Want a peek at Circle 7’s unproduced “Monsters, Inc.” sequel?

Jim Hill

14 years ago

Drop what you’re doing right now. Seriously.

Why For? Because truly cool things like this have a way of disappearing
on the Web. Lawyers suddenly swoop in and something simply amazing that was there
a minute ago is then gone forever.

Which is why you need to head over to the Bob & Rob “Professional
American Screenwriters” blog this minute. So that you can then get a glimpse of what Circle 7 Studios’ “Monsters, Inc.
” sequel would have been like.

Circle 7 (for those of you who don’t remember) was the
animation studio that Mouse House managers set up back in 2005 when it looked
like Disney & Pixar would be parting ways.
With the idea being that this Glendale-based operation would then
produce sequels to “Toy Story,” “A Bug’s Life,” “The Incredibles,” “Finding Nemo,”
“Cars” and “Monsters, Inc.”

Mind you, once The Walt Disney Company announced that it
would be acquiring Pixar Animation Studios in January 2006, all work on those
Circle 7 Animation sequels effectively stopped. More to the point, John
Lasseter reportedly said that – from here on in — only Pixar employees would work
on any sequels that his animation studio might produced.

Which is why John supposedly deliberately didn’t look at any
of the concept art, beat boards and/or story reels that Circle 7 staffers had
created for these proposed sequels. Lasseter allegedly wanted any follow-up
film that Pixar eventually produced to be untainted by other people’s ideas.

Which I can appreciate from an artistic point of view. But
that said … Given that – for the 5 past years – I’ve heard dozens of animation
insiders sing the praises for “Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in Scaradise,” how the “Monsters,
Inc.” sequel that Disney’s Circle 7 Studios had in the works was supposedly as
good – if not better – than the original film … Well, I just wish that Lasseter
had made an exception with this one project and checked out some of the “Lost
in Scaradise” storyboards.

Because – based on what I’ve seen — Bob & Rob came up
with a genuinely brilliant premise for this “Monsters, Inc.” follow-up film. Which
was to have gotten underway when Mike & Sulley dropped by Boo’s room to wish her a happy
birthday …

… only to discover that somebody different is sleeping in
Boo’s room.

It seems that Boo & her family have moved since Mike & Sulley last visited with this cute little toddler. And Sulley is so
determined to see Boo again that he & Mike actually venture out in the
human world in order to find her.

But the neat conceit of “Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in Scaradise”
is that once Mike & Sulley cross over into the human world, they then aren’t
allowed to return to Monstropolis until they actually reunite with Boo. Which –
as you might expect – would have caused considerable friction between these
longtime friends.

Doesn’t that sound a killer idea? Trust me, the bare bones
description that I’ve given above doesn’t really do justice to the teaser trailer
that Bob, Rob & the crew at Circle 7 Animation Studios cooked using only a
handful of “Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in Scaradise” story sketches.

Which is what Bob & Rob currently have up on their “Professional
American Screenwriters” site. Which is why you have to head over there right
now and see this thing before … Well, before some suit at Disney then tells
them to take this teaser trailer done.

Now where this gets interesting is that the “Monsters, Inc.”
sequel that Pixar Animation Studios currently has in development supposedly isn’t
a follow-up to the first film. But – rather – a prequel. A “When Mikey Met
Sulley,” if you will (Which – given that Billy Crystal starred in Rob Reiner‘s 1989
romantic comedy, “When Harry Met Sally” –
you have to admit that that’s a nice bit of cinematic symmetry right there).

So the story ideas that you’ll looking at today over on Bob
& Rob’s blog basically has nothing with the film that Pixar hopes to
release to theaters in November of 2012.

But given what a clever premise “Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in
Scaradise” has, what obvious potential for humor, suspense and heart this proposed
production had … Don’t you wish that Lasseter had let the folks up in
Emeryville at least taken a look at this stuff? Before all this artwork &
all these story sketches then got locked away in the Disneyana equivalent of
that warehouse at the end of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” where they hid the Ark
of the Covenant.

Anyway … Seriously, don’t dawdle today, folks. Head over to
Bob & Rob “Professional American Screenwriters” ASAP and then go check out
the “Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in Scaradise” teaser trailer that’s been posted on
this blog.

Your thoughts?