Monsters University Trivia

Cameos, in-jokes, re-used animation and other trivia for Monsters University.

In-Jokes

 * A113 is the number of the classroom where Scaring 101 is given.
 * The Pizza Planet Truck is parked outside a house at the first party.
 * The Luxo Ball is seen drawn on the wall for a demonstration of how anything a child touches is toxic.
 * The Easter egg to next year's Pixar movie, The Good Dinosaur, appears in a Scare Simulator: on the floor of those fake bedrooms stuffed animals of dinosaurs can be seen.

References to Monsters, Inc.

 * The beginning of the teaser trailer makes a nod to both Monsters, Inc.'s teaser trailer and the film's opening scene, using similar shot techniques and narration.
 * Mike takes a picture for his ID card, in which half of his face is cut off. After he sees the picture, he exclaims "I don't believe it...I'm officially a college student!", a reference to when Mike's face is covered by the logo of Monsters Inc. in a commercial, in the first film, and he exclaims a similar line.
 * In Mike and Randall's room there is a poster that reads "The Winds Of Change: Ssh, can you hear it?" which is a reference to one of Randall's lines in the first movie.
 * When Sulley warns Mike that Archie the Scare Pig is a biter, Mike makes the same scream made in the first film when Roz closes her office shutters on Mike's hands, and when Baby Smitty bites Mike's hand.
 * Some of the exercises Mike gives to the OKs mirror the morning exercises he made Sulley follow at the beginning of Monsters, Inc., like using a broom adorned with a drawing of a human head to simulate a child, and have Sulley jump and roar (in a way reminiscent of a push-up).

Cameos

 * Some of the backgrounds cars are derived from Cars 2  characters. For instance, monster-stylized AMC Pacers can be spotted in several scenes. The PNKs are notably also seen onboard a pink convertible model when they invite the OKs to a party. Some of these Pacers are painted in a blue color that matches that of the die-cast version of Petey Pacer. Additionally, cars based on the Zündapp Janus can be spotted, as well as a white car based on the body of lemons Fred and Otis.
 * Roz makes an appearance as Agent #001.

Other Trivia

 * Monsters, Inc. is the first Pixar film to have a prequel.
 * Monsters, Inc. is the third Pixar film to become a franchise after Toy Story and Cars.
 * Each background character was named after a Monsters University production member and each member is credited for the shots in which their character appears.
 * The Greek alphabet depicted in this film will be 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 15 letters, only Gamma, Theta, Eta, Kappa, Nu, Phi, Chi, and Omega are real.
 * Both Eta and Howl are represented by an "H", which adds to confusion.
 * Argma, Slugma, Oozma, and Python's symbols resemble Lambda, Sigma, Omicron, and Rho, respectively.
 * Slugma is also the name of a Fire-type Pokémon that debuted in Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions that resembles a slug made of lava. It evolves into Magcargo, a Fire/Rock-type Pokémon resembling a snail made of lava with a shell made of hardened lava.
 * The song that plays at the end of the teaser trailer is True, by Spandau Ballet.
 * According to story supervisor Kelsey Mann, they produced 227,246 storyboard drawings, the most of any Pixar film to date.
 * The first major rewrite of Pixar's hair and cloth simulation software occurred for Monsters University. This software was first introduced on Monsters, Inc., where it was used to simulate a single garment, Boo's shirt. In Monsters University, 127 garments were simulated.
 * The new Global Illumination software Pixar introduced on this film required a doubling in size of their render farm.
 * It took over 100 million CPU hours to render the entire film. Each frame took an average of 29 hours to render.
 * There are over 400 different characters and at least 100 different monster "races" seen in the film. On average, there are 25 characters in every shot (previously there was an average of 10 characters in a shot).
 * Mike, Sulley, and Randall Boggs are the only three monsters from the original film to have big roles in the prequel.
 * This is the fifth Pixar film to feature a post-credits scene (also known as a stinger or a "monk's reward") at the end of the film, after Finding Nemo, Cars, WALL-E, and Brave.