Lasseter John - The art of Monsters University

Shelly Wan | digital | 2010

Text copyright 2013 by Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-4521-1207-7 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4521-4750-5 (epub2, mobi)

Designed by Glen Nakasako, SMOG Design, Inc.

Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com

:Ricky Nierva, Dice Tsutsumi | gouache, digital | 2012

Photograph of John Lasseter on Courtesy of the California Institute of the Arts Archive.
California Institute of the Arts Library, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California.
Credit: California Institute of the Arts Photographic Materials Collection.

M aking a sequel is a huge challenge. You want to create a story thats true to the original characters and film but at the same time take the audience somewhere new and different. Making a prequel proved even trickier. After all, anyone whos seen the original film already knows how this one is going to end! Luckily, the Monsters University team studied hard, did their homework, and passed this test with flying colors.

If Monsters, Inc. was about what happens when a new and strange door opens, Monsters University is about what happens when the door youve been headed toward unexpectedly slams shut. Its a question every one of us has had to deal with at one time or another: What do you do when your dreams run into the roadblocks of real life?

Director Dan Scanlon embraced this concept and made it his own, all the while remaining true to the Monsters, Inc. characters and world. Dans irreverent sense of humor was just the right match for Mike and Sulley, and clicked perfectly with the college setting.

Production designer Ricky Nierva and his frighteningly talented team of artists have created a world for this film that is simultaneously eye-opening and familiar. Theyve managed to seamlessly merge the monster aesthetic of the first filmthe buildings and spaces that accommodate characters of all shapes and sizes, and the monster-y decorative detailswith the dignified architecture and raucous crowds of the archetypal collegiate environment.

It was remarkable to watch entirely new aspects of characters and places we knew so well reveal themselves in the hands of these talented filmmakers. In this book youll see the evolution of their ideasand some of the most gorgeous art weve ever seen at the studio.

Join us as we walk out the door of the Monsters Inc. scare factory and down the streets of Monstropolis.

John Lasseter and Pete Docter