MONSTERS AT WORK

The Monsters, Inc. legacy continues with Sully, Mike and new recruits in Monsters At Work

Work’s either a scream or a right laugh, we’re never sure.

JUNE IS THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY of Monsters, Inc., Pixar’s second theatrical release. Wildly successful, the universe created by directors Pete Docter and David Silverman has never faded from the zeitgeist because of new stories, including prequel Monsters University, several animated shorts, videogames and even theme park rides.

Now with the dawn of Disney+, there’s an original animated series too, Monsters At Work, which reunites the original characters of Mike (Billy Crystal), Sulley (John Goodman), and Celia Mae (Jennifer Tilly), with a new crew responsible for helping to retro-fit the scare floor into the laugh floor.

Steering the series is veteran animation writer and executive producer Roberts “Bobs” Gannaway, who has previously adapted big Disney theatrical hits like 101 Dalmatians and Lilo & Stitch into successful animated TV series. “Monsters, Inc. ends with a switch to laugh-power, and then you cut to much later and some time has passed. Our show takes place the day after they switch from scare to laugh,” Gannaway tells Red Alert, explaining where the series fits. “There’s a big change in the world, and that’s when a lot of great stories happen, when there’s a lot of change in the world. Doing this as a series is great because it really lets us spend time with old friends and make new friends. And the series allows you to really dig into both of those.”

That new group of friends is MIFT, or the Monsters, Inc. Facilities Team, who are figuring out how to flip their operation from scares to jokes, with the aid of newbies like mechanic Tylor Tuskmon (Ben Feldman). “This is Tylor’s story,” Gannaway reveals. “Ever since he made his classmates scream at the Shockington Elementary School Scare Play, he’s wanted to be a Scarer. And now he must navigate a world that has thrown him a curve ball.”

Around him will be friends and foes, as well as his new bosses Mike and Sulley. Gannaway says all the new characters will orbit Tylor as he struggles with being a huge purple, scary-looking monster that now needs to create laughs. “Of all of them, Val Little – who attended one semester at MU with Tylor – is most featured, and will be his confidante during his journey. And we’re so happy to have Mindy Kaling playing this new dynamic female monster. In the end, Tylor is going to find himself torn between his dream of becoming a Jokester and his relationship with MIFT.”

Gannaway explains that he worked closely with

Pete Docter (now CCO of Pixar Animation) to establish the parameters of the series. The only thing definitively decided upon to start with was that Boo, Sulley’s human assignment turned friend, would not appear in the series. “Pete Docter and I had a nice discussion about Boo, and we both agreed the relationship between Boo and Sulley is so precious and so wonderful, that we want to leave it to the world to have their own interpretation of how that relationship continued, and not define it.”

Outside of that, Gannaway says they never really had much of a discussion about the do’s and don’ts of the series and its world. “There are a few things, like the fact that the Monsters world is a bit behind in technology from our world,” he shares. “That’s why you won’t see mobile phones or even fax machines. Beyond that, we were encouraged to expand the world and really dig into our new characters. Pixar provided us with their research and development art, and we had a discussion of the origins of the original films, which was enough to provide us with direction for the series.”

LEARN TO IMPROVISE

The 10-episode season will be very focused on the comedy that stems from all the monsters stumbling into their new roles. “One of the most important things about the Monsters world is understanding that everything they know about the human world comes from their brief interactions during their Scarer (now Jokester) moments,” Gannaway explains. “The result: there is much misinterpretation of the human world.” They lean into that with special segments called Mike’s Comedy Class, “as Mike attempts to decipher what makes human kids laugh,” and fails spectacularly.

Gannaway says that much of the fun of the franchise comes from the voice actors, whom he helped to direct in the recording booths. Fortunately, a lot of the dialogue was recorded prior to Covid-19, so he was able to meet and get to know Crystal, Goodman, Henry Winkler, Feldman and Kaling. “While we had great scripts to start with, we revised and improved all the scenes during the sessions,” he shares. “All the actors – from Billy Crystal’s improvisation to Henry Winkler spontaneously breaking into song – contributed great material.” TB

Monsters At Work is available on Disney+ from 2 July.

Doing this as a series lets us spend time with old friends and make new ones