Monsters Inc Prequel ConfirmedWord has been bandied about for the last couple of months that Pixar would follow the the lead of Toy Story 3 by focusing on making a prequel to its wildly popular Monsters, Inc. animated feature of 2001.

And apparently that's true as the company officially confirmed yesterday at Cinema Con that their follow-up to Monsters. Inc will indeed be a prequel and will officially be titled Monster University.

The film will again feature the voice talents of John Goodman and Billy Crystal and focus on Mike and Sully's early years when they honed their fright skills at Monsters University, how they met, and what led them to became best of friends.

No writers or directors have been announced and a firm date has yet to be nailed down but they're aiming for a late 2012 release. That timing is a bit odd considering nearly all Pixar films have been released in the late May slot - which has worked out well for them - but then again, Monsters Inc did release in early November so, perhaps they're going to go there again.

UPDATE: We just got word via ComingSoon.net (with Disney's confirmation) that Dan Scanlon will direct the film. Scanlon has previously worked on other Pixar films like Cars and Toy Story 3 as well as directing the spin-off short-feature Mater and the Ghostlight. Sounds like the film is in good hands!

UPDATE 2: Following is the logo to the film which was discovered over at the Pixar blog. Apparently, the logo was registered with the patent office a few weeks ago. Enjoy:

Monsters University Logo