Billy Crystal talks Monsters Inc. 2

It’s been ten years since the last Monsters Inc. film, but production is well underway at Pixar Studios of the 2013 prequel, Monsters University.

Billy Crystal, voice of half of Monsters Inc.’s valiant dual leads (the small, green half), spoke about returning for the prequel at the American Cinematheque Event for a 20th anniversary screening of ‘City Slickers’.

Returning with John Goodman as the voice of James P. Sullivan, Crystal confirmed Pixar hasn’t lost it’s touch after the recent slating of Cars 2. “It’s really a great script, it’s really funny.”

A marathon recording session preceded the event, where Crystal “spent five-and-a-half hours for [their] fourth session on Monsters Inc. 2.” The film, set long before the original, details how Sullivan and Crystal’s character Michael Wazowski met in college.

“It’s how they met, it’s how Michael and Sully meet, and plan to become scarers at Monsters Inc.,” Crystal told an audience last Friday. “So this movie ends where the other one starts.”

Pixar’s record with sequels is temperamental - the Toy Story trilogy is testament to how well they can work, while Cars 2 might argue otherwise - but prequels are new territory for the animation specialists.

But expectations will undoubtedly be great from such a high calibre studio. And with material such as this, it’s no surprise: Crystal, 63, elaborated that “it’s college pranks with monsters. And I wear a retainer. Mike has a retainer.”