History Fridge / MonstersUniversity

* A lot of Mike's behavior in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' has more context thanks to this prequel.
** His desperation in preserving his and Sulley's job. While it might have come off as rather selfish at first, think about what happened to him: he was expelled from his dream university, and suddenly all of his hard work meant nothing. Years later, he's clawed his way from the bottom up with his best friend, has his dream job working on the Scare Floor - and now all that is suddenly at risk because of a little kid. And Sulley is being fairly laissez-faire about the situation, just like he was in university when he was still a JerkJock.
** His egotistical personality. After years of having his dreams and, therefore, his ego stomped on by everyone, years and years of people telling him he'd never make it in the scaring field, finally becoming a resounding success gave him the chance to re-inflate it and then some.
** His general attitude towards Randall, and their open antagonism towards each other. They used to be roommates in University - not just that, but friends and study buddies - until Randall dumped Mike to get in with the "cool kids" in ROR. It makes sense that he would only want to rub Randall's face in his and Sulley's overwhelming success, and revel in them trouncing Randall's score on a daily basis. It also puts an interesting twist on how Sully always had a much more accepting (if slightly exasperated) reaction to Randall early on in the first film - it's not just that he's more welcoming than Mike (though that's almost certainly a factor), it's that Randall was never anything more to him than some easily ignored jerk he met in college. To Mike, Randall was an old friend who betrayed him, which is ''much'' harder to forgive and forget, even as adults. Sulley, in turn, seems to be almost protective of Mike towards Randall in spite of his overall friendliness towards the guy (especially in Randall's introduction scene in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''), which makes sense as he witnessed the moment Randall abandoned Mike.

*** A lot of Randall's behavior also makes sense after the prequel. Part of the reason Randall is so angry about Sully beating him in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' is not just because he inadvertently humiliated and showed him up during the Scare Games, but because he's being bested by someone who's a ''college dropout''; not only that, one that he knows was a one-trick pony back at college and needed to rely on Mike to not flunk in his first few semesters. Plus, Randall only ever directly attacks Mike, but never Sulley. [[spoiler:''Before'' he tries to openly kill both, that is]].
** Also, in MI, a repeated joke is made out of Mike believing he is the main character. And why wouldn't he? [[{{Meta}} He's been one before]].

* Why was Roz, a.k.a., Number 1, working in the paperwork office in MI? Because after Mike and Sully explode the door lab escaping from the human world, the CDA needs to be watching them. [[{{Catchphrase}} Aaaaaaaalways watching...]]
* Why in ''Monsters Inc.'' were Mike and Sully not excessively freaking out over Boo's laughter powering all the doors in the door storage? Because they've powered offline doors through excessive amounts of power before. It's ''how'' she's doing it that earns their concern, seeing as they had to terrify multiple adults to get anywhere near the same result.
* Randall serves as a {{foil}} to Sulley. The Randall that was Mike Wazowski's friend was welcoming, kind, and nervous. Even before his StartOfDarkness, he talks about "meeting up with cool kids" instead of studying (something that Sulley also did) and tends to come up with lame ways to do so (offering monsters cupcakes). Once he joins Roar Omega Roar, he becomes meaner and warns Mike not to "blow [his] cover in front of the cool kids". Then, Randall shows that he's more than willing to humiliate his first friend when he's in on a prank to humiliate Oozma Kappa. After Sulley unknowingly messes him up and humiliates him in front of Roar Omega Roar, Randall gets bitter and spends the rest couple decades chasing after Sulley's success just so he can get revenge. Had Sulley not met, it's entirely possible that he would've followed a similar path--forsaking genuine connections to be one of the cool kids, beating down on the little guy for social clout, eventually getting kicked out of the fraternity after his poor grades prove he's not as good as he claimed, and ending up bitter and alone.

** If you look closely at the posters in the rooms, Randall has a poster that says "Winds of Change". Sure enough, Randall changes quite heavily throughout the film, making this his StartOfDarkness.
** Also, when the ROR members last appear, Randall ''isn't with them'', implying they kicked him out. Randall's resentment probably derives from the fact that Mike and Sulley got him kicked out of the top fraternity.
* How did Sulley figure out that laughter is more powerful than scream in MI? Here, Mike shows us that if you pump enough energy into monster tech, you can power it from the human world. They, however, pumped so much energy into that door that it exploded, something that took a top level scare involving several adults. However, Boo managed to blow out ''half a city block'' with one bout of laughter! Sulley put two and two together that laughter was ''far'' more powerful than screams. Looks like he was paying attention to Mike in the end.
* ''University'' shows it's possible, with enough scream power, to activate a door from the human side. So why didn't Mike and Sully try that in ''Inc'' when they were banished to the Himalayas? Because there were no humans around near the range of that door. They'd have to drag an entire village there to try that again.
* Those who've seen the original film know that laughter turns out to be much more powerful than screams and revolutionizes the energy industry. Keeping this in mind, suddenly all those monsters who mocked guys like Oozma Kappa for not being "scary enough" have had the tables turned on them. Monsters like Art, Terri and Terry, and Squishy probably now have a much easier time generating laughter thanks to their non-threatening appearance.
* In the end Mike said that he and Sully were going to "change the world". At the end of ''Monsters, Inc.'', they ''do change'' the monster world by discovering that children aren't actually toxic and laughter is a more powerful energy source than screams.
* The way that Mike and Sully treat all the employees during ''Monsters, Inc.'' would have hinted that the two guys were kicked out of university and had to start from the very bottom of the ladder and work their way up to the Scare Floor: They greeted all the employees, even lowly interns, warmly and by name, and everybody, in turn, knew who they were. If they had graduated from the university and went straight into scaring, chances are they wouldn't interact with those on the lower hierarchy as much.
** There's an interaction during that scene where one of the workers calls him Sullivan and he says to call him Sully instead. While meant to be a demonstration of his more casual nature, it also makes sense that he'd not want to be referred to exclusively by his family line, as he always hated living in his father's shadow, and wanted to be his own person.

* A lot of Mike's behavior in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' can be this thanks to this prequel. Let's review, shall we?

*** A lot of Randall's behavior also makes sense after the prequel. Part of the reason Randall is so angry about Sully beating him in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' is not just because he inadvertently humiliated and showed him up during the Scare Games, but because he's being bested by someone who's a ''college dropout''; not only that, one that he knows was a one-trick pony back at college and needed to rely on Mike to not flunk in his first few semesters. Plus, Randall only ever directly attacks Mike, but never Sulley. ''Before'' he tries to openly kill both.
** Also, in MI, a repeated joke is made out of Mike believing he is the main character. And why wouldn't he? He's been one before...
* The Greek Council is called so because it acts as a GreekChorus during the Scare Games!

* Why was Roz, a.k.a., Number 1, working in the paperwork office in MI? Because after Mike and Sully explode the door lab escaping from the human world, the CDA needs to be watching them. Aaaaaaaalways watching...
* Why in MI were Mike and Sully not excessively freaking out over Boo's laughter powering all the doors in the door storage? Because they've powered offline doors through excessive amounts of power before. It's ''how'' she's doing it that earns their concern, seeing as they had to terrify a whole summer camp to get anywhere near the same result.
* Randall's role in the film is very symbolic. The Randall that was Mike Wazowski's friend was welcoming, kind, and nervous. Even before his StartOfDarkness, he talks about "meeting up with cool kids" instead of studying (Something that Sullivan did) and tends to come up with lame ways (Offering monsters cupcakes). Once he joined Roar Omega Roar, he becomes meaner and told Mike that "he shouldn't blow his cover in front of the cool kids". Then, Randall shows that he doesn't like Wazowski anymore as he's in on a prank to humiliate Oozma Kappa. Then Randall gets bitter when Sullivan ACCIDENTALLY messes him up and humiliates him in front of Roar Omega Roar. That moment was when Randall became bitter. The movie shows that you shouldn't be in a social setting because you want to be with the "cool kids", and this is also something that Sullivan would've become.
** Similarly, ROR's choice for Randall is pretty rational. First, his power (invisibility) is near GameBreaker levels. Second, he is likely as smart as Mikey and, as shown with Sulley, ROR doesn't take well to people with low grades. Third, unlike Mike, he ''looks'' scary. Last, he would do anything to be with "The cool kids", so they could probably make him do their frathouse chores and homework if they asked him. Additionally, it is implied that they ridicule Randall (at least during the beginning), as they ask him to turn invisible and they laugh, but this could be interpreted as ridicule, them finding Randall funny, or just a typical frat reaction to someone doing something cool ("Dude, do (cool thing)!" *does cool thing* *laughter, high-fives, etc*).
** If you look closely at the posters in the rooms, Randall has a poster that says "Winds of Change". Guess how Randall changes throughout the film?
** Also, when the ROR members last appear, Randall ''isn't with them'', implying they kicked him out. Randall's resentment could derive from the fact that Mike and Sulley got him kicked out of the top fraternity.
* How did Sully figure out that laughter is more powerful than scream in MI? Here, Mike shows us that if you pump enough energy into monster tech, you can power it from the human world. They, however, pumped so much energy into that door that it exploded, something that took a top level scare. However, Boo managed to blow out half a city block (at least) with a laugh, on her own! Sully put two and two together that laughter was ''far'' more powerful than screams. Looks like he was paying attention to Mike in the end.

* How did Randell, the meek, nerdy friend of Mike, become a member of the elite Roar Omega Roar? By being the student who performed the best at the scaring exam. After-all, he was the second best scarer after Sullivan at Monsters Inc, so when Sullivan got kicked out of the program, Randall became its best performing student, using his invisibility abilities to great effect at the exam. Roar Omega Roar likely then found out about his performance and offered him membership, acknowledging that despite his shy, nerdy meekness, he do has potential of being a great scarer like they are.

* Although Sulley scaring the living daylights out of the adults in the human world serves as a wonderful climax and SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, you can't help but wonder what became of those horribly traumatized people. Remember, these aren't kids that we're talking about. These are fully grown adults who have experienced a scare taken UpToEleven and have come face-to-face with a living, breathing monster. In [[RealLife]], there are actual reports of similar incidents involving unidentified creatures that have occurred in remote areas such as that one. The people who experience these often end up being scarred for life and go through years of therapy to get rid of the paranoia and constant nightmares. They usually have to quit their jobs because they just can't go on with their lives until they're cured from that permanent nightmare. It wouldn't be surprising if they're even DrivenToSuicide. Who's to say those poor adults didn't suffer a similar fate?

* [[OffscreenTeleportation Squishy]] and [[WallCrawl Don]] show some of their skills early in the film that foreshadow how they'll successfully scare the dummy in the final game. Terri and Terry's method is foreshadowed a bit more subtly though. They offer Mike their skills as a magician, saying it's all about ''"misdirection"''? How do they scare the dummy? [[ThatsNoMoon Walk into the room shaped like a normal human before reveealing their more monstrous features.]]

* [[OffscreenTeleportation Squishy]] and [[WallCrawl Don]] show some of their skills early in the film that foreshadow how they'll successfully scare the dummy in the final game. Terri and Terry's method is foreshadowed a bit more subtly though. They offer Mike their skills as a magician, saying it's all about ''"misdirection"''? How do they scare the dummy? Walk into the room shaped like a normal human before reveealing their more monstrous features.

** And makes one realize something important: How is it that a kid's screams wouldn't alert an adult when crying does? Because all the screams are being absorbed into a scream canister!

** His egotistical personality. After years of having his dreams and, therefore, his ego stomped on by everyone, finally becoming a resounding success gave him the chance to re-inflate it and then some.
** His general attitude towards Randall, and their open antagonism towards each other. They used to be roommates in University - not just that, but friends and study buddies - until Randall dumped Mike to get in with the "cool kids" in ROR. It makes sense that he would only want to rub Randall's face in his and Sulley's overwhelming success. It also puts an interesting twist on how Sully always had a much more accepting (if slightly exasperated) reaction to Randall early on in the first film - it's not just that he's more welcoming than Mike (though that's almost certainly a factor), it's that Randall was never anything more to him than some easily ignored jerk he met in college. To Mike, Randall was an old friend who betrayed him, which is ''much'' harder to forgive and forget, even as adults. Sulley, in turn, seems to be almost protective of Mike towards Randall (especially in Randall's introduction scene in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''), which makes sense, as he witnessed the moment Randall abandoned Mike.

*** A lot of Randall's behavior also makes sense after the prequel. Part of the reason Randall is so angry about Sully beating him in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' is not just because he inadvertently humiliated and showed him up during the Scare Games, but because he's being bested by someone who's a ''college dropout''. Plus, Randall only ever directly attacks Mike, but never Sulley. ''Before'' he tries to openly kill both.

* Why in MI were Mike and Sully not excessively freaking out over Boo's laughter powering all the doors in the door storage? Because they've powered offline doors through excessive amounts of power before.

* Randall wears glasses on-and-off during the film before getting rid of them for good because, as Mike points out, they make him detectable when using his powers. When he's not wearing his glasses, Randall has to squint his eyes to make up for the lack of corrective vision. In other words, his trademark expression wasn't out of projecting an evil or scary image, but because of poor eyesight.

* During the first Scare Games event, one of the fraternities was disqualified due to using a protective gel against a poisonous spike ball meant to substitute actual human materials. On the team was none other than George Sanderson (a.k.a. the orange "23/19" monster from the first film). The reason why George never took any of the "contamination" seriously in the first one is he still used the same gel, even if it would've had zero effect on him otherwise. Using the gel also had to be against company rules and kept a secret by George, since George's assistant panicked during the instances.
** It makes even more sense when you realize how "fake" his reactions seemed to the sock. If anything he was more panicked over the idea of the CDA terrorizing him.

** The moment when Sulley wakes up, he gets and immediately screams out '''"MOM?!"''' and has a panicked and distressed look on his face. One only wonders what kind of dream he was having to wake up like that, he was probably having a traumatic nightmare about his mom where he was possibly reliving a tragic event that happened to his mother since she is never seen or mentioned in any of the films.
** Making it worse is that since Mike was unknowingly cuddling Sulley's arm, Sulley might have been interpreting that as his own mother's gentle touch within his own dream and when he is suddenly awoken and snapped back to reality by falling off the bed from Mike, he immediately panics and looks for his mother who suddenly vanished not realizing he's not in a dream anymore. He was distressed that his mother was taken away from him after being reunited with her...

** It probably has something to do with [[HavingAHeart that extra toe...]]

* A FreezeFrameBonus at the end of the original film shows that the cans used to collect Laughter are much larger than the ones that were used to collect Scream energy. At the end of ''University'', we see Mike and Sulley create a scare that powers all the cans to the point that they explode, and Sulley mentions in the original that laughter is ten times more powerful than Scream energy. The newer cans aren't just bigger to take in more of the laughter that's produced, they're bigger because the laughter ''overwhelms'' the original cans.

* The scene in the cabin in the woods near the end of the movie can be interpreted as Mike and Sulley as a duo representing the two kinds of horror game monsters. Sulley is the monster you can see, the big scary thing that you run from because you're afraid for your life. Mike is the monster you ''can't'' see, the sounds in the shadows that make you wonder if something's there, what it might be, but you can't be sure of whether it's your mind playing tricks on you or not...

* When you thinks about it, Dean Hardscrabble is a foil to Waternoose from the first film. First off, how is she introduced? She's shown as a legendary scarer who's rooted in old ways, just like Waternoose. There's also a lovely closeup of her [[CreepyCentipedes centipede legs]], instantly making one think of the other arthropod-esque authority. Almost everything about her screams "This is the villain!" from her design to her cruel, antagonistic attitude. Waternoose, on the other hand, was set up as a warm, grandfatherly old man, and a trustworthy friend. His design didn't stand out as overtly villainous in comparison to the other creatures in the monster world. Then, over the course of their respective films, Waternoose is still rooted in his beliefs, even as he betrays them to try and support his company. Hardscrabble, on the other hand, learns the error of her prejudices and prepares to change her ways for the betterment of her school. In the end, the warm, likable old man becomes hard and villainous, while the cold, cruel headmistress becomes friendlier and kinder without losing her dignity. This is even foreshadowed in the way the Dean makes her flying exits. When she enters a scene, it's in the cover of darkness, playing up her eeriness. But when she flies off, she's shrouded in light, implying she's not quite as evil as she lets on.

* Although Sulley scaring the living daylights out of the adults in the human world serves as a wonderful climax and CrowningMomentOfAwesome, you can't help but wonder what became of those horribly traumatized people. Remember, these aren't kids that we're talking about. These are fully grown adults who have experienced a scare taken UpToEleven and have come face-to-face with a living, breathing monster. In [[RealLife]], there are actual reports of similar incidents involving unidentified creatures that have occurred in remote areas such as that one. The people who experience these often end up being scarred for life and go through years of therapy to get rid of the paranoia and constant nightmares. They usually have to quit their jobs because they just can't go on with their lives until they're cured from that permanent nightmare. It wouldn't be surprising if they're even DrivenToSuicide. Who's to say all that didn't happen to those poor adults?
** [[FromBadToWorse Even worse]]: imagine what'll happen if any of those adults have children. Picture this: as your child grows up, you start to wonder why she looks so scared every morning. She's still too young to explain fully, but through crude crayon drawings and snippets of toddler speak, you're eventually able to figure out what it is she's trying to warn you about: '''monsters'''. You try to tell your spouse, but they haven't seen what you saw in the cabin that night, so they just laugh and say that your child probably just has an overactive imagination. You feel anxious and you start thinking you've been hearing noises in the house at night, as though a large animal has broken in. But every single time you leap out of bed and try to reach the room in time, you're too late. There is nothing there but your child, screaming and crying, pointing in terror at their closet...

* Dean Hardscrabble might be rendered completely irrelevant by the transition from scream energy to laughter energy. The School of Scaring would almost definitely have to change to a comedy school, and the stern, no-nonsense Hardscrabble would hardly qualify to govern a school designed to help monsters make kids laugh. While she'd certainly be proud of Mike and Sully for their accomplishments, their success probably put her out of a job.
** Assuming that scaring was made completely obsolete by Mike and Sully's discovery. Not every kid has a sense of humor, and scaring might still be done to squeeze a bit more energy out of a door before it's shredded. Besides, with power companies named things like Fear Inc, I find it highly unlikely that they all switched to laugh power overnight.
** Not to mention the time it would take to train enough comedian monsters to replace all the scarers, specially considering that only a handful of monsters have looks that help them make kids laugh with ease; at the end of ''Monsters, Inc.'', we see that most of the new 'comedians' need to modify their aspect to be funny enough. The complete transition from 'fear power' to 'laughter power' might take at least a few years.
** Quite besides which, how old is Dean Hardscrabble anyway? She might well be nearing retirement age by the end of the first movie.
** She could always oversee other things too.
** A lot of the teachings at Monster U. involve being stealthy and avoid prolonged contact with kids. To help maintain the secret of the monster world, such teachings would still be important even if laughter became a new energy source. A monster would still need to be quick and avoid the child to keep the illusion of having been "just a dream". Likewise, the easiest way to make a child laugh is by creating a scary atmosphere that's quickly defused by a joke. Scaring could still be taught as part of a two-hit combo to make kids laugh.
** In addition, if there's one thing that Monsters University taught us, it's that some monsters are born into a particular role. For monsters like Sulley, it's scaring, for others like Mike it's coaching. It could be perfectly reasonable that Scare Energy and Laugh Energy are gathered at the same time; it allows doors to last longer (if a kid is unable to laugh, scare him, and vice versa) and offers up more areas of employment for monsters like Mike that just weren't born for scaring, and it and keeps the Scaring Curriculum in place for schools like Monsters University. Being the new (implied) CEO of Monsters Inc, Sully would be averse to retaining scaring as an energy gathering method and so would opt to help existing scarers adjust to being comedians. He wouldn't even need to change the name of the company, which would be a problem for companies such as Scare Co if they decide to switch to gathering Laugh Energy.
* A subtle one, but Mike was devastated after he found out Sulley had rigged the scaring machine. Later, the other monsters see him trying to enter a door into the potentially dangerous human realm, and are begging him not to do it. Did they think Mike was upset enough to be DrivenToSuicide?
* If a child's laughter is powerful enough to power every door in the factory and an adult's scream is powerful enough to make a door explode and overfill almost every scream tanker in a room, then how powerful would an adult's laughter be?
** Considering how much Life Sucks, probably not very. Maybe it’s more powerful [[PowerEqualsRarity due to being so hard to obtain compared to that of children]]?
* The power generated by scaring the policemen is enough not only to reopen the portal, but to actually make the door completely blow up in a fiery blast as Mike and Sulley escape through it. So just imagine: what if they had been just ''one'' second slower? They would have missed what may have been their one chance to make it back in the monster world, and possibly have gotten caught by the policemen shall any of them have returned...and that's if they were ''lucky''. Even worse, they could have gotten ''incinerated'' in the blast, or gruesomely split in half due to the abrupt disappearance of the portal. Granted, how close of a call it was makes the scene all the more [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome awesome]].

** It probably has something to do with [[HavingAHeart that extra toe...]]
[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* See [[Headscratchers/MonstersUniversity this page]].

* The BrickJoke concerning the incredibly slow-moving yellow slug monster being LateForSchool, only to finally make it to class '''at the end of the school year''' is quite funny, until you realize he failed each and every one of his classes, getting himself expelled and probably having to reapply to the university...and probably repeat the cycle. This also implies that he hasn't eaten, drank, or slept for months.
* Although Mike and Sully scaring the living daylights out of the adults in the human world serves as a wonderful climax and SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, you can't help but wonder what became of those horribly traumatized people. Remember, these aren't kids that we're talking about. These are fully grown adults who have experienced a scare taken UpToEleven and have come face-to-face with a living, breathing monster. In real life, there actually exist reports of similar incidents involving unidentified creatures that have occurred in remote areas such as the summer camp. The people who experience these often end up being scarred for life and go through intense therapy to get rid of the paranoia and constant nightmares. They usually end up quitting their jobs because they just can't go on with their lives until they're cured from that permanent nightmare. It wouldn't be surprising if they're even DrivenToSuicide. Who's to say those adults didn't suffer the same fate?
** Speaking of demons and hell, what did the parents in ''Party Central'' think of the sight of the burning fire with several monstrous beings, many with wings and horns, raving within the inferno, as one of them briefly rocketed between doors. When they claimed they were afraid of monsters in their closet, it might have been a severe understatement compared to what they believed they saw.
** From there, have any demon hunters tried to breach the monster world?
** That summer camp would also have huge rumors of being haunted. Either they can whip that up into a huge publicity boost or they'll be closed.
** Either that or they'll all convince themselves that it was what they thought the big, blue guy was in the first place - [[BearsAreBadNews a hungry, confused wild bear]] that somehow broke in and they are all ''insanely'' lucky no one got hurt. The camp will have an entirely different set of security issues, but humans (especially adults) will usually fall back on a plausible, more mundane answer to something confusing.
** FromBadToWorse: imagine what will happen if any of those adults have children in the future. Picture this... as your child progresses through the toddler stage, you start to wonder why your baby looks so scared when you wake him/her up each morning. Your kid is still too young to explain fully, but through crude crayon drawings and snippets of toddler speak, you're eventually able to figure out what it is your child is trying to warn you about: ''monsters''. You try to tell your spouse, but they haven't seen what ''you'' saw in the cabin that night, so they just laugh and assure you that your child just has an overactive imagination, nothing to worry about. You start to become uneasy, unable to sleep. You swear you've been hearing noises in the house at night, as though a large animal has broken in. But every single time you leap out of bed and try to reach the room in time to find the thing that has broken into your home, you're too late. There is nothing there, nothing but your child, screaming and crying, pointing in terror at their closet...
** Which becomes FridgeBrilliance when you realize this might be Sulley's thought process when he looked at himself scaring Boo in 'Monsters, Inc.''. No wonder he doesn't think scaring matters anymore; he's come to believe that it's awful.
** According to [[AllThereInTheManual The Essential Guide]], they blamed it on Bigfoot.
** Another horrifying aspect comes up when you consider that these are ''law enforcement'', and had the plan not worked, Mike and Sully might have been ''shot to death''.
* Dean Hardscrabble might have been rendered completely irrelevant by the transition from screams to laughter. The scaring school would almost certainly change its focus to comedy in light of the energy change, and the stern, no-nonsense Hardscrabble would hardly be qualified to lead a program on making kids laugh. While she'd certainly be proud of Mike and Sully for their accomplishments, their success probably put her out of a job. Of course, this assumes she didn't retire by the original movie.

* When one thinks about it, Dean Hardscrabble is a foil to Waternoose from the first film. First off, how is she introduced? She's shown as a legendary scarer who's rooted in old ways, just like Waternoose. There's also a lovely closeup of her [[CreepyCentipedes centipede legs]], instantly making one think of the other arthropod-esque authority. Almost everything about her screams "This is the villain!" from her design to her cruel, antagonistic attitude. Waternoose, on the other hand, was set up as a warm, grandfatherly old man, and a trustworthy friend. His design didn't stand out as overtly villainous in comparison to the other creatures in the monster world. Then, over the course of their respective films, Waternoose is still rooted in his beliefs, even as he betrays them to try and support his company. Hardscrabble, on the other hand, learns the error of her prejudices and prepares to change her ways for the betterment of her school. In the end, the warm, likable old man becomes hard and villainous, while the cold, cruel headmistress becomes friendlier and kinder without losing her dignity. This is even foreshadowed in the way the Dean makes her flying exits. When she enters a scene, it's in the cover of darkness, playing up her eeriness. But when she flies off, she's shrouded in light, implying she's not quite as evil as she lets on.

* The BrickJoke concerning the incredibly slow-moving yellow slug monster being LateForSchool, only to finally make it to class '''at the end of the school year''' is ActuallyPrettyFunny, until you realize he failed each and every one of his classes, getting himself expelled and probably having to reapply to the university...and probably repeat the cycle. This also implies that he hasn't eaten, drank, or slept for ''months''.
* Although Mike and Sully scaring the living souls out of the adults in the human world served as a wonderful climax and SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, you can't help but wonder what would become of those horribly traumatized people. Remember, these aren't kids that we're talking about. These are fully grown adults who have experienced a scare taken UpToEleven and have come face-to-face with a real live breathing monster. In fact, they would have assumed it was a DEMON from hell haunting a camp in the forest instead of just a monster. In real life, there actually exist reports of similar scares and hauntings by unidentified/urban creatures that have occurred in remote areas such as this one. The people who experienced these have often ended up being scarred for life and went through intense therapy to get rid of the paranoia, insomnia, and constant nightmares. They usually end up quitting their jobs because they just couldn't go on with their lives until they were cured from that permanent nightmare. It wouldn't be surprising if they were even DrivenToSuicide. Who's to say the adults in the human world wouldn't have a similar [[FateWorseThanDeath fate]] as the victims in real life?

%%* Despise the importance of scaring children, the main theme of the movie is Mike and Sully's AdultFear of not being good enough.

%% How is that fridge brilliance?

* When one thinks about it, Dean Hardscrabble is a foil to Waternoose from the first film. First off, how is she introduced? She's shown as a legendary scarer who's rooted in old ways, just like Waternoose. There's also a lovely closeup of her [[CreepyCentipedes centipede legs]], instantly making one think of the other arthropod-esque authority. Almost everything about her screams "This is the villain!" from her demonic design, to her cruel, antagonistic attitude. Waternoose, on the other hand, was set up as a warm, grandfatherly old man, and a trustworthy friend. His design also didn't stand out as overtly villainous in comparison to the other odd creatures in the monster world. Then when more of them is shown, Waternoose is still rooted in his beliefs, even as he betrays them to try and support his company. Hardscrabble, on the other hand, learns the error of her prejudices and prepares to change her ways for the betterment of her school. In the end, the warm, likable old man becomes hard and villainous, while the cold, cruel headmistress becomes friendlier and kinder without losing her dignity. This is even foreshadowed in the way the Dean makes her flying exits. When she enters a scene, it's in the cover of darkness, playing up her eeriness. But when she flies off, she's shrouded in light, implying she's not really quite as bad as she lets on.
* A lot of Mike's behaviour in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' can be this thanks to this prequel. Let's review, shall we?
** His desperation in preserving his and Sulley's job. While it might have come off as rather selfish at first, think about what happened to him: he was expelled from his dream university, and suddenly all of his hard work meant nothing. Years later, he has clawed his way from the bottom up with his best friend, has his dream job working on the Scare Floor- and now all that is suddenly at risk because of a little kid. And Sulley, just like back in university when he was still a JerkJock, is being fairly laissez-faire about the situation.

** His general attitude towards Randall, and their open antagonism towards each other. They used to be roommates in University- not just that, but friends and study buddies- until Randall dumped Mike to get in with the "cool kids" in ROR. It makes sense that he would only want to rub Randall's face in his and Sulley's overwhelming success. It also puts an interesting twist on how Sully always had a much more accepting (if slightly exasperated) reaction to Randall early on in the first film. It's not just that he's more welcoming than Mike (though that's almost certainly a large factor), it's that Randall was never anything more to him than some easily ignored jerk he met in college. To Mike, Randall was an old friend who betrayed him, which is ''much'' harder to forgive and forget, even as adults. Sulley, in turn, seems to scbe almost protective of Mike towards Randall (especially in Randall's introduction scene in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''), which makes sense, as at the very least, he witnessed the moment Randall abandoned Mike.
** Especially his interactions with Randall in the Scream Extractor scene. He starts out being cheeky with the latter, then pleads with him, and only freaks out when he realises it's actually happening. While they're certainly not on good terms, he still does not expect Randall to actually harm him because they [[WeUsedToBeFriends used to be good friends]].
*** A lot of Randall's behaviour too, really, makes sense after the prequel. Part of the reason Randall is so angry about Sully beating him in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' is, not just because he inadvertently humiliated and showed him up during the Scare Games, but because he's being bested by someone who is essentially a ''college dropout''. Plus, Randall only ever directly attacks Mike, but never Sulley. ''Before'' he tries to openly kill both.

* A minor one, but the Greek Council is called so because it acts as a GreekChorus during the Scare Games!
* Sulley's behaviour in the first film makes more sense after watching MU. After failing to put Boo back, the very first thing he does is to grab her and run straight to Mike, regardless of his friend's current situation. Why? Because Mike is the one with the plans (as wacky as they may be) and Sulley is the reality check (look at the scene when Mike is going through various plans and Sulley shoots them all down). It's also interesting to see how they become an almost classic StraightManAndWiseGuy duo, as Sulley is the StraightMan to the rest of Oozma Kappa.
* Why was Roz, a.k.a., Number 1, working in the paperwork office in MI? Because after Mike and Sully enigmatically explode the door lab escaping from the human world, the CDA needs to be watching them. Aaaaaaaalways watching...
* Why in MI were Mike and Sully not excessively freaking out over Boo's laughter powering all the doors in the door storage? Because they've powered offline doors through excessive amounts of power before...

** But what was missing for me was a definite scene for Randall, how he even made it into ROR. Some kind of devious test that makes them say "Yeah, you're one of us now!", that establishes Randall definitely losing his nerdy ways and becoming a true jerk from now on. Maybe it's a potential deleted scene for the home release, but it seems like kind of an important detail to leave out of the film.
** Or perhaps the humiliation scene could have been the test itself, being set up as "So you wanna join us? [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten Here's a little test"]], which in the end earns him the jacket. But he's already wearing it before the party.
** To the above, ROR's choice for Randall is pretty rational. First, his power is very, very useful, near GameBreaker levels. Second, he is likely as smart as Mikey and ROR doesn't take well to people with low performance scores, just like Sulley. Third, unlike Mikey, he looks very scary. Last, he would do anything to be with "The cool kids", probably they made him do their frathouse chores and homework if they asked him. Additionally, it is a bit implied that they ridicule Randall (at least during the beginning), as they ask him to turn invisible and they laugh, but it could either be interpreted as ridicule or them finding Randall funny.
*** It's also a typical reaction to "Dude, do (something cool)!" *does something cool* *laughter, high-fives, etc*
** If you look closely at the posters in the rooms, Randall has a poster that says "Winds of Change". Guess how Randall changes throughout the film from a nice guy to a.

* How did Sully figure out that laughter is more powerful than scream in MI? Here, Mike shows us that if you pump enough energy into monster tech, you can power it from the human world. They however, pumped so much energy into that door to make it explode, something that took a top level scare. However, Boo managed to blow out half a city block (at least) with a laugh, on her own! Sully put one and one together that laughter has that explosive potential (uh no pun intended), by putting one and one together. Looks like he was paying attention to Mike in the end.
* ''University'' shows it's possible, with enough scream power, to activate a door from the human side. So why didn't Mike and Sully try that in ''Inc'' when they were banished to the Himalayas? Because there were no humans around in range of that door. They'd have to drag an entire village there to try that again.

* The way that Mike and Sully treat all the employees during ''Monsters, Inc.'' would have hinted that the two guys were kicked out of university and had to start from the very bottom of the ladder and work their way up to the Scare Floor: They greeted all the employees, even lowly interns, warmly and by name, and everybody in turn knew who they were. If they had graduated from the university and went straight into scaring, chances are they wouldn't interact with those on the lower hierachy as much.
** Even better? This is probably ''exactly what happened'' with Randall.
* These doors were a thesis project by the University students. On the surface, it seems to be a simple door leading into a camp cabin bed with a lot of kids. However, in a lot of ways, it is very similar to real world university thesis projects related to energy: Many study rare sources with the aim of producing a lot of power, but are mostly not yet very safe or mass producible. The camp door would have resulted in a huge energy payoff (multiple kids!), but at the same time is a lot less safe than a door leading to only 1 kid - kids in groups are more likely to band together and fight off the monster, or worse, investigate what is on the other side of the door. Also, there are only so many camps in their world with cabin doors. It's a rich energy source, but low chance it can be reproduced to factory level.
** Not to mention that, even if finding ways around all the previously mentioned problems, a door to a summer camp's closet would only produce energy when there are kids at the cabin, at summertime. It would be an unproductive door the rest of the year.

** I was under the impression that the protective gel only counteracted the poison in the urchin-things.
*** Wouldn't he have to know that the toxins in the urchins weren't found in actual human items for that? (Stahp, stahp, this is turning into Administrivia/{{Natter}}.)
*** Look, for the sake of our minds, [[MST3KMantra He just assumed that the gel was all purpose, thinking that it oculd be used for human things along with the urchins.]]
*** Or maybe the problem is that he never learned to take it seriously, avoiding contact with the contaminants. With protection, he could sprint freely. However, he never learned to be as careful as necessary to avoid contact.
* Randall uses glasses at first, and gets rid of them because, as Mike points out, they make him detectable when using his powers. From that moment on, Randall has to squint his eyes to make up for the lack of glasses; in other words, his trademark expression, at least at first, wasn't out of projecting an evil or scary image, but because of poor eyesight.
* If there are colleges to prepare monsters for scaring, why, in ''Monsters, Inc.'', the first thing we see is novice, rookie scarers that obviously got little to none academic training for this job, to the point they're not familiar at all with the simulators? Because, by that time, there's a power crisis in Monstropolis, so the power companies are in desperate need of scarers and can't wait for new scarers to finish their education, something that probably takes from 3 to 4 years. We also see, by the end of ''Monsters University'', that the company offers promotions and incentives to employees so those with enough skills can become scarers and scare coaches even if they didn't graduate, so they have simulators to test the applicants.
* If the screams of adults provide so much energy then why do monsters only scare children even when there's a huge energy crisis looming? Because the illusion can only be maintained since children are expected to invent imaginary creatures while adults aren't (unless they're crazy) and the 'crazy' excuse would only fly for so long if enough adults started claiming monsters were coming through their closets...
** There is also another reason: they produce '''[[PhlebotinumOverload too much energy]]'''. There must have been at least a hundred Scream Canisters in that room. From the screams of at least half a dozen adults, all of those Canisters were filled to the brim and exploded because they could not contain the ambient energy from their screams, and those same screams [[PhlebotinumOverload caused the door to overload and]] '''[[PhlebotinumOverload explode]]'''. Even that slumber party Mike and Sulley scared in the first movie only produced seven full canisters, and each canister is enough to contain the screams of one kid. In short, an adult's screams produces at least one thousand times more energy than a child's, but no scare canister in the world could contain that amount of energy.
** Touched upon in the original statement, but an adult can be a problem if they are particularly tenacious about finding out where the monsters come from. They could, for example, stay up all night and wait until the monster pops in and and then walk into the monster world (adults are probably considered as toxic as the children). A kid however would be too scared to try a tactic like that, and by the time they're old enough to try checking in the closet at 9am the monsters will have stopped scaring them.
** Adults are '''''DANGEROUS'''''. Children are all but harmless to a monster. An adult, on the other hand, is at least twice as tall, six to seven times heavier, at least five times stronger, and unlike kids, it's not uncommon for one to choose "fight" in a fight-or-flight scenario. Also, if the monster manages to make its exit without trouble, said adult can very well be waiting the next time, wide awake and with a shotgun pointed at the closet door. And that's not counting whether the adult might feel like it's necessary [[MamaBear to protect]] [[PapaWolf their children]].
* When Dean Hardscrabble drums Sulley out of the scare program, she does so on the basis that Sulley's roar technique would make a kid with a fear of snakes cry instead of scream[[note]]which, apart from producing no scream energy, would also alert the kid's parents and risk exposing the monster world[[/note]]. Fast forward to ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', where Sulley inadvertently scares Boo. She doesn't scream - she cries. Dean Hardscrabble's test was a CallForward to the scene where Sulley scares Boo.
** Even more of a CallForward once you realizes that Randall, who Boo was afraid of the most, greatly resembles a snake.

* It may be unintentional but most of the humans in this film had their faces either shadowed or drawn in less detail compared to the very colorful and extravagant monsters seen. It's to play up the unknown and fear that monsters have for humans, especially in the scene where the campers begin to crowd around a terrified Mike.
* Oozma Kappa is quite distinctive from the other fraternities/sororities not because they have a gimmick like Eta Eta Hiss, which is goth and ROR, which is elite, but because they are ''diverse.''

** The fact that Sulley and Mike need each other to be a remarkable team (as evidenced by their ultimate scare against the adults at the children's camp, with Mike being the brains, and Sulley being the brawn.), harkens back (or would that be forward?) to ''Monsters, Inc.'' After all, Sulley and Mike say to each other in the credits of ''Monsters, Inc.'': ♫ "I wouldn't have nothin' if I didn't have you!"♫
* Monsters love scaring people, which means they love the sound of screaming. This explains why Squishy's mother was listening to screamo in the car!
** To be pedantic, the genre isn't actually screamo (Which is an actual genre of its own). It's Sludge metal, which is a subgenre that features harsh, or at least, not clean vocals. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS5Hxftk0Q4 Here's the song in question, if you're curious.]]
* When the Oozma Kappas are introducing themselves, Don mentions working in the textile industry until they downsized him out of a job. At first it seems like topical humour until I realized there's a hidden layer to that. Most of the monsters present in the first two movies don't really wear clothing, and if they do it's mainly just a shirt or coat, etc.

* An additional good thing about the discovery at the end of ''Monsters, Inc.'' -- Don, Terri and Terry, Squishy, and Art have to make extra effort to be scary, but they'll make excellent laugh technicians.
* Why didn't we see a bunch of familiar faces(besides Mike, Sulley, Randall, and a cameo of Roz)in ''Monsters University''? Well they might have gone to different universities, such as Fear Tech and other schools.

* Dean Hardscrabble dismisses Sully from the program because he immediately roars without listening to her information. In her words, the boy he would have roared at was afraid of snakes, so the roar would make him cry, not scream, alerting his parents and exposing their world. Now, wouldn't a scream ''also'' alert the boy's parents? It took a moment to realize that maybe Hardscrabble was more upset about the scream canister than she was letting on...
** I felt this was obvious, Hardscrabble was not being fair to either of them. Not even giving Mike a chance to run the simulator, she also likely chose a child for Sully that she knew he would fail because a roar wouldn't have worked. Had they done the test properly Mike might have been able to scrape a pass (we never got to see how well he can do on the simulator at a reasonable setting) while Sully may have lucked it with a more (or should we say less) roar-friendly child.
** Screams are useful as a source of energy and therefore worth the risk of exposure. Crying doesn't produce anything worth the risk. Even if Hardscrabble intentionally chose a child who wouldn't scream for being roared at, it was to either see if Sully already understood that his roar wouldn't have the same effect on all children or make him understand that.
* While obviously done to help audiences recognise it as a prequel, it would seem strange in-universe. Monsters University seems to bear a lot of resemblance to the company Monsters, Inc. Not only sharing the word Monsters but also having the same blue M with the eye in it as a logo. Since one has not tried suing the other it seems likely that the University might have actually been founded by the power company as a means of training potential new employees. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Institute_of_the_Arts Say, doesn't that sound familiar?]]
* Dean Hardscrabble's soft spoken, calm demeanour at nearly all times may well have been developed during her current occupation; the [[EldritchAbomination Librarian]] [[BerserkButton strongly dislikes]] noise in her library, and the Dean must have learned to speak in a tone that satisfied her employee's pet peeve as opposed to simply replacing her. This also hints that the Librarian is the best possible candidate around for the Dean to accommodate her so, as she has a strict adherence to the concept of only the best.
* And one more for Dean Hardscrabble: during her tearing down of Mike and Sully, she's uncannily good at sizing up the situation and finding their weaknesses almost immediately. It's also shown that scarers have to have a basic grasp of psychology; they have to know what scares kids and how to exploit that fear for optimum scream output. As ''the'' best scarer in the known Monsters universe, of course she's terrifically gifted at psychology; it's ninety percent of the job!
* Despise the importance of scaring children, the main theme of the movie is Mike and Sully's AdultFear of not being good enough.
* How did Randell, the meek, nerdy friend of Mike, become a member of the elite Roar Omega Roar? By being the student who performed the best at the scaring exam. After-all, he was the second best scarer after Sullivan at Monsters Inc, so when Sullivan got kicked out of the program, Randall became its best performing student, using his invisibility abilities to great effect at the exam. Roar Omega Roar likely then found out about his performance and offered him membership, acknowledging that despite his shy, nerdy meekness, he do has potential of being a great scarer like they are.

** This is pure speculation here, but if he moves that slowly, he probably doesn't need to eat, drink or sleep very often -- otherwise he would never have survived; he would have died of hunger and thirst by the time it took him to walk from his couch and to the kitchen.
** It can get into DudeNotFunny territory if you realize that it might be metaphor for schools not having enough accommodations for slower learners.
*** Or maybe it's because he's literally a slug.
* Although Mike and Sully scaring the living souls out of the adults in the human world served as a wonderful climax and SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, you can't help but wonder what would become of those horribly traumatized people. Remember, these aren't kids that we're talking about. These are fully grown adults who have experienced a scare taken UpToEleven and have come face-to-face with a real live breathing monster. In fact, they would have assumed it was a DEMON from hell haunting a camp in the forest instead of just a monster. In real life, there actually exist reportings of similar scares and hauntings by unidentified/urban creatures that have occurred in remote areas such as this one. The people who experienced these have often end up being scarred for life and went through intense therapy to get rid of the paranoia, insomnia, and constant nightmares. They usually end up quitting their jobs because they just couldn't go on with their lives until they were cured from that permanent nightmare. It wouldn't be surprising if they were even DrivenToSuicide. Who's to say the adults in the human world wouldn't have a similar [[FateWorseThanDeath fate]] as the victims in real life?

** Either that, or they'll all convince themselves that it was what they thought the big, blue guy was in the first place - [[BearsAreBadNews hungry, confused wild bear]] that somehow broke in and they are all ''insanely'' lucky no one got hurt. The camp will have an entirely different set of security issues, but humans (especially adults) will usually fall back on a plausible, but mundane answer to something confusing.

** Another horrifying aspect comes up when you consider that these are ''law enforcement'', and had the plan not worked '''terrifyingly''' well, Mike and Sully might have been ''shot to death''.

** A lot of the teachings at Monster U. involve being stealthy and avoid prolonged contact with kids. To help maintain the secret of the monster world, such teachings would still be important even if laughter became a new energy source. A monster would still need to be quick and avoid the child to keep the illusion of having been "just a dream". Likewise, the easiest way to make a child laugh is by creating a scary atmosphere which is quickly defused by a joke. Scaring could still be taught as part of a two hit combo to make kids laugh.
** In addition, if there's one thing that Monsters University taught us, it's that some monsters are born into a particular role. For monsters like Sulley it's scaring, for others like Mike it's coaching. It could be perfectly reasonable that Scare Energy and Laugh Energy are gathered at the same time; it allows doors to last longer (if a kid is unable to laugh, scare him, and vice versa) and offers up more areas of employment for monsters like Mike that just weren't born for scaring, and it and keeps the Scaring Curriculum in place for schools like Monsters University. Being the new (implied) CEO of Monsters Inc, Sully would be adverse to retaining scaring as an energy gathering method and so would opt to help existing scarers adjust to being comedians. He wouldn't even need to change the name of the company, which would be a problem for companies such as Scare Co if they decide to switch to gathering Laugh Energy.

* The power generated by scaring the policemen is enough not only to reopen the portal, but to actually make the door completely blow up in a fiery blast as Mike and Sulley escape through it. So just imagine: what if they had been just ''one'' second slower? They would have missed what may have been their one chance to make it back in the monster world, and possibly have gotten caught by the policemen shall any of them have returned...and that's if they were ''lucky''. Even worse, they could have gotten ''incinerated'' in the blast, or gruesomely split in half due to the abrupt disappearance of the portal. Granted, how close of a call it was just makes the scene all the more [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome awesome]].

** To be pedantic, the genre isn't actually screamo (Which is an actual genre of its own). It's Sludge metal, which is a subgenre that features harsh, or at least, not clean vocals.

** His general attitude towards Randall, and their open antagonism towards each other. They used to be roommates in University- not just that, but friends and study buddies- until Randall dumped Mike to get in with the "cool kids" in ROR. It makes sense that he would only want to rub Randall's face in his and Sulley's overwhelming success. It also puts an interesting twist on how Sully always had a much more accepting (if slightly exasperated) reaction to Randall early on in the first film. It's not just that he's more welcoming than Mike (though that's almost certainly a large factor), it's that Randall was never anything more to him than some easily ignored jerk he met in college. To Mike, Randall was an old friend who betrayed him, which is ''much'' harder to forgive and forget, even as adults. Sulley, in turn, seems to be almost protective of Mike towards Randall (especially in Randall's introduction scene in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc''), which makes sense, as at the very least, he witnessed the moment Randall abandoned Mike.