Pixar’s movies are rightly praised for their story sense and tight plotting, but scripting them is hardly a solo affair: In fact, as you’ll see in this exclusive video, Pixar story meetings are sort of akin to a sitcom writers’ room, where the studio’s best and brightest sit around a table, pitch jokes, and try to make each other laugh. That process paid off for Monsters University (out on DVD October 29), which is packed with all sorts of blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em gags, some of which originated from the meeting in this video. It isn’t enough just to have a monster with eighteen eyes, for example — how can you put that creature to even better use with an additional gag playing off of all those peepers? Watch as John Lasseter and his writers try to figure it out.
