Pete Docter and the folks at Pixar have turned in one of the year’s best films with “Up” and while the originality of Pixar is never in doubt, it looks like Docter will going back to Monstropolis for a sequel to 2001’s “Monsters Inc.”  According to Jim Hill Media, potential buyers who attended this year’s Licensing International Expo 2009 learned that Docter will follow up “Up” with “Monsters Inc. 2″.  There’s currently no word about plot or whether John Goodman and Billy Crystal would reprise their roles as monsters Sully and Mike Wazowski, but as for when we would see the film, it probably wouldn’t be until 2013.  Currently, Pixar has “Toy Story 3″ set for 2010, “Cars 2″ (the only Pixar film no one is looking forward to) and “The Bear and the Bow” for 2011, and “Newt” for 2012.

But with perhaps the exception of “The Incredibles”, there’s no Pixar film where I’d go out of my mind for a sequel because I thought the original demanded a franchise.  I don’t think a second “Monsters Inc.” film will be bad; I just never saw Pixar as a sequel studio (unlike DreamWorks Animation which in mandating at least two sequels per year).  But as long as they’re continuing with original films, and, more importantly, putting emphasis on story first, then I have no concerns about a “Monsters Inc. 2″ and look forward to seeing if Docter can top his work on “Up”.