Today marked the beginning of a new year and we all know that many new beginnings – began at college. During the Rose Bowl broadcast this afternoon, Monsters University released its first televised spot.
The spot now uploaded to YouTube (via MonstersU1313) showcases the university allowing you to imagine yourself at Monsters University.
In addition to truly wishing that Monsters University was a real university, we would really be foolish if we didn’t talk about the amazing animation that is highlighted in this short clip. The lighting is phenomenal with the warm glow of a 9:05 AM beginning of fall sunrise (9:05 is the time shown on the clock tower). The characters seem as quirky as ever and the colors and textures of the monsters are insanely good! Also, the lens flare and depth of field that are shown throughout the video are amazing as well – if the movie looks even half as good as this clip, we’re in for a visual gift for sure!
I don’t know if I’m overthinking this or not, but the mural above the “School of Door Technology” reminded me a lot of the mural that is in the Detroit Institute of Art by the amazing artist, Diego Rivera. The mural (pictured below), commissioned by Henry Ford himself, depicts the combination of the auto industry and technology in Detroit culture. For those that also may not know, the director of Monsters University, Dan Scanlon, is a Michigan native. We’re wondering if he included this as a subtle tribute to his Detroit roots? What are your thoughts?
I also thought it was neat to be able to compare the buildings in the TV spot to the campus map to get a better feel of the layout of the university grounds.
UPDATED: January 2, 2013. Director, Dan Scanlon tweeted a link to the Monsters University website that tells the fictional story of sisters, Jennifer and Jessica Riddlebarger’s project which spawned the video clip shown above (UPDATED: The website is no longer active, the links have been removed).
