Dean Hardscrabble

**Dean Abigail Hardscrabble** is a major character from the 2013 film Monsters University.

## Background

### Development

Hardscrabble, back then known only as the Dean, was conceived as a male character and was based on an alligator. However, late in the production, a few weeks before starting the animation, Dan Scanlon decided the character had to be a female. Character Art Director Jason Deamer says Scanlon likes "to play things again type" and believes that was the trigger of the change, as "a male antagonist Dean is an accepted thing in the college movie genre, so the idea was that it would be more interesting to make her a female; it’s something new". Story Supervisor Kelsey Mann says about the original iteration did not work because "he just came in and did a lot of yelling and screaming and it didn’t really intimidate you. With Hardscrabble's final version It’s a kind of quiet reserved judgment that really sends the chills up your spine".

As a result of the change, the Dean's design had to be remade. A team of character designers, comprising artists that worked on the original Monsters, Inc., was gathered as they went through many designs. Their designs had her based on a number of intimidating animals, such as a crab, scorpion, snake, moth, bat, and owl. The biggest problem and intent came from the need that her appearance had to reflect she is both the dean of the school and a legendary Scarer, two ideas that they found were not necessarily compatible. the team finally settled on using a type of centipede called Scolopendra Gigantea, also known as the Amazonian giant centipede, that combined the creepiness, authority, and elegance they wanted Hardscrabble to have. One was brought to Pixar for reference and was called Kendra the Scolopendra by the MU crew. Hardscrabble's head takes from the crowns of horned lizards, and her wings are based on those of bats and designed to blend into her jacket when folded.

### Personality

Hardscrabble is the archetype of a strict and no-nonsense school headteacher, and not so easily pleased. She is not afraid to point out somebody's shortcomings and even lightly taunts students who do not impress her. She even proved to have a petty streak in personally testing Mike and Sulley on the spot and dismissing them from the program after they had accidentally broken her scream canister which contained the scream she got that broke the Scare Record. She failed Sulley for his disregard of the importance of the studies while she failed Mike because in her professional opinion he was simply not scary despite his academic performances. At the same time, however, she firmly believes in fairness, as she was understandably angered when one of the teams in the Scare Games cheated and when Sulley admitted that he rigged the machinery on the last event to help Mike win. But despite her harsh exterior, the climax of the film depicts Hardscrabble as capable of a certain degree of sympathy. She also has very keen observation, as she knew Mike only joined Oozma Kappa to get back into the program, which is why she changed the bet into letting the whole team into the program, as opposed to just Mike. After Mike bravely made the bet with her and indeed surprised her at the end of the Scare Games, Hardscrabble warms up to both him and Sulley, and is visibly upset at the idea of expelling them from the university, and does her best to encourage them and wish them the best of luck in the future.

While Hardscrabble is far from evil or malicious, her appearance and mannerisms mark her as antagonistic, given that she is Mike and Sulley's primary opponent in the film, in a similar vein to Anton Ego.

## Film Appearances

### Monsters University

Dean Hardscrabble is first seen flying into Professor Knight's classroom, causing all of the lights in the room to go out with a single flap of her wings. Hardscrabble then tells all of Prof. Knight's students (including Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan) that they all have to complete a final exam at the end of the first semester and that those who fail would be kicked out of the Scaring Program. When, during said exam, Mike and Sulley get into a big roar-off which ends with both monsters accidentally breaking her prized scream canister, Hardscrabble appears to take in stride the loss of her old memento. She however retaliates by testing Mike and then Sulley on the spot, finding fault in both (Mike, because in her professional opinion he isn't scary, and Sulley because of his disregard of the importance of studying, causing him to use a reckless and flawed method to scare the hypothetical child) before dismissing them from her program.

However, Mike signs up for the Scare Games with a fraternity of misfit monsters called Oozma Kappa (Sulley joining to round up their numbers) and wagers to the dean that if he makes them win the Games, he'd be readmitted in the program. Hardscrabble agrees to allow Mike and his whole team in the program if they win, but warns him that if they lose, Mike would be expelled from Monsters University. During the Scare Games, Dean Hardscrabble spectates the competition from afar, expecting them to fail. After the first round of the Scare Games where she witnesses Mike and his team lose, she prepares to expel Mike unless a "miracle" would have taken place, which it happens when he and his team were saved from elimination as the other fraternity team got disqualified for cheating. That action results in placing OK back to the games, before Hardscrabble states that Mike's luck would eventually run out. When Sulley confronts her the day before the final event, she asks him if he thinks Mike is scary, which leaves him speechless.

After Sulley comes to her following OK's victory over Roar Omega Roar and shamefully confesses having cheated by tampering with the simulator, lowering its difficulty for Mike's benefit, Hardscrabble indignantly expels him on the spot, with the expectation that he's left the campus by the next day, calling him a disgrace to the university and his family's name, when she is suddenly interrupted by the alert of Mike's intrusion in the door lab, which prompts Sulley to go there to save his friend. When he successfully bypasses campus security to sneak through the door after Mike, Hardscrabble decides to have the lab cleared and the door shut down while waiting for the CDA's arrival to get things under control. She however witnesses the door reactivating and the scream canisters filling up seemingly on their own, forcing her to duck for cover and watch in horror as the door is engulfed in an explosion, from which Mike and Sulley emerge. When she asks Sulley, bewildered, how they managed to break out, he points to Mike as the one responsible for that stunt, to her further shock.

While she has no choice but to expel Mike and Sulley from Monsters University permanently for their actions, she nonetheless honours her agreement by allowing the rest of OK in the scaring program, and catches the two on their way out of the campus to admit that, against her expectations, they did manage to surprise her, and wishes them luck by encouraging them to "keep surprising people".

Her words would eventually come true as Sulley and Mike managed to create a new means of extracting energy through children's laughs, which are much more powerful than screams. Due to this inspirational change in the industry, it is highly possible that she was motivated to redesign the school curriculum to educate and train future Jokesters.