''Party Central'' is a 2013 American computer-animated

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

produced by

Pixar Animation Studios Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

for

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...

and directed by Kelsey Mann. It premiered on August 9, 2013 at the

D23 Expo D23: The Official Disney Fan Club is the official fan club for The Walt Disney Company. Founded in 2009, the organization is known mainly for its biennial exposition event, the D23 Expo. The name ''D23'' refers to ''D'' for ''Disney'' and ''23'' ...

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...

and was shown in theaters with ''

Muppets Most Wanted ''Muppets Most Wanted'' is a 2014 American musical crime comedy film and the eighth theatrical film featuring the Muppets. Directed by James Bobin and written by Bobin and Nicholas Stoller, the film is a sequel to ''The Muppets'' (2011) and sta ...

'' on March 21, 2014. ''Party Central'' is the second short in the '' Monsters, Inc.'' franchise and takes place shortly after the events of '' Monsters University''. The short involves Mike and Sulley helping their Oozma Kappa fraternity brothers make their party a success. It is the only ''Monsters, Inc.'' production to be rated PG by the

MPA MPA or mPa may refer to: Academia Academic degrees * Master of Performing Arts * Master of Professional Accountancy * Master of Public Administration * Master of Public Affairs Schools * Mesa Preparatory Academy * Morgan Park Academy * Mou ...

Plot

Mike Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and docume ...

and Sulley are visiting Monsters University for the weekend to see how their Oozma Kappa fraternity brothers are doing. The group is throwing its first party, but no one has shown up. Fortunately, Mike and Sulley have a plan to liven up the house. Using a couple borrowed door stations, they sneak into a party at the Roar Omega Roar fraternity and steal all of its food and guests to fill the Oozma Kappa house. The supply runs take them through the closet doors of a married couple's bedroom, repeatedly disturbing their sleep. Once they have the party fully stocked, Scott "Squishy" Squibbles' mother Sherri walks in on it while doing a load of laundry. She is angry with the fraternity, but only because they did not invite her. After lighting a bonfire on the lawn, Sherri introduces the crowd to "door jumping"/"door jamming", involving jumping from the roof with the help of two doors to land safely on the lawn. The guests congratulate the Oozma Kappas for throwing a great party, and many of them decide to pledge the fraternity. In a

post-credits scene A post-credits scene (commonly referred to as a stinger or credit cookie) or mid-credits scene is a short clip that appears after all or some of the closing credits have rolled and sometimes after a production logo of a film, TV series, or video g ...

, the husband and wife wake their son Timmy up and ask if they can sleep with him, saying that there are monsters in their closet. Timmy vehemently replies, "That's what I've been trying to tell you!".

Voice cast

Billy Crystal William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...

John Goodman John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the American Broadcasting Company, ABC comedy series ''Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he rec ...

as Sulley *

Peter Sohn Peter Sohn (born October 18, 1977) is an American animator, voice actor, storyboard artist, and film director. He is known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios as the director of 2015's ''The Good Dinosaur''. He has also been the voice of Emil ...

as Squishy *

Julia Sweeney Julia Anne Sweeney (born October 10, 1959) is an American actress, comedian, and author, who gained fame as a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1990 to 1994. She played Mrs. Keeper in the film ''Stuart Little'' and voiced Brittany in ' ...

as Sherri *

Charlie Day Charles Peckham Day (born February 9, 1976) is an American actor, writer, producer and podcaster. He is best known for playing Charlie Kelly on the FX comedy ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' (2005–present), which he co-created with Rob ...

as Art *

Nathan Fillion Nathan Fillion (; born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian-American actor. He played the leading roles of Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds on '' Firefly'' and its film continuation '' Serenity'', and Richard Castle on '' Castle''. , he was starring as J ...

as Johnny *

Dave Foley David Scott Foley (born January 4, 1963) is a Canadian actor, stand-up comedian, director, producer and writer. He is known as a co-founder of the comedy group The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of television, stage and ...

as Terry * Sean P. Hayes as Terri *

Bobby Moynihan Bobby Moynihan (born January 31, 1977) is an American actor, comedian and writer who was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2008 until 2017. He also voiced Louie Duck on Disney's ''DuckTales'' from 2017 to 2021, Panda in ''We Bare Be ...

as Chet *

Joel Murray Joel Murray (born April 17, 1963) is an American comedy actor. He is well known for his roles in the television series ''Mad Men'', ''Grand'', '' Love & War'', '' Dharma & Greg'', '' Still Standing'', and '' Shameless''. He has also appeared in ...

as Don *

Colleen O'Shaughnessey Colleen Ann O'Shaughnessey (born September 15, 1971) is an American voice actress. She is best known as the voice of Sora Takenouchi in the ''Digimon'' anime, Jazz Fenton in ''Danny Phantom'', Wasp in '' The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes'' ...

as Mom * James Kevin Ward as Dad *

Cristina Pucelli Cristina R. Pucelli (; born June 11, 1969) is an American voice actress. She is best known for her voices in animated series and video games. Early life and education Pucelli was born on June 11, 1969, in Orange County, California, to a family ...

as Timmy

Production

According to the short's writer/director Kelsey Mann, "When you first meet the Oozma Kappas, they go to their fraternity house and the first thing they say is, 'Welcome to Party Central! We haven’t thrown a party yet, but when we do we’ll be ready,'... I kept telling irector Dan canlon 'I really want to see their party. We have to do it in the credits or something.' Then when the idea of doing a short came up, we were like, 'That could be the party!'" The short took around eight months to make, to which the voices were recorded near end of production of '' Monsters University''. Mann stated "We would do a couple of pickup lines with

and the other actors for the movie and then we’d get the stuff we needed for the short." ''Party Central'' was initially considered as a bonus feature for the ''Monsters University'' DVD, but the decision was later made to release the short theatrically. It was originally scheduled to be shown in theaters with ''

The Good Dinosaur ''The Good Dinosaur'' is a 2015 American computer-animated adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film was directed by Peter Sohn (in his feature directorial debut) an ...

'' until the film was shifted from 2014 to 2015.

Release

''Party Central'' premiered on August 9, 2013 at the

and was shown in theaters with ''

'' on March 21, 2014. ''Party Central'' received a PG rating from the

MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...

for "some reckless behavior", the first Disney animated short to get higher than a G rating since 1990's ''

Roller Coaster Rabbit The ''Roger Rabbit'' shorts are a series of animated short films produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation from 1989 to 1993. The anthology features Roger Rabbit, the animated protagonist from '' Who Framed Roger Rabbit'', being enlisted the task ...

''. The short was released for streaming on October 21, 2014, on the

Disney Movies Anywhere Movies Anywhere (MA) is a cloud-based digital rights locker and over-the-top streaming platform that allows users to stream and download purchased films, including digital copies redeemed from codes found in home video releases as well as d ...

application for iPhone and

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, and on the Disney Movies Anywhere website.

Home media

''Party Central'' was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and digital download as part of ''Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 3'' on November 9, 2018.

Critical reception

After being screened at the D23 Expo, BigScreen Animation noted "judging from Twitter, the response was tremendous." '' Newsday'' said "It starts with a simple plot idea and escalates in classic comedy form." Rotoscopers wrote "This short film was a cool, funny idea. Not a story. It was literally a sequence of jokes with no emotional core whatsoever."

References

External links

* at Disney * at Pixar * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Party Central 2013 films 2013 computer-animated films 2013 short films 2010s American animated films 2010s animated short films 2010s English-language films 2010s monster movies Films about fraternities and sororities Films directed by Kelsey Mann Monsters, Inc. Pixar short films