Pixar’s Party Central will be hitting theaters on March 21, 2014, ahead of Muppets Most Wanted, and to some of us, the brief wait may feel like an eternity to see our beloved Oozma Kappa characters on the big screen again. Disney UK has just released a short clip showing us just how the OK house will become Party Central!
The clip, driven by Mike Wazowski and Sulley, has the brilliant idea of bringing a door station into the OK house all while using code names for each other (beach ball and throw rug). They seem to have figured out a plan to make the OK house the best party around.
In a recent interview with Moviefone (UPDATED: The link has been removed since the interview is no longer listed), director Kelsey Mann shared some of his ideas while working as a Story Supervisor on Monsters University that he and his team were able to apply to make Party Central the raucous party it is.
Moviefone: Being from the story department, you guys must have had a million ideas about how this party was going to play out. Was there anything that didn’t make it into the short that you desperately wanted to include?
Kelsey Mann: It’s funny… There’s always stuff that doesn’t make its way in, whether it’s the movie or the short. But that’s where the short came from — from the movie. I remember, near the end, I always wanted to see their party. It’s the first thing they say they want, this party. And I said, “We’ve got to have this in the movie! I don’t care if it’s in the credits. I want to see this party.” The idea of doing a short came up and we thought that it was the perfect opportunity to pay off something that we wanted to do in the movie but couldn’t find the right time and the right moment to do it. So it presented a perfect opportunity. When you work in story, you have these ideas that you had five years ago and they can always come back.
Moviefone: Was there anything that resurfaced in this?
Kelsey Mann: Yeah actually… I don’t want to give anything away but the ending came from an idea that we had while working on an earlier version of “Monsters University.” It was a different version of the film and it was a great gag that we always loved, and when we started thinking about what could happen at the party, we thought, What if we bring back that gag from the old version of this movie? So things always come back. If it’s a good idea, sometimes it’s finding the right spot for it. And we found the perfect spot for it.
What else we thought was interesting from the Moviefone article was that this was the first Disney short since Roger Rabbit’s, Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990), to receive a PG rating. This short must be packed with fast-paced antics for sure! As you can see from the additional screenshots below, Mike and Sulley are enjoying a can of “Blort” during a pre-party celebration and Sheri Squibbles doesn’t look too thrilled when she sees the crazy party going on at her home.
For even more information from Mann’s interview, be sure to read the full interview on Moviefone – it is a great read!
We can’t wait to see the rest of this hilarious and fun new Pixar short by first-time director Kelsey Mann and the rest of the Party Central team!
Without a doubt, it will be interesting to see how rowdy it may get! Yeah, it was great to hear more from Kelsey about the story elements as well – so cool how a career at Pixar can just take off in so many directions whether you thought it may or not. Obviously that also happened for him because he's great at what he does and has a ton of passion!
HECK YAH. I'm so pumped for this. Great write up, guys! Loved that interview/article as well. Great insights. It'll be interesting to see just how crazy this party gets with that rating, ha!