'Monsters Inc.' Disney+ Series Will Bring Back John Goodman And Billy Crystal, Take Place After The First Film
Monsters Inc. is getting incorporated into the Disney+ streaming service. A Monsters Inc TV series titled Monsters at Work will reunite the original movie cast, including John Goodman and Billy Crystal, who so memorably played Sulley and Mike Wazowski in Monsters Inc. and its prequel film Monsters University. Now they'll be reprising their roles in Monsters at Work with several other original cast members, as well as franchise newcomers Ben Feldman, Kelly Marie Tran, Henry Winkler, and Lucas Neff.The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that a Monsters Inc. TV series titled Monsters at Work would be coming to Disney+ and bringing with it the original cast of the first two Monsters Inc. movies. The series will take place six months after the original movie, with the Monstropolis power plant now successfully harvesting children's laughter instead of their screams. Here is the synopsis for Monsters at Work, per THR:
The series follows Tylor Tuskmon (Feldman) an eager and talented mechanic on the Monsters, Inc. Facilities Team who dreams of working on the Laugh Floor alongside Mike and Sulley.
It looks like Sulley and Mike Wazowski won't be the main characters of this series, which makes sense considering the star status of both Goodman and Crystal probably won't let them commit to a full animated series. They'll likely play supporting roles or make a few cameos, along with the rest of the original voice cast including John Ratzenberger (Yeti), Jennifer Tilly (Celia) and Bob Peterson (Roz).
Meanwhile, the new cast members include Kelly-Marie Tran, who voices Tyler's lifelong friend and confidante, Winkler as the scatterbrained boss Fritz, Neff as an opportunistic plumber named Duncan, Alanna Ubach as "officious rule follower" Cutter, Stephen Stanton playing dual roles as the bumbling custodial team Smitty and Needleman, and Aisha Tyler as Tylor's mom.
If any film franchise is ripe to create a series full of The Office-style shenanigans, it's Monsters Inc. The first film already had a droll, tongue-in-cheek tone to them that nailed the redundant office worklife and politics, despite it being about monsters that scared kids for a living. The prequel film, Monsters University, suffered a little when it lost that element, trading workplace shenanigans instead for college Animal House-style antics. A fun movie to see in college to be sure (which is when I saw it), but not a film that ages well beyond that.
Kat Good and Rob Gibbs are set to direct Monsters at Work, which was developed and executive produced by Bobs Gannaway (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). The series will debut after Disney+ launches sometime in 2019.