashes it against the wall.
Bobby Moynihan's only theatrical movie rated G by the MPAA. The others had been rated PG or higher.
One of Nathan Fillion's two theatrically released movies rated G. The other being fellow Pixar movie Cars 3 (2017).
The second Pixar movie where one of the characters was voiced by an actor who'd been in a previous Pixar movie (in the case of Dave Foley as Terry Perry) voices a character that's part of the main cast, but not as one of the lead characters (protagonist or main antagonist). The first movie like this had been Toy Story 3 (2010) with Michael Keaton.
The fifth theatrically released animated movie where characters voiced by studio members are listed during the casting call of main cast members outside the credits, which applied to Peter Sohn as Scott "Squishy" Squibbles (a tetartagonist along with the other three additional members of Oozma Kappa). The previous four like this had been Open Season (2006) with Cody Cameron as Mr. Weenie (a tritagonist), Ratatouille (2007) with Lou Romano as Alfredo Linguini (a deuteragonist), Up (2009) with co-Director Bob Peterson as Dug and Alpha (a tritagonist and a secondary antagonist), Director Pete Docter as Kevin (a tetartagonist), and Jerome Ranft as Gamma (a tertiary antagonist alongside Beta), and Shrek Forever After (2010) with Walt Dohrn as Rumpelstiltskin (a main antagonist).
The third animated follow-up movie to be released in June unlike the previous installments, which were released in November, after Rugrats Go Wild (2003) and Toy Story 3 (2010).
Dean Abigail Hardscrabble invented the Scare Games and won them four years in a row prior to the rise of Roar Omega Roar.
During the final credits, scaring cards of graduating or promoting students are shown, and Carrie was one of them. Although, it shows that it was actually Brittany Davis' picture on the card instead of Carrie's. It's possible that Carrie's name could be a reference to the Stephen King horror novel of the same name, as with its 1976 movie adaptation starring John Travolta and its 2002 and 2013 adaptations.
The Scotch tape dispenser just above Mike's hand is the same kind sitting on Roz's desk from the first movie.
When Randall accidentally takes on the pattern of the carpet below him in the final challenge of the Scare Games, it brings to mind a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment from the first movie in which he runs into Sulley and accidentally takes on the pattern of his fur.
Sulley has to go look for Mike again just like in the first movie when Randall accidentally captured him when mistaking him for Boo.
John Krasinski and Bill Hader appeared in third installments of two of the first three computer animated movies to become franchises. Krasinski was in Shrek the Third (2007) as Lancelot and Hader was in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) as the Gazelle.
Dave Foley's last theatrical movie rated G. All of his later animated movies will be rated PG.
Hardscrabble retorts to Mike's insistence that he can surprise her is that she very much doubts anyone can surprise her. At the end, Hardscrabble admits that no one has ever really surprised her before, except for Mike. She notes that she will keep her eyes out for more surprises in the future, and that Mike should never stop surprising people.
Nathan Fillion's first time voice acting in a theatrically released animated movie. He went on to voice the Monstrous Inmate in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Sterling in Cars 3 (2017), and Captain Superior in Henchmen (2018).
George Sanderson's future assistant Charlie Proctor from Monsters, Inc. (2001) can also be seen in the library when Art smashes things to distract the librarian to get the Oozma Kappa flag, in addition to at the end of this movie meeting George for the first time.
Pixar's fifth movie to not have a co-director after Toy Story (1995), The Incredibles (2004), Wall-E (2008), and Toy Story 3 (2010).
Like with the first movie, this one released the same year as another animated movie featuring Steve Buscemi, Monsters, Inc. (2001) released the same year as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), while this movie released the same year as Khumba (2013).
In the movie, Art comments on "having an extra toe", but not with him, implying it's someone else's toe.
When Art said "he can't go back to jail", this means he must have been to jail before, suggesting a criminal record, though it is unknown what for.
Disney's third animated movie released on June 21st after The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and Lilo & Stitch (2002).
Pixar's seventh film to release the same day as where a Walt Disney Animation Studios film previously released with this case being this film releasing on June 21st 17 years apart from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and 11 years apart from Lilo & Stitch (2002), the first was Toy Story (1995) which released on November 22nd 4 years apart from Beauty and the Beast (1991), the second was A Bug's Life (1998) which released on November 25th 6 years apart from Aladdin (1992), the third was Wall-E (2008) which released on June 27th 11 years apart from Hercules (1997), the fourth was Toy Story 3 (2010) which released on June 18th 11 years apart from Tarzan (1999), the fifth was Cars 2 (2011) which released on June 24th 17 years apart from The Lion King (1994), and the sixth was Brave (2012) which released on June 22nd 57 years apart from Lady and the Tramp (1955) and 35 years apart from The Rescuers (1977).
in Squishy's basement, a poster of Mike Wazowski's six-wheel drive from the Pixar short 'Mike's New Car' (2002) can be seen on the wall.
The character Carrie Williams is not to be confused with English voice actress Kerry Williams, who is known for doing English dubbing work in New York City.
Spoilers
When Sulley and Mike are in the human summer camp, the child who comes out of the bathroom before Mike is about to leave roars at him. The roar is a sound recording used from Monsters, Inc. (2001) for the character Boo.
John Ratzenberger makes his traditional Pixar movie appearance, reprising his role as Yeti (a.k.a. The Abominable Snowman) from Monsters, Inc. (2001). Yeti's job in the Monsters, Inc. mailroom is a nod to John's famous role as postman Cliff Clavin on Cheers (1982). Yeti warns Mike and Sulley that tampering with the mail is punishable by exile to the human world, comically foreshadowing his exile in Monsters, Inc. (2001).
An early version of the story had Mike and Sulley stuck in the human world much sooner, but this was scrapped to focus more on the monster world, so the human world was used for the climax, raising the stakes and allowing Mike and Sulley to solidify their friendship.
During the final exam before Mike and Sulley are kicked out of the Scaring Program, Dean Hardscrabble tells Sulley that a roar to someone who's afraid of snakes would not make them scream, but have them run off crying to their parents. This was proven in Monsters, Inc. (2001), where this happened to Boo after Sulley was roaring by the Scare Simulator with her unknowingly watching close by.
It's unknown what became of Monsters University after Mike and Sulley, at the end of Monsters, Inc. (2001), switched the Monster's Energy Source from screams to laughter.
