Monsters University (2013)

Michael Wazowski, a young lonely monster who is despised by his fellow classmates due to the fact that he is not scary, aspires to become a scarer – a monster who enters the human world at night to scare children and harvest their screams for energy – after visiting Monsters, Inc. – Monstropolis’ most profitable scaring company – on a school field trip. Eleven years later, Wazowski is now a first-year scare major at Monsters University (similar to Harvard University) where he meets Randall Boggs, his roommate who he becomes immediate friends with, and James P. Sullivan, who he immediately becomes bitter rivals with, as Sullivan tells Wazowski he doesn’t have a chance as a scarer.

Wazowski studies hard and excels, while the privileged Sulley, coming from a family of talented scarers, relies only on his natural ability and begins to falter. As the semester progresses, Wazowski and Sullivan attempt to join a fraternity, but only Sullivan is accepted into Roar Omega Roar, the most prestigious fraternity on campus. At the semester’s final exam, the two’s rivalry escalates into a fight between them and causes them to accidentally break Dean Abigail Hardscrabble’s cherished scream canister; Hardscrabble fails them both on the spot, citing Wazowski’s complete lack of scariness and Sullivan’s laziness, to which Roar Omega Roar promptly expels Sullivan.

Wanting to prove himself, Wazowski enters the university’s “Scare Games” and makes a deal with Hardscrabble: she will reinstate him and his team to the scare program if they win, but Wazowski must leave the university if they lose. He joins a fraternity of misfits named Oozma Kappa, consisting of nervous son Scott “Squishy” Squibbles, middle-aged president Don Carlton, polar-opposite twins Terri and Terry Perry who shares each other’s body, and shaggy and big-legged Art, but they are initially denied entry to the Games for being one team member short. At first, Wazowski selects Boggs a part of Oozma Kappa, but he is part of Roar Omega Roar after Sullivan’s expulsion. So Wazowski reluctantly lets Sullivan join them upon seeing the competition as his only way back into the scare program. Oozma Kappa finishes last in the first challenge, but are saved from elimination when Jaws Theta Chi is disqualified for using an illegal protective gel. Oozma Kappa improves gradually due to Wazowski’s training and intricate knowledge of scaring and they advance through each following challenge, finishing second to Roar Omega Roar. In the final round, they defeat Roar Omega Roar with a decisive final scare by Wazowski in the simulation bedroom. However, Wazowski discovers that he only won because Sulley secretly rigged the machine to give Wazowski a maximum score.

Determined to prove that he can become a scarer, Wazowski breaks into the school’s door-making lab where he enters a door to the human world, but upon finding himself at a summer camp in a cabin full of children that aren’t scared of him, he is forced to flee into the woods. Hardscrabble forbids anyone else from going through the door, but Sullivan sneaks through to rescue Mike. After reconciling, they try to return, but are unable to exit after Hardscrabble deactivates the door while waiting for the authorities to arrive. Pursued by camp rangers, Wazowski realizes that the only way to escape is to generate enough scream energy to power the door from their side. Working together, Sullivan and Wazowski terrify the camp rangers and generate an overwhelming amount of scream energy, returning to the lab seconds before the device overloads and explodes in front of a surprised Hardscrabble.

Sullivan and Wazowski are expelled from the university, while the other members of Oozma Kappa are accepted into the scare program for the next semester as Hardscrabble was impressed by their performances in the Games. Carlton announces that he is going to marry Squibbles’ mother, Sheri. As Wazowski leaves on the bus, Sullivan chases him to raise his spirits. Hardscrabble then appears and wishes them good luck, stating that they were the first students to have surprised her.

Sometime later, Oozma Kappa officially become Scarers at Monsters, Inc., Boggs leaves Roar Omega Roar and becomes a Scarer at Monsters, Inc., and Wazowski and Sullivan join the scare team.