Monsters at Work is an animated series based on Monsters, Inc. It was first confirmed in a Disney press release on November 9, 2017 as a Disney+ exclusive. It was originally set for premiere in 2020, but it was delayed to July 2, 2021 and then to July 7, 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This series is a sequel (though the first season is an interquel as the season takes place after Waternoose' arrest, before Boo's door got repaired) to the film and was developed by Bobs Gannaway.
A second season was announced to release on May 5, 2024 (airing on the Disney Channel a month earlier on April 5) with Prep & Landing's Kevin Deters replacing Gannaway as showrunner.
The show started airing on January 6, 2023 on the Disney Channel.
Following the arrest of Waternoose, Monsters, Inc., the power plant at its center, now harvests the laughter of children to fuel the city of Monstropolis, just in time for new Monsters University graduate Tylor Tuskmon to find that his scaring degree has been made obsolete. Becoming a talented mechanic on the Monsters, Inc. Facilities Team while working on honing his comedy skills, he eagerly dreams of working on the Laugh Floor alongside Mike and Sulley.
In the second season, after having achieved this goal, Tuskmon develops doubts over his abilities to be a jokester since his joke has become less effective in making children laugh and insecurities over the lesser prestige the new field holds compared to scaring. He receives a job offer from former Monsters University fraternity president of Roar Omega Roar, Johnny Worthington III who now works as the president and CEO of Fear Co, a rival energy company that still carries on the centuries long scaring tradition, forcing him into making a choice between his friends and the career path he originally dreamed of. Meanwhile, Mike and Sulley are trying to promote laughter as a new source of power for all the city of Monstropolis after its success in saving Monsters Inc. from closing down.
It is also the first TV series based on a Pixar property to be made after Disney's acquisition of Pixar in January 2006.
This is the first Pixar TV series where the original voice cast reprise their roles.
This is John Ratzenberger's first involvement in a Pixar production since Onward, only by eighteen months prior, as he was absent from both Soul (despite having a caricature in the film) and Luca.
This is the first 3D animated series based on a 3D animated film. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Tangled: The Series, and Big Hero 6: The Series are all 2D animated series based on 3D animated films.
This is the first non-Disney Junior series from Disney Television Animation to be animated in CGI.
According to Billy Crystal, the first season consists of ten episodes.
The first season serves as a gap sequel of the movie because it picks up one day following Henry J. Waternoose III's arrest near the end of the original movie but takes place before the "epilogue" in which Mike rebuilt Boo's door and reunited with Sulley. The connection with the epilogue is seen in "It's Laughter They're After", which recreates the scene to further tie Season 1's events to the film. Boo is not brought back to the series as the creators wished to keep her relationship with Sulley following the events of the first movie up to the interpretation of the viewers. It has nothing to do with not loving Boo and not wanting to see her again, it's just that the relationship is so precious that they want to leave it at that. However, Boo is mentioned in "The Damaged Room", "It's Laughter They're After", and "Lights! Camera! Chaos!" despite not appearing in any of those episodes.
As shown at the end of "It's Laughter They're After", it shows the same scene from the movie where Sulley gets surprised by Boo's door being reconstructed.
Boo was actually reconsidered to appear in the series in Season 2, where her reunion would have be shown with Sulley and Mike again and she would have rejoin them on their adventures, although the motion between Sulley and Mike would have started to change as she entered. However, she never physically appeared in that season either, with her only appearances being mentions and in the picture she drew of herself and Sulley, which the latter has still kept since the events of the original film.
Randall did not appear in Season 1 or most of Season 2 (nor was he mentioned), due to him being banished in the human world in a southern swamp where he was mistaken by a trailer family for an alligator. This also takes place after he got banished. But unlike Boo being mentioned a couple times, he hasn't once been mentioned throughout the series. He made his grand return at the end of the Season 2 episode, "Descent into Fear", followed by a major role in the season finale, "Powerless".
Mr. Waternoose is arrested from the company and is no longer the owner of the factory and thus does not appear in the series in person, but he is pictured instead.
The production team visited two power plants to get an idea of what it was like working there and to get a sense of how people responded.
"Bad Hair Day" and "Opening Doors" are the only episodes in which Sulley is absent. The former is also the only episode in which Mike is absent, if not counting his appearance in the Mike's Comedy Class segment.
The Disney Channel versions of the Season 2 episode have shorter credits than the episodes from Season 1. The Disney+ prints of these episodes have longer credits as well as offscreen dialogue from one or more of the show's characters (just like in the credits for that season).
On another note, the Season 2 credits have a different piece of music playing over them rather than having a custom rendition of the series intro (usually styled after each episode's plot).
Videos[]
Sneak Peek - Monsters At Work - Disney+-2
Monsters at Work - Trailer
Monsters At Work - Welcome to Monsters, Incorporated EXCLUSIVE CLIP-2
Monsters At Work - Meet Mift EXCLUSIVE CLIP-2
Monsters At Work - Behind The Music - Featurette-2
Monsters At Work - Meet Mift EXCLUSIVE CLIP-3
Monsters At Work - Meet Gary Gibbs - Gabriel Iglesias - INTERVIEW-2
Monsters at Work - Tylor and Roto Teaser-2
Monsters At Work - Out With The Scaring, In With The Laughing (Promo)-2
Meet the Characters of Monsters at Work - What's Up, Disney+-2
Monsters At Work - Work Fam (Promo)-2
Deleted Scene- Tylor’s Graduation - Monsters At Work - Disney+-2
Monsters At Work - Season 2 Announce - Disney+
Monsters at Work Season 2 - Official Trailer - @disneychannel
Monsters At Work - Head Back To The Laugh Floor (Promo)
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