Henry J. Waternoose III holding a full Scream Canister
Laugh Canisters formerly known as Scream Canisters are objects in the films Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University used to store power used to energize the Monster World's technology.
Properties[]
Their purpose is initially to store up the scream power of human kids that the Scarers collect. Each scream canister would be taken to a different room in the factory, where the screams would be extracted and refined into energy.
The prototype larger canister.
Later, the company additionally began collecting children's laughs when they discovered laughs are ten times more powerful than screams. When Tylor saved the company using a larger, 10x capacity laugh canister to hit 1,000,000 gigglewatts, Laugh Canisters were created which are significantly bigger than scream canisters. They are apparently able to carry ~2,000-3,000 gigglewatts a canister. Compared to the existing canisters, which were about 2/3 the height of a door, they are now almost the height of the door. The stations at the laugh floors were modified to better fit the larger canisters. However, other companies use scream power still.
During a C.R.E.E.P. Show event other types of power are shown being stored in power canisters, such as exercise energy, burp energy, and fart energy.
A canister breaking due to being used when Scream and Laugh power was in in the same canister.
It is shown in Monsters at Work that Laugh and Scream Power don't mix well - the ending of Season 2 episode "A Monstrous Homecoming" has the energy readout have black bubbles show up on a canister Tylor filled with both laugh and scream power, and in "The C.R.E.E.P. Show" that exact canister is shown to afflict damage to show property and overload other canisters when power was pulled out from it.
Usually, a canister incorrectly discharged or that is malfunctioning and leaking will have the top and bottom parts "spring off" and separate from the middle when fully discharged.
Sunny holding a device that checks the percentage of how much power is stored in a canister.
A malfunctioning canister may also appear to leak invisibly, draining when the canister power reading appears full. An external device can be used to detect how much power is actually stored in the canister, as seen in the season two episode "Opening Doors".
Notible canisters[]
A notable scream canister belonged to Dr. Abigail Hardscrabble, the Dean of the School of Scaring at Monsters University. This canister contained the scream Hardscrabble collected, during her old career as a Scarer, that broke the All-Time Scare Record. However, it was accidentally knocked over from its pedestal by Sulley when he and Mike were trying to scare each other. The canister clattered on the ground, loosening its containment-lock, and unleashing the scream inside, causing it to fly about the Scaring School's lecture hall until the scream ran out and it broke. At first, Hardscrabble "appeared" to take the loss of her "one souvenir from a life-time of Scaring" rather well, citing, "Accidents happen", and amending the situation since "the important thing [was] no one got hurt." However, Hardscrabble then retaliated against Mike and Sulley by testing them on the spot personally, finding fault in each of them and judging them unfit to continue with the Scaring Program: Mike, because she deemed him, in her professional opinion, not scary, and Sulley for disregarding the study of Scaring. She suspended James P. Sullivan and Mike Wazowski both from the Scaring Program, banishing them both to the class of Scream Can Design so that their careers will dread their own scaring winnings away.
It is unknown what became of Hardscrabble's canister afterwards.
Trivia[]
- When a device is used to scan the power of a laugh canister to detect any potential leaks, a sound similar to the Kingdom Hearts selection sound is played when the detection reads 100% full.
Gallery[]
