Pixar releases viral tease for ‘Monsters University,’ plus concept art for upcoming movies

The venerable computer animation wizards at Pixar ("Toy Story," "Finding Nemo," "Up") have released a new teaser for “Monsters University” in the form of a fake commercial promoting the titular creature college. The prequel to 2001’s “Monsters Inc.,” “Monsters University” follows younger incarnations of future kid scarers Sulley (John Goodman) and Mike (Billy Crystal) during their wild college days at MU, better known as the University of Fear.

Aired, quite appropriately, during the Rose Bowl – an annual U.S. college football game – the chipper half-minute promo shows off the gorgeous MU campus and a variety of students studying to become the next generation of closet monsters. Taking their viral marketing campaign a step further, the fake ad also includes a link to MU’s fully functional website, where visitors can learn about the students and faculty, the programmes offered (including the School of Scaring and the School of Liberal Arts & Monstrosities), and even school swag so that you can pretend you went to MU. Finally!

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Goodman and Crystal aren’t the only returning voice talents. Steve Buscemi and Frank Oz reprise their roles as Randall Boggs and Jeff Fungus, respectively, and are joined by series newcomers Kelsey Grammar (who replaces the late James Coburn in the role of Monsters Inc. CEO Henry J. Waternoose III), Dave Foley, Rob Riggle, and Ken Jeong. “Monsters University” hits theatres on June 21, 2013.

In addition to the new teaser for the next “Monsters” film, Pixar fans got another nice little treat this week in the form of concept art from the studio’s upcoming slate of films. Comingsoon.net received a New Year’s greeting card from Pixar that included some nifty pre-production art from “The Good Dinosaur,” “The Inside Out,” and “The Untitled Pixar Movie about Día de los Muertos.”

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Not much is known about the three films, which are slated for a 2014, 2015, and 2016 release, respectively, but the artwork offers at least some clues as to what the famously secretive animation studio has in store in the coming years. According to the attached synopses, “The Good Dinosaur” imagines a world in which the dinosaurs never went extinct, “The Inside Out” explores the human mind, and the “Untitled Pixar Movie about Día de los Muertos” focuses on - you guessed it -the macabre Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead. None of this is much to go on, of course, but it appears as though Pixar will continue to create rich and interesting computer animated worlds for the foreseeable future.