Monsters at Work

Monsters at Work
Genre	Comedy Fantasy
Based on	Characters created by Pixar Animation Studios
Developed by	Bobs Gannaway
Voices of	Billy Crystal John Goodman Ben Feldman Mindy Kaling Henry Winkler Lucas Neff Alanna Ubach
Theme music composer	Randy Newman
Composer	Dominic Lewis
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer	Bobs Gannaway
Producers	Sean Lurie Ferrell Barron
Editor	Dan Molina
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production company	Disney Television Animation
Distributor	Disney Platform Distribution
Release
Original network	Disney+
Original release	July 7, 2021 (2021-07-07) – present
External links
Production website

Monsters at Work is an American computer-animated streaming television series. It serves as a sequel to the 2001 film Monsters, Inc. and is part of the Monsters, Inc. media franchise.

The series debuted on the streaming service Disney+ on July 7, 2021.^[1]

Premise[]

Set the day after Henry J. Waternoose III is arrested in Monsters, Inc., the Monsters, Incorporated factory is making the transition to laugh power. Tylor Tuskmon, a recent Scare Major graduate from Monsters University, working as a mechanic in the factory's facilities team, dreams of working alongside Mike and Sulley. Meanwhile, Mike and Sulley encounter the trials and tribulations of running the company.^[2]

With the only exception of the first episode, every episode ends up with a mini-segment titled "Mike's Comedy Class" where Mike tries to teach other monsters about comedy topics, usually with some unexpected results to him.

Cast and characters[]

• Billy Crystal as Mike Wazowski: The self-appointed Senior Co-President of Monsters, Incorporated and Chief Executive Vice-Deputy Administrative Director of Comedy Resources Management, and Sulley's best friend. He is also Tylor's teacher in comedy and a top jokester.
• John Goodman as James P. "Sulley" Sullivan: The CEO of Monsters, Incorporated.
• Ben Feldman as Tylor Tuskmon: A mechanic on the Monsters, Incorporated Facilities Team who graduated from Monsters University as a scarer but is now taking part-time classes to be a jokester.
• Mindy Kaling as Val Little: Tylor's acquaintance from Monsters University who shared a single class with him. She is also an enthusiastic mechanic.
• Henry Winkler as Fritz: Tylor's friendly and scatterbrained one-eyed Tapir-like boss.
• Lucas Neff as Duncan P. Anderson: A cunning, self-absorbed winged four-eyed plumber who is obsessed with getting Fritz's job, and has a rivalry with Tylor.
• Alanna Ubach as Katherine "Cutter" Sterns: the officious crab-like rule follower.
  • Ubach also voices several minor characters, such as Carla "Killer Claws" Benitez, comedy student "Roaring" Rosie Levin, a human mother, and the narrator of the outdated Monsters Incorporated orientation film.

Recurring[]

• Bonnie Hunt as Ms. Flint: A teacher monster who runs the simulation room at Monsters, Incorporated
• John Ratzenberger as Yeti: An abominable snowman who was exiled to the Himalayas.
  • Ratzenberger also voices Bernard Tuskmon: Tylor's father.^[3]
• Jennifer Tilly as Celia Mae: Mike's one-eyed and snake-haired girlfriend who has been promoted from Monsters Incorporated receptionist to Laugh Floor supervisor.^[4]
• Bob Peterson as Roz: The leader of the CDA (Child Detection Agency) who previously was undercover as a secretary, at Monsters, Incorporated.
  • Peterson also voices Roze, Roz's twin sister. She takes over Roz's old job as secretary for Monsters Incorporated, as well as a blue monster with purple horns that shares his name.
• Aisha Tyler as Millie Tuskmon: Tylor's mother.
• Stephen Stanton as Needleman and Smitty: Two workers of Monsters, Incorporated that operate the Door Shredder. They were both originally voiced in the film by the late Daniel Gerson.
  • Stanton also voices George Sanderson, an unlucky scarer who was the victim of the code "23-19", a role played in the original film by Sam Black.

Other cast members include Curtis Armstrong as Mr. Crummyham, series developer Bobs Gannaway as Otis, the Monsters, Incorporated receptionist, and Roto, Duncan's pet,^[4] Gabriel Iglesias as Gary Gibbs, Mike Wazowski's arch-nemesis,^[5] and Dee Bradley Baker as Winchester: the non-verbal member of the Monsters, Incorporated Facilities Team, nicknamed "Banana Bread".^[6] Alfred Molina reprises his role as Professor Derek Knight from Monsters University. Christopher Swindle plays Jeff Fungus and Thaddeus "Phlegm" Bile, roles played in the original film by Frank Oz and Jeff Pidgeon, respectively.

Additional monster voices include Ferrell Barron, Hiromi Dames, Michaela Dietz, Carlos Alazraqui and Dave Wittenberg.

Bob Uecker makes a guest appearance in "The Damaged Room", as a parody of himself named Bob Yucker.^[7]

Gannaway's daughter, Hadley, makes a guest appearance in "Little Monsters" as Ms. Flint's daughter, Thalia.^[8]

Episodes[]

No.	Title [9]	Directed by	Written by	Original release date [9]
1	"Welcome to Monsters, Incorporated"	Kaitlyn Ritter	Bobs Gannaway	July 7, 2021 (2021-07-07)
Henry J. Waternoose III accepts Tylor Tuskmon as an official scarer at Monsters, Incorporated. However, Tylor arrives at the factory the day after Randall's banishment and Waternoose's arrest for their plot to kidnap a thousand human children to forcibly extract their screams for energy.[a] The Board of Directors put Sulley and Mike in charge of the factory and give Roz's old position to her twin sister, Roze. Under Sulley and Mike's new management, the company is revamped and the scarers are now jokesters. Having studied for a discontinued job, Tylor is transferred to MIFT (Monsters, Incorporated Facilities Team) as a maintenance worker, a position he dislikes and is eager to leave. He runs away from his new co-workers, bluffs his way onto the Laugh Floor and attempts to make a child laugh. Because of his lack of experience, his act backfires horribly and results in a major accident. Nevertheless, Sulley believes in him and Tylor reluctantly accepts his position in the facilities crew while Mike decides to teach a comedy class.
2	"Meet Mift"	Shane Zalvin	Bart Jennett	July 7, 2021 (2021-07-07)
The MIFT team puts Tylor through an initiation ceremony, but his lack of enthusiasm and failed test make his future with them seem uncertain. Meanwhile, Mike is struggling to keep up with his positions as both a jokester and a comedy teacher. The energy crisis begins affecting Monsters, Incorporated. While Mike is making a child laugh, an outage causes the doorway portal to deactivate, trapping Mike in the human world. Thanks to Tylor's first successful repair job, Mike is saved. The other members of MIFT learn Winchester's actual name (they had all called him Banana Bread) when he resigns to be a comedian after impressing Ms. Flint; giving Tylor hope that one day he will be a jokester. Mike's Comedy Class: Mike sings a song concerning the possible dangers of comedy.
3	"The Damaged Room"	Shane Zalvin	Bobs Gannaway and Evan Gore & Heather Lombard Based on a Premise by: Travis Braun	July 14, 2021 (2021-07-14)
Phlegm damages a wall in a baby girl's bedroom, forcing MIFT to enter quickly and fix it. The child needs to be removed during the repair, so Mike decides to look after her and ends up nicknaming her Snore, due to her cute snoring. Sulley reveals he got tickets to a baseball game and Mike takes Snore with them to see it. Val tries to remind Tylor of their time together at Monsters University, but he does not recall spending time with her. They manage to fix the wall, but accidentally get trapped. Val admits to Tylor that her time at Monsters University was special to her because he was the only one who spoke to her. Cutter gets them out of the room and Mike brings Snore back and sings her a lullaby to send her back to sleep. As they leave, Tylor gains a greater appreciation for Val and reveals that he does recall speaking to her at Monsters University. Mike's Comedy Class: Mike teaches his class how to use a Whoopee cushion and accidentally sets it off.
4	"The Big Wazowskis"	Kaitlyn Ritter	Bobs Gannaway	July 21, 2021 (2021-07-21)
At Monsters, Incorporated's annual bowling tournament, Mike gets into a heated bet against his charismatic rival/doppelganger Gary. Taking the opportunity to impress Mike, Tylor offers to assemble MIFT into a bowling team to compete on Mike's behalf. An ecstatic Fritz appoints Tylor the team captain, but none of them except Tylor can play well. Competing as "The Big Wazowskis", MIFT fumble their way to the top of the tournament by a series of accidents. Duncan secretly meets with Tylor to replace MIFT in the final match with a more skilled team: Tylor misleads MIFT into thinking the match has been cancelled. On the day of the match, the MIFT team confront Tylor over his lie, and he explains he did not want them to suffer the pain of having lost to Gary's more skilled players: Duncan's team abandons Tylor for his selfishness, but Tylor takes responsibility and leads the MIFT team to turn their accidental flukes into brilliant plays (to Duncan's dismay). However, the match ends up being a tie, forcing Mike and Gary to share the grand prize of a dinner for two at Harryhausen's, much to Mike's chagrin. Mike's Comedy Class: Mike attempts to teach the class about how to deal with hecklers, only to be constantly heckled by Gary. Note: This episode is dedicated to story artist, Robert Gibbs (father of Mary Gibbs, who voiced Boo in Monsters, Inc) who died in 2020.
5	"The Cover Up"	Shane Zalvin	Ricky Roxburgh and Bobs Gannaway	July 28, 2021 (2021-07-28)
When Fritz takes an impromptu vacation to the human world, he spins a wheel to decide who will be temporary supervisor in his absence. The wheel lands on Val, but Duncan plays on everyone's sympathies to guilt Val into allowing him to be temporary supervisor. Duncan wastes no time in abusing the position with outrageous demands, particularly of Tylor. When Tylor engages in a prank to get even, however, Duncan retaliates and the pair accidentally cause a citywide blackout. MIFT reluctantly agrees to cover up the incident, but things get tense when an inspector from the Monstropolis Energy Regulatory Commission arrives and discovers the truth. When he confronts the team, he is accidentally knocked unconscious by a scream canister and the team throw him through Fritz's vacation door and agree to keep quiet. Two weeks later, Fritz and the inspector emerge and the inspector, having enjoyed his own impromptu vacation, decides to let everyone off with a warning. Mike and Sulley confront the team over their fireable offenses but let it slide when both Tylor and Duncan take responsibility for the accident. Mike's Comedy Class: Mike tries to explain the concept of knock-knock jokes but the class fails to understand and Mike, visibly stressed, is carried out on a stretcher.
6	"The Vending Machine"	Kaitlyn Ritter	Michelle Spitz and Bobs Gannaway	August 4, 2021 (2021-08-04)
Tylor accidentally damages Vendy, the MIFT vending machine, leaving him feeling dejected as he has been unsuccessful at repair work since joining Monsters, Incorporated. To make matters worse, profits and morale are down at the company and Fritz is asked to fire one of the members of the team due to budget cuts, leaving him even more stressed following the loss of Vendy. When Mike hears of the situation, he decides to improve company morale by making several outlandish and expensive upgrades to the facility, starting with a brand new vending machine for MIFT. Unfortunately, an argument between Duncan and Tylor leads to the new machine being damaged and Duncan's attempts to repair it make things worse, giving the machine a mind of its own. When it attacks Duncan, Tylor breaks it to save him. Fritz is left heartbroken by the ordeal and announces that, rather than firing one of his team, he will retire. Fortunately, Mike's crazy ideas to boost morale have worked, increasing productivity and profits and Fritz stays on. The next day, Tylor surprises the team by repairing the original Vendy. Mike's Comedy Class: Mike tries to explain the concept of clowns. Unfortunately, some monsters come across as even scarier in clown makeup.
7	"Adorable Returns"	Shane Zalvin	Bobs Gannaway and Ethan Sandler	August 11, 2021 (2021-08-11)
Tylor gets his next chance to become an official jokester, but must help fix the door rails. In his haste, he accidentally gets caught in one and ends up at the banishment door where he meets the Yeti, who now prefers to be called Adorable. Val gets Tylor back, but they accidentally bring Adorable along who reminisces on his past at Monsters, Incorporated. While everyone is afraid of him, it is obvious that he had apparently done nothing wrong. Val goes to see why he got banished to begin with while Tylor opens up to Adorable about how he desperately wants to be a jokester. After coercing him back through the door, Val informs Tylor that Adorable was banished after he discovered a letter from Waternoose in regards to his scream extractor. Tylor gives up his chance to be a jokester so that he can bring him back to Monstropolis where Mike and Sulley formally un-banish him and make him the official Monsters, Inc. snow cone vendor. Mike's Comedy Class: Mike tries to explain the use of a rimshot, but gets interrupted by his assistant Kaitlyn, who ironically stalls when Mike is hit with a boxing glove.
8	"Little Monsters"	Shane Zalvin	Ricky Roxburgh and Bobs Gannaway	August 18, 2021 (2021-08-18)
Tylor repeatedly fails his auditions for the laugh floor and Ms. Flint tells him he may not be meant to be a jokester. However, Tylor sees an opportunity to redeem himself during MI's annual 'Mini Monsters Day' when he volunteers to look after Ms. Flint's daughter but fails to impress her with his jokes. He briefly bonds with her when MIFT executes a daring rescue of a baby monster who got into the door shafts. However, he still fails to make her laugh and rants in front of her, leading her to attempt to tell her mom and Tylor to chase after her, admitting he was just trying to impress her. He earns her respect and she tells MIFT that she enjoyed her day with them and that they are the unsung heroes of Monsters Inc., including Tylor. Later, she tells her mom that she found Tylor funny. Mike's Comedy Class: Mike tries to explain the comedy duo to the class, with help from Sulley, but thinks himself as the straight man in the duo while actually demonstrating why he is the goofball of the pair.
9	"Bad Hair Day"	TBA	TBA	August 25, 2021 (2021-08-25)
10	"It's Laughter They're After"[10]	TBA	TBA	September 1, 2021 (2021-09-01)

Production[]

Development[]

During The Walt Disney Company's earnings call, in November 2017, CEO Bob Iger announced that a new series set in the universe of Monsters, Inc., was in development for their planned streaming service Disney+.^[11] The series is produced by Disney Television Animation.^[12][13] Longtime Disney Television producer Bobs Gannaway serves as showrunner. He was asked to work on the series after development began, due to his experience on both TV animation and films, having directed the Cars spin-off Planes: Fire & Rescue.^[4]

During the 2019 D23 Expo, Gannaway and producer Ferrell Barron revealed that employees from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar were also involved in the production, to create a series that Barron described as "unique and special".^[14] Monsters Inc. filmmakers, including director and Pixar's chief creative officer Pete Docter, provided the team with both used and unused concept art from the film, with the unused concept art being recycled for the series.^[14]

In February 2020, Stephen J. Anderson revealed that he will serve as one of the directors on the series.^[15] Anderson joined the series eight months before Disney Television Animation was temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after being approached personally by Gannaway.^[16] In early 2021, Billy Crystal revealed that production had slightly slowed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that it should be released later that year.^[17]

Writing[]

According to Anderson, Pixar assisted the producers on the series by providing notes during its writing and early storyboarding process in order to "keep [them] on track as far as the legacy of the project".^[16] He also said that the series would differ from the films by further exploring "different areas of Monsters, Inc.", and that the series would further explore the transition in the company from screams to laughs seen at the end of the first film.^[16] Anderson also said that the series would feature an overarching story, but certain episodes would focus more on character development than the overall arc.^[16]

The series will expand the role of the female characters in the original film, with receptionist Celia Mae being promoted to Laugh Floor supervisor in order to "move a female character up into a leadership role", as well as featuring trainer Ms. Flint's reaction to the transition from scares to laughter.^[4] The series also features a new character named Roze, who is Roz's twin sister, as the producers felt that, due to the latter being revealed as the head of the "Child Detection Agency" (CDA) at the end of the first film, "she wouldn't be back outside the laugh floor".^[4] In addition, Bob Peterson, story supervisor on Monsters, Inc., serves as a creative consultant for the series.^[18][19]

According to Gannaway, it took the producers almost a year to conceive the series' premise.^[4] He also compared Tylor's struggles with the transition with the current world status due to the COVID-19 pandemic, feeling that both the character and the audiences had "the universe [throw them] a curveball", which he felt made Tylor a more relatable character by having flaws the audience could connect with.^[4] Gannaway also said he wanted the series to have "the sort of feel of a Pixar story" by making the audience care about Tylor and his personal journey.^[4]

Gannaway originally did not want to include the characters of Smitty and Needleman out of respect for their voice actor, the late Dan Gerson.^[4] However, he eventually incorporated them into the series when he felt Gerson would want the characters to continue even after his death.^[4] Gannaway paid an homage to Gerson by including a "Gerson Industries" logo in the trash cans the duo push.^[4]

In order to get a sense of what it was like working in a factory, the production team visited two power plants and would interview the workers about their day. Gannaway stated, "You want to tether everything to truth. You can't make a movie about a power plant if you haven't walked one; otherwise you're just making stuff up."^[20]

Casting and recording[]

John Goodman and Billy Crystal are confirmed to reprise their roles for the series alongside John Ratzenberger, Jennifer Tilly, and Bob Peterson, with the new cast including Ben Feldman, Kelly Marie Tran, Henry Winkler, Lucas Neff, Alanna Ubach, Stephen Stanton and Aisha Tyler.^[21] In February 2020, director Stephen J. Anderson revealed that recording for the series has already began.^[15] In March 2021, Mindy Kaling and Bonnie Hunt joined the cast, with Kaling replacing Tran as Val Little.^[22] In an interview with The New York Times, it was confirmed that Boo, the human child that Sulley and Mike befriended in the original film, will not be making an appearance. Bobs Gannaway stated that he had discussions with Monsters, Inc. director Pete Docter, and they both agreed that they wanted to keep the relationship ambiguous, and said, "Everyone agreed that we wanted to leave it to the world to decide how that relationship continued."^[23][24]

Animation and design[]

Animation for the series was produced by ICON Creative Studio, in Canada.^[25] Animation work on the series began shortly before Disney Television Animation was closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the producers to continue work remotely.^[16] According to director Stephen J. Anderson, work on storyboards and layouts for the second and third episodes were done remotely during the pandemic.^[16]

Music[]

British composer Dominic Lewis (who previously scored the 2017 reboot of DuckTales) was announced as the series composer. Lewis said the score was mainly inspired by Randy Newman's jazzy score from the first film. Lewis also performed the theme song, which is an a cappella rendition of Newman's opening credits music from the first film.^[26] The soundtrack album was released digitally and on streaming on July 9, 2021.

Monsters at Work
Soundtrack album by Dominic Lewis
Released	July 9, 2021 (2021-07-09)
Recorded	2020–2021
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	37:26
Label	Walt Disney Records
Producer	Dominic Lewis

Track listing[]

All tracks are written by Dominic Lewis, except where indicated.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Monsters at Work Main Title - A Cappella"	Randy Newman	2:09
2.	"Comedy Can Be Dangerous" (Performed by Billy Crystal)	Randy Rogel	0:48
3.	"Don't Stop Now"		1:08
4.	"End of the Line"		1:21
5.	"Friends"		1:22
6.	"World on Fire"		2:12
7.	"I'm Not Gonna Sing You a Song" (Performed by Billy Crystal)	Danny Jacob (m) & Bobs Gannaway (l)	1:04
8.	"Scarer Cum Laude"		2:19
9.	"MIFTers MIFTers"		1:43
10.	"36 1/2 Hour Energy Drink"		1:13
11.	"Googly Bear Trapped"		3:48
12.	"I Know Bowlers"		1:06
13.	"Angel Hair"		2:06
14.	"Get Giggles"		4:36
15.	"The Doors"		3:12
16.	"Official Jokester"		4:08
17.	"Monsters at Work Main Title - Instrumental"	Newman	2:17
18.	"Monsters at Work Main Title - Toy Piano"	Newman	0:47
Total length:			37:26

Marketing[]

A teaser trailer for the series was released on May 18, 2021.^{[27][28][29][30]} The first trailer for the series was released on June 11, 2021.^{[31][32][33][34]}

Release[]

Monsters at Work debuted on July 7, 2021, releasing weekly on Wednesdays,^[35] and will consist of 10 episodes.^[36] It was previously set to release sometime in 2020,^[37] but then changed to Spring 2021,^[38] then to July 2, 2021,^[39] then finally to its current date, with a two-episode premiere.^[40]

Reception[]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 65% approval rating with an average score of 6.20/10 based on 26 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "If Monsters at Work doesn't quite capture the magic of the original film, it's charming and silly enough to entertain fans of all ages."^[41] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 55 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[42]

Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone rated the show 3.5 out of 5 and stated, "Combine them with some well-executed slapstick set pieces that evoke the two movies without feeling like rehashes, and the early episodes set up the foundation for a solid all-ages comedy."^[43] Chris Vognar of San Francisco Chronicle rated the show 2 out of 4 and wrote, "This is a solid effort, even if it doesn't quite shimmer like your top-of-the-line Pixar favorites."^[44] Brian Lowry of CNN gave the show a positive review and said, "The show doesn't deliver belly laughs, but it nimbly slides into the Monsters [Inc.] timeline and cleverly builds on a particularly fertile Pixar concept."^[45] Ben Travers of Indiewire gave the show a 'B-' score and stated, "If you love original movies and were expecting a third, Monsters at Work might be a bit disappointing. But if you can still appreciate the world-building, [the] series might still hit its laugh quotas."^[46] Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times gave the show 3 out of 4 and stated, "Monsters at Work isn't on the same level as the two feature films, but it's miles ahead of the likes of The Return of Jafar or Kronk's New Groove."^[47]

Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the show a negative review and stated, "Any hope that the Pixar charm would rub off on a Pixar show like Monsters at Work doesn't pay off in the first two episodes."^[48] Lucy Mangan of The Guardian gave the show 2 out of 5 stars and stated, "It feels like a long wait at times. The first two half-hour episodes (the only ones of the 10 that were available for review) are extraordinarily slow."^[49] Anita Singh of The Daily Telegraph gave the show 2 out of 5 and stated, "Bafflingly, it's a workplace comedy. Note to Disney: children don't go to work."^[50] Scott Bryan of BBC gave the show a negative review and stated, "As someone who loves the films, I wonder ... do we need more of it? The films are so well self-contained. This feels like an excess of something we don't really need."^[51]

Notes[]

References[]