WMG / Monsters University

The entire movie is a morphine dream of Dr. Vivian Bearing

• She's subconsciously trying to empathise more with her students as she wishes she had done while she had the chance, so while she is present as Dean Hardscrabble, she sees the story from Mike's perspective. The drugs are what make her see everyone as monsters in what is an otherwise relatively normal environment. She struggles with being kinder or even just more reasonable, but in the end she makes some progress. Plus, Hardscrabble's first name is "Abigail", which means "father's joy", and Vivian was quite clearly her Daddy's Girl.

Dean Hardscrabble will be the main antagonist.

• Jossed. There isn't a defined main antagonist. Dean Hardscrabble was intimidating, but she is actually a really nice monster.
  • The only truly villainous character in the movie is Johnny Worthington, and the worst he gets up to is a rather cruel prank on our heroes.

The movie will feature Randall's Start of Darkness

You know Randall? That slimy, conniving Jerkass of a scarer? Well, here he's depicted as a kind, smiling nerd who bakes cupcakes! Clearly, something happened here...

• Considering how much of a bitter rivalry Randall had with Mike and Sulley (mostly Mike), and how he and Mike seemed like good friends in this film, they must have really ruined a big opportunity for Randall.
  • Alternatively, Randall will turn out to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, who shows his true, more devious colors (no pun intended) later on. Perhaps someone will get in trouble and Mike and/or Sully will help them while Randall is too preoccupied with his own reputation/winning. Or (more likely, considering what Mike accused him of in the first movie) he'll end up cheating on a test of some kind.
• Confirmed. Randall was actually a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, as he mainly wanted to be with the "cool kids", even at the start of the movie. He was Wazowski's friend and study buddy, but once Mike joined Oozma Kappa and Randall joined ROR, he didn't want Wazowski to "blow his cover". His true Start of Darkness began when during the final event of the Scare Games, Sulley accidentally shakes his room and it results in Randall's invisibility taken away and the camouflage shows hearts instead, resulting in Randall not scoring that many points and Randall bitterly declaring that he and Sully were rivals.

Mike and Sulley did meet in grade school...

They just don't recognize each other when they met again for the first time in years, I mean you can't remember all of your classmates over the years. But they might remember each other as the movie goes on so who knows...

• I agree. They may have both went to the same elementary school, but weren't in the same 4th grade classroom together and hardly knew each other. So maybe it's true, or maybe it's an expression. When Mike met Sulley in college, he probably was a lot different than 4th grade Sulley so Mike hardly recognized him. When Sulley introduces himself and reaches his hand out, Mike pauses for a moment, almost as though he's realizing that he's heard that name and seen him somewhere. It's like when you meet someone and in your head you think that, "I think I've seen you before..." Or maybe, Pixar is just saying all of this in order not to spoil the scene where Mike and Sulley both find old photos and memories of themselves to realize that they were friends back in elementary school and after being rivals in the entire film, become good friends again! ...I hope.
  • Jossed. But don't worry. What they do is much better.

Mike will be the protagonist in this one.

The first one focused on Sulley, and the trailers seem to have an increased focus on Mike.

• Pretty much confirmed. The conflict of the movie puts Mike in the forefront, with only Sulley just behind him. By the end, they're on equal billing.

Sulley will be shown to be good with (monster) kids, as foreshadowing to his relationship with Boo.

• Jossed. Sulley's connection with kids doesn't show up in this movie.

Some monster will say 'You were Jealous of me in the fourth grade'.

proving that it is a monster expression, or maybe meme.

The film will have shades of Ho Yay between Mike and Sulley.

They seem rather friendly when it comes to their fierce competition for who's the smartest or scariest. There are some clips in the trailers that show that Sulley does actually care about Mike, but probably doesn't want to show it.

• And, then there's...this scene.
• There's also an MU prompt on Disney Kink List where the OK boys give Sulley and Mike a queen bed to share, assuming they were a couple (I'm not lying).

Randall will have been evil all along.

Let's be honest, Pixar of all groups should know better than to encourage the "cute=good ugly=evil" philosophy among fandom, a notoriously shallow and overly forgiving bunch. We don't need them turning Randall into (even more of) a Draco in Leather Pants, with even more reasons for them to forgive his being a cheating, lying, assholish kidnapper and almost-murderer. Instead, the film will show him having formerly been a chameleon in a different sense, trying to blend in with society to throw suspicion off himself and giving it up partway through the film.

• He doesn't cheat though. Of all the things Randall is accused of, that's the one thing he DOESN'T do, and that's why he reacts so strongly to Mike's accusation. MI Randall does lie, steal/kidnap a little girl, and decide murder is an okay solution if you want to succeed in the business world. I do think MU Randall will likely turn out to be good or neutral, and they'll wait for another movie (midquel) to highlight his becoming a villain.
  • Randall isn't really evil, but his personality turns him into an evil character. He wants to be a part of the "cool kids" and ditches Mike Wazowski, who was his only friend before the Scare Incident. Sulley accidentally messes up Randall's performance at the Scare Games, and this starts Randall's bitter rivalry against Sulley.

Johnny Worthington is going to be the Starter Villain

Going by the movie clip when we first see the guys at Roar Omega Roar, the president Johnny would be the obvious candidate for the film's Big Bad, as even with only a few lines he already exhibits the kind of stuck up Smug Snake behavior that comes from the stereotype of an old money college frat boy antagonist seen in these type of movies. However, as the movie will go on, we'll actually see him having natural talent in scaring, combining genius level expertise of scaring theory that rivals Mike has with the actual ability to be scary like Sully. Despite him being a snooty Jerkass, he will eventually gain tremendous respect for Mike and Sully as they help propel Oozma Kappa to glory, as well as respect the friendship the two monsters have, as the audience will see that, while Worthington does consider his fellow ROR brothers as friends, he doesn't consider them to be True Companions-level like with OK.

Plus, this will serve another purpose: With Worthington being the main focus for Mike and Sully to beat, the real antagonist is left to do their own device until The Reveal, not only to the heroes but possibly to the audience as well.

• Johnny Worthington and Randall are the closest things to the movie's Big Bad. Worthington invites Sulley to join the Roar Omega Roar Fraternity at the end of the movie, but he still doesn't show much respect for the rest of Oozma Kappa.

The Scare Pig is suppose to be a family friendly version of the Devil.

• I don't get this...

Boo will make a cameo at the end.

Either the gang will check a door and overhear her parents talking about trying to have a kid or Boo herself will show up as a baby noticing the unusual behavior of her closet and peek in, explaining why she's seemingly more comfortable with monsters in MI.

• Jossed.
  • This WMG wouldn't really make sense anyway, as MU takes place more than 10 years before the first movie.

Becoming a Scarer requires a license, not a degree.

Before a monster can be authorized to enter the toxic human world and scare a child and, therefore, be employed as a Scarer, or operate the equipment on the Scare Floor like doors and canisters like the Assistants do, they have to pass an exam to become licensed. Attending the classes necessary to get a degree in Scaring is a good way to learn what's necessary to pass the licensing exam, but not required. Hence, after several years of relevant work experience and training, Mike and Sully were able to become licensed/certified to work on the Scare Floor despite never gaining degrees in Scaring.

• It would make sense that there are several ways to find work within the company. We know Randall worked at Monsters Inc too, but presumably never got booted out of university like Mike and Sully did, which suggests he started out in Scaring and was merely a mediocre Scarer for years, as Waternoose suggests. Perhaps Monsters Inc directly offered positions to those who graduated from Monsters University, but at the same time, internal promotions and changes between departments were possible too. Either Scaring does require a license, or having the degree simply gives you something of a leg up over other candidates.

Screams from adults generate more power, but the amount of time to get them scream is the reason why screams of children are preferred

As seen in the climax, Sulley (Through Mike's knowledge and on-the-fly-planning) successfully scares a group of adults. So much so that the scream canisters and the door explode from the power. This could insinuate that the scream of an adult generates more power. However, because adults are explained in the movie to be harder to scare, the amount of time to try to do what Mike did isn't practical in a job that requires scream energy every few seconds.

• Actually I think it was mentioned somewhere that since adults aren't expected to come up with imaginary horrors (unless they're delusional, of course), unlike small children, scaring adults on a regular basis would expose the monster world. Sure, one or two cases might slide with everyone assuming it was nothing more than a bad dream/ghost story/creepypasta/etc., but if every physically mature person in the world has their pants shat on a regular basis such things would be more along the lines of Implausible Deniability. Still, what you said probably still applies...
  • It was mentioned by the Dean when she was stripping down Sulley's lack of tactics when scaring that discovery would lead to the end of the Monster world, so there was a distinct possibility of that happening.
• My interpretation was that not only were the default canisters of days past (such as the canister used for testing the semester project door, and the Dean's record-breaker) not as efficient or sturdy as modern canisters, but the canisters on the floor and shelves were student projects from the canister design/canister repair school. Heck, maybe the catastrophic failure of the aforementioned canisters (or a single, well-designed remaining canister) prompted a leap forward in scream can engineering.
• As adults are older, it makes sense that their screams would generate much more power, at least one thousand fold. The fact they do so is perhaps the reason they do not even consider the possibility of scaring adults: there is not a scream canister in existence that could contain the scream energy of a single adult without the container breaking and the door to the Human World blowing up from excess energy.

A lot of monster colleges are sponsored primarily by one of the big Scream energy companies.

Not only does Monsters University have a very similar logo to Monsters, Inc., but notice their rival school, Fear Tech. When they vandalized the MU page they covered it in red, orange, and black. Looking at the scarer cards in the credits, some of the characters went on to work at Fear Co., whose logo is, guess what, red and black. Between the colors and the names, it doesn't seem unlikely for there to be a very strong connection between the Scream corporations and the colleges that train their scarers.

The Scare Floors at Monsters, Inc. are separated by gender.

All the Scarers and Assistants seen with Mike and Sully on their Scare Floor in the first movie are male, but the gender ratio of students majoring in Scaring at Monsters University seems 1:1 or close. Presumably, this arrangement is done because, whenever there's a 23-19, someone needs to be decontaminated.

• In the background of the slow walk scene, there's a skinny pink/magenta monster with eyelashes. It might just be an effeminate male, though.
• There actually was a female Scarcer pointed out in the scene where O.K. visit the factory.

Mike is an immigrant who was born in another country

In the stadium during what seems to be the national anthem, Mike is not putting his hand over his heart like everyone else, but is standing at attention, his hand and hat down behind his back. It also helps that Mike's last name is of Polish origin. Presumably, Mike was born in some sort of Polish country and came to this country when he was very very young. Also, since he possibly is from a family of immigrants, typically he'd be pushed to have high academic performance, another reason why he could have wanted to be become a Scarer.

• I believe that military people tend to do this as well.

Celia and the girls of PNK are their universe's alternative subculture at best and hideous at worst

In a world where a monster must be scary above all else and spraying yourself smellier with 'odorant' happen, it would logically follow that things we would find nice and conventional here, like Cute Monster Girls and pink, would be considered weird or ugly there.

• Both male gargoyles and male humans from our world find Demona attractive — what our species and monsters' species consider attractive aren't necessarily automatically incompatible. The glowing red eyes are most likely a plus from their POV, too.
  • Maybe it's like, well, let's use Velma (out-of-universe, not in-universe) as an example. The cute version of the PNK girls is like Velma with her classic sweatshirt: A cute, approachable girl, not very threatening. Their "business mode" would be like Velma changing into an embarrassingly revealing spandex track outfit- the short, round, Billy Crystal-voiced geek suddenly notices she's stacked (or has red, glowing eyes and fangs), and is now more intimidated.

Art went to jail because of drugs!

He acts pretty high and kind of acts like a hippie ... especially when he gives his journal. He has probably cut off the drugs since then though. OR he was a part of a club and he got sold out by someone for doing drugs.

Related to the above, Art is a vague Expy of Gamzee Makara

Acts kind of like a stoner, would rather space out staring at a butterfly, is purple, spaces out and says weird things that confuse the hell out of people, proves he can be scary when he decides to get serious...he's like a monster version of Pre-Sober!Gamzee.

Art probably touched something he wasn't supposed to ... like a fragile artifact or something.

Remember when he wanted to touch the poison urchins? Well ... he probably touched something at a museum and broke everything, causing him to go to jail.

Art never was in jail.

He just always wanted to say that.

Sherri isn't nearly as clueless as she seems.

She's just trolling her son like it's going out of style.

• There's precedent. She doesn't fit the Amazingly Embarrassing Parent trope as much as she initially seems, seeing as she starts listening to Heavy Metal music once the members of Oozma Kappa leave.
  • Seeing that she's a monster, that's not like, say, this troper's mom listening to Heavy Metal. Heavy Metal is probably the most famous style in the monster world, as they so love listening to screams.

Sully shook Randall off of the wall on purpose.

We already know that Sully was willing to cheat to win the contest. Randall either suspects this, or the Dean told him after Sully admitted to cheating, furthering his resentment of Sully.

The reason the other Oozma Kappa didn't appear in the first film.

They were in jail. Art did some sort of thing similar to what got him arrested beforehand ("I can't go back to jail!"), and Don, Squishy, and the Perry brothers got thrown in with him due to being involved in the crime somehow.

Oozma Kappa got jobs at Monsters Inc. after the end of the movie.

Think about it. Squishy, Art, Don, and Terri and Terry aren't usually very intimidating; they're just too friendly-looking. Difficult if you're trying to scare kids...but perfect if you want to make them laugh.

Mail Tampering is not punishable by lifelong banishment.

• Abominable Snowman's banishment was only meant to be temporary. It's just that MI either forgot about him or couldn't find him when his sentence was up.

The Librarian goofed up and was banished

She was sent to a large lake in the human world. At first it was alright; after all, she was alone, it was quiet and it was peaceful. But then, construction started to occur on the hill beside the lake and then a road appeared, with many loud cars driving by. The Librarian would respond to all of this by surfacing and trying to "shhh" people. They would see her, but not hear her. And when they saw her, they flipped out and realized that a monster was in the lake! So tourists flocked to the lake to catch a glimpse, and the Librarian quickly learned that the public had given her a new name: Nessie.

Randy and Randall aren't the same person.

They're twins, with Randall being of the evil variety. This is why the sudden turn to being a Jerkass can come off as so sudden, and why Mike and Randy never interact after the one scene (also works to explain why Mike and Randall don't mention anything from this movie in the original movie). The last time we see Randy is a bit after he joins ROR; after that it's Randall. Either they just decided they liked Randall better, or there was a mix up and they meant to recruit him from the beginning.

Also, there's a storybook for the first movie that shows Randall's nephew in the daycare at Monsters Inc., and the kid looks exactly like him aside from coloring and having less things on his head, implying a sibling who works at the company and looks a lot like him. It's unlikely to be canon, but it's still worth noting.

Boo is the daughter of one of the cops scared at the end of the film.

Life can be funny that way.

The scare cards will lose value after the switch from scare to laughter.

• Alternately, the scare cards could increase in value since they will no longer be printed due to comedians being the new superstars :)

Sulley and Randy got scarer positions at Monsters, Inc. the same day.

That would be a funny coincidence.

Art went to jail because of that extra toe.

Art was part of a gang and had to dismember a monster as part of a deal, severing the monster's toe. After being caught for doing it, he did time and keeps the toe as a reminder of what he did wrong.

Reggie Jacobs is glad Randy made a blunder.

It made everyone forget about his own blunder at the Scare Games finals.

Randall chose to work at Monsters, Inc. because he somehow found out Sulley took the advice about getting a job at the company's mail sector.

After graduating Monsters University, he wanted to gloat about being top scarer while Sulley had to do menial work for a living. Learning that Sulley not only also became a scarer but is considered better than him hurt his ego. Randall also didn't like the idea of working for Johnny (who was revealed in Monsters at Work to be the heir to Fear Co.) after Roar Omega Roar turned on him.

Randy's eyesight is so bad contact lenses don't work for him.

If they did, he'd have ditched his glasses way before Mike suggested him to do so.