At the D23 Expo, Disney and Pixar screened a short entitled Party Central that is essentially a spinoff of Monsters University. It was scheduled to bow in theaters with The Good Dinosaur, which was set to be Pixar’s next feature film. However, after the delay of the dinosaur film, the release of Party Central was up in the air. However, the short had been completed and waiting until 2015 to release it did not make sense. Today, we have found out that the short is coming, and it is sooner than you think.
Disney has announced, via Entertainment Weekly, that Party Central will be attached to Muppets: Most Wanted, which is arriving in theaters in March. It is a logical move that allows audiences to return to the world of Monsters University without having to wait years to do so, and at the same time provides those who venture to the newest Muppets film some extra entertainment for the same admission cost.
The official synopsis of Party Central is below:
Mike and Sulley are back at Monsters University for a fun-filled weekend with their Oozma Kappa fraternity brothers. The gang is throwing their first party, but no one’s showing up. Luckily for them, Mike and Sulley have come up with a plan to make sure “Party Central” is the most epic party the school has ever seen.
The short is packed with gags involving “inter-dimensional doors,” which not only gets the party started, but also functions as the source of much of the humor seen on-screen. It follows in the footsteps of the Cars Toons and Toy Story Toons before it, in that it reunites the characters from a previously established franchise and tells a short story without treading on the steps of the story from the feature films. These shorts are a great alternative to endless sequels, in that they let viewers return to the memorable worlds and they do not deflate the importance of the films that came before them.
‘Small Fry’
This is not the first time a Pixar short has been attached to a non-Pixar feature film. Back in 2008, the Cars Toon, Tokyo Mater, was released with Bolt, and in 2011, the Toy Story Toon, Small Fry, was released with The Muppets. The mix of Disney and Pixar films is another example of the closer relationship that the two studios have formed in recent years.
Party Central, which is directed by Monsters University story supervisor Kelsey Mann, debuts in theaters with Muppets: Most Wanted on March 21st!
