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 Easter egg to 2015's Pixar movie The Good Dinosaur appears in a Scare Simulator: on the floor of those fake bedrooms, stuffed toys of dinosaurs can be seen.
 * The famous Wilhelm scream is heard when Mike Wazowski runs over some students in the hallway while driving the floor waxer.

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.
 * When the scarers of Monsters, Inc. are first introduced entering the Scare Floor, the same shots and music as in Monsters, Inc. are used.
 * Like for Monsters, Inc., the title card is accompanied with an animation sequence; it even reuses some elements from that of the first film.
 * 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 can'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.
 * Randall has a poster in his room that reads "The Winds of Change: Ssh, can you hear it?" which is a reference to one of his 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).
 * While Oozma Kappa is chased by the Monsters, Inc. guards, the same music that plays in the first film when Sulley notices one of the lamps part of Boo's disguise in the trash compactor is reused.
 * When Mike goes to the school's door lab to prove that he really can scare a human child, he discreetly steals an I.D. card from a student leaving the door lab. This is reminiscent of the scene in Monsters, Inc. when he again steals another monster's door card in order to find a random door to put Boo in.
 * Dean Hardscrabble scolding Sulley that his roar would make a child with a fear of snakes cry instead of scream and not only producing no scream energy would also tell him/her parents and therefore endangering the monster world foreshadows the fact that Sulley accidentally scaring Boo and making her cry before Waternoose banishes both him and Mike to the Himalayas, causing him to realize that scaring is bad, and the fact that Boo was seriously afraid of Randall, a reptilian monster.
 * Also, Hardscabble claims that a child crying produces no energy. However, when Boo cries in Sulley and Mike's apartment after Mike takes his Little Mikey teddy away, she did produce energy, which caused the lights to flare.
 * When Hardscrabble sees Sulley go into the door leading to the girls' cabin to save Mike Wazowski from several human policemen by roaring at them she yells, "Don't open that door!" The exact same line was said by Waternoose at the end of the original film when Sulley and Boo trick him into exposing his evil plans and being arrested by the CDA by luring him into the scare simulation room.
 * Just right before scaring said policemen, Mike tries to open the cabin's closet door only to find it depowered by Hardscrabble, and starts slamming it repeatedly, similar to how Sulley was slamming on the door Waternoose used to banish both him and Mike to the Himalayas repeatedly before meeting the Yeti. The slamming of the door after banishment appears to symbolize the separation of the film series' protagonists from their goals: Mike from becoming a scarer, and Sulley from rescuing Boo. (It should also be noted that the real reason why they did not try scaring very hard on the other side to power up the door in the Human World in the original film again was because Waternoose purposely banished them to a region in the human world where there are no humans present, and therefore, the only way for them to go back is to borrow an already-activated closet door.)
 * The scoreboard above the scare simulators during the final Scare Games event make the same beeping sound as the Scarers' Leaderboard in the original film (ironically, the Scarers' Leaderboard in this film makes a mechanical clacking sound due to it being a split-flap display similar to a railway station timetable).
 * In the teaser trailer, the snake monster from the intro of Monsters, Inc. appears on a poster to the right of Mike's room.
 * When Sulley beats Randall in the final round of the Scare Games, Randall says "Last time I lose to you, Sullivan." This explains the start of their rivalry in their later job.
 * During Roz' cameo, she says her famous line from the first film, "We'll be sure to be watching these two in the future. Always watching..."
 * Mike's MU baseball cap is somewhat a replacement for his Monsters, Inc. helmet in the first film. It should also be noted that after Mike and Sulley escape from the human world, his hat is burnt to a crisp in the explosion. This symbolizes that his time in MU is over, an he is ready to start a new life in Monsters, Inc., wearing a new symbol, his helmet.
 * When Mike tells Randall that he should get rid of his glasses to help his disappearing effect, Randall does so and is forced to squint like in the first film.
 * When Randall accidentally kidnaps Mike and is about to interrogate him with the Scream Extractor, he most likely captured him out of his poor eyesight.
 * Some of the scarers working at Monsters, Inc. resemble Mike and Sulley's eventual co-workers: for example, Jerry Jablonski=Noodles Rivera, Rufus Remerez=Ricky Plesuski, Dorothy Newbern=Bud Luckey, Clive Carver=Spike Jones, etc.

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 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 cars based on the body of lemons Fred and Otis.
 * The Pizza Planet Truck appears next to the JOX's house at the party.
 * The Luxo Ball appears drawn on the wall in the toxicity challenge to demonstrate how children toys are toxic.
 * Roz makes an appearance as Agent #001.
 * When Professor Knight was showing what the kid look that was "scaring" on the final exam, it looks like one the kids from Toy Story 3. It is now known that this kid is afraid of spiders and Santa.
 * In the OK's basement, there is a picture of a car that resembles Mike's car from Mike's New Car.
 * Mr. Waternoose and Celia are seen on pictures in Mike's locker at Monsters, Inc.

Other Trivia

 * This is Pixar's first prequel.
 * Monsters, Inc. is the third Pixar film to become a franchise after Toy Story and Cars.
 * Monsters University is the second Pixar sequel or prequel that isn't based on Pixar's first movie Toy Story, after Cars 2, although Mike and Sulley's rivaly in MU is seen similar to Buzz and Woody's rivalry in Toy Story.
 * 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 technology of monsters in the film appears to be older than that in Monsters, Inc., which emphasize on the fact Monsters University takes place some time before the first film, possibly 10 years. For example, Door supports are larger, more bulky and complicate in appearance, Monsters, Inc.'s leaderboard is made of a table rather than TV screens, and Scare simulators are much less realistic, with rather crude children animatronics.
 * When Mike receives the Scare Games trophy, the music has a resemblance to the A Bug's Life opening theme.
 * 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 fourth 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, and Brave.
 * This is the seventh Pixar production to feature a post-credits scene after Finding Nemo, Cars, Mater and the Ghostlight, Hawaiian Vacation, Small Fry and Brave.
 * In the US release, the cupcakes Randy shows Mike say "Be My Pal". In the UK release, they have faces on them.
 * Mike talking about him being a stable boy and Sulley a princess in his sleep is a likely reference to The Princess Bride, which starred Wallace Shawn, where Billy Crystal was cast as a pirate.
 * For some reason, the scarers in this film do not return in Inc. However, given the fact that the original film took place during an energy crisis, it's implied that the scarers in University either retired or got laid off at some point between the two films.
 * When Mike raised his hand to say "A clown running in the dark," his fingers show the same shape as the Vulcan salute from Star Trek.
 * Coincidentally enough, the film's college setting seems very appropriate for those who are already familiar with the original film since those who first heard of Monsters, Inc. when they were young would now already be in college when this film first came out.
 * Coincidentally enough, both Monsters, Inc. films were paired up with a Disney Princess film where a princess becomes a queen that's part of the Disney Animated Canon with a time difference of five months: Inc., released in November 2001, was paired up with Atlantis: The Lost Empire, released in June 2001, five months before; while University, released in June 2013, was paired up with Frozen, which was released in November 2013, five months after!
 * This is the second Pixar film to have the word "lame", after Ratatouille.