''Party Central'' is a 2013 American animated short film produced by

Pixar Animation Studios Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney S ...

for

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film Film production company, production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios (division), the Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The st ...

and directed by Kelsey Mann. It premiered on August 9, 2013, at the D23 Expo in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orang ...

and was shown in theaters with '' Muppets Most Wanted'' on March 21, 2014. ''Party Central'' is the second short in the ''

Monsters, Inc. ''Monsters, Inc.'' (also known as ''Monsters, Incorporated'') is a 2001 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Featuring the voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, James Cobu ...

'' franchise and takes place shortly after the events of ''

Monsters University ''Monsters University'' is a 2013 American animated Coming-of-age film, coming-of-age comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. A prequel to ''Monsters, Inc.'' (2001), it was directed by Dan Scanlon (in his fea ...

''. 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 * M ...

Plot

Shortly after the events of ''Monsters University'', Mike and Sulley are visiting the university because Oozma Kappa is throwing its first party, but no one has shown up. However, Mike and Sulley have a plan. Using a couple of 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 upset 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 successful party, and many of them decide to pledge the fraternity. In a

post-credits scene A post-credits scene (also known as a stinger, end tag, or credit cookie) is a short teaser clip that appears after the closing credits have rolled and sometimes after a production logo of a film, TV show, or video game has run. It is usually ...

, 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 shouts, "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 comedian, actor, and filmmaker. ...

as Mike *

John Goodman John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He rose to prominence in television before becoming an acclaimed and popular film actor. Goodman has received List of awards and nominations received by John Goodman, various acc ...

as Sulley * Peter Sohn as Squishy *

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

as Sherri *

Charlie Day Charles Peckham Day (born February 9, 1976) is an American actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing Charlie Kelly (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Charlie Kelly on the FX Networks, FX dark comedy ''It's Always Sunny in Phila ...

as Art *

Nathan Fillion Nathan Christopher Fillion (born March 27, 1971) is a Canadian and 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 sta ...

as Johnny *

Dave Foley David 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 fil ...

as Terry * Sean P. Hayes as Terri *

Bobby Moynihan Robert Michael Moynihan Jr. (born January 31, 1977) is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2008 to 2017. Outside of ''SNL'', he has also voiced Louie Duc ...

as Chet *

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

as Don *

Colleen O'Shaughnessey Colleen Ann O'Shaughnessey (born September 15, 1971) is an American voice actress. She is known for providing the voice to Jazz Fenton in '' Danny Phantom'' and Wasp in '' The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes''. Since 2010, O'Shaughnessey ha ...

as Mom * James Kevin Ward as Dad *

Cristina Pucelli Cristina 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 to a family of second-generation Italian immigrants. She studie ...

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 ''

''. 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 animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Peter Sohn and produced by Denise Ream, from a screenplay written by Meg Le ...

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

Release

''Party Central'' premiered on August 9, 2013, at the D23 Expo in

and was shown in theaters with '' Muppets Most Wanted'' 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, the mini-major Amazon MGM Studios, as well as the video streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. F ...

for "some reckless behavior", the first Disney animated short to get higher than a G rating since 1990's '' Roller Coaster Rabbit''. The short was released for streaming on October 21, 2014, on the Disney Movies Anywhere application for

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

and

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

, and on the Disney Movies Anywhere website.

Home media

''Party Central'' was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

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 ki ...

and digital download as part of ''Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 3'' on November 13, 2018.

Critical reception

After being screened at the D23 Expo, BigScreen Animation noted "judging from Twitter, the response was tremendous." ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...

'' 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 2010s American animated films 2013 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 English-language science fiction horror films English-language short films