Plot: Taking place the day after the Monsters, Incorporated power plant started harvesting the laughter of children to fuel the city of Monstropolis, thanks to Mike and Sulley's discovery that laughter generates ten times more energy than screams. It follows the story of Tylor Tuskmon, an eager young monster who graduated top of his class at Monsters University and always dreamed of becoming a Scarer until he lands a job at Monsters, Incorporated, and discovers that scaring is out and laughter is in. After Tylor is temporarily reassigned to the Monsters, Inc. Facilities Team (MIFT), he must work alongside a misfit bunch of mechanics while setting his sights on becoming a Jokester.
Review: With Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios already leveraging Disney+ as a platform for telling long-form stories, it is now time for Pixar to do the same. Acting as a sequel to 2001's Monsters, Inc, this new series has the blessing and support of Pixar Studios but was not directly animated by them. Still, it has the heart and visual appeal of Pete Docter's original motion picture along with members of the movie cast reprising their roles while telling an all-new story set in the fictional world where the screams and laughter of children power a city full of monsters. Monsters At Work is far better than it could have been but still falls short of Pixar's best.
The last time Disney created a spin-off from a Pixar property, it was the generic Planes films set in the world of Cars. With Monsters At Work, Pixar provided show creator Bobs Gannaway with unused concept art that served as the inspiration for the designs of the series. Directed by Stephen J. Anderson (2011's Winnie the Pooh), Monsters At Work starts out with Sully (John Goodman) being named CEO of Monsters Incorporated. At the same time, we meet Tylor Tuskmon (Ben Feldman), a recent graduate from Monsters University who joins the company with ambitions to be a Scarer despite their pivot to Jokesters.
While Sully, Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), Celia (Jennifer Tilly), Roz (Bob Peterson), and Yeti (John Ratzenberger) all appear early, they are secondary characters to Tyler and the crew of the MIFT department. The focus on that specific team at the company gives this series a workplace sitcom structure complete with whacky best friend Val (Mindy Kaling), goofy boss Fritz (Henry Winkler), and workplace rivals Duncan (Lucas Neff) and Cutter (Alanna Ubach). Feldman, recently on NBC's Superstore, does his best as the straight man to these broader comedy talents who steal the show, especially Winkler and Kaling.
Over the two half-hour episodes made available for review, Monsters At Work has all of the trademarks of a Pixar production but reveals a flaw in taking a story like Monsters, Inc. and stretching it into a series. The main narrative of the series, focusing on rolling blackouts as Sully and Mike try to get the power supply consistently running on laughs rather than screams, comes in and out of the story as Tylor joins the MIFT team. The first episode is primarily about Tylor coming to the factory and being reassigned while the second is his initiation to the team. Both have funny moments but could easily have been combined into one episode. In short, the jokes feel kind of stretched.
There is also an imbalance between the competing storylines. In the first episodes, Mike and Sully's scenes could work as standalone short films. Both John Goodman and Billy Crystal fit right in as their characters and their scenes are similar in laughs to the Pixar short film "Mike's New Car". As I watched the series, I could not tell if the MIFT scenes were filler to pad out the Mike and Sully scenes or if these were added to support the all new characters and storyline for Monsters At Work.
Monsters At Work will be a nice addition for younger Pixar fans while older kids may be bored by the heavy dialogue and workplace jokes that I can only imagine would make sense to adults who have experienced an actual corporate office. While I appreciated that Disney did not go the route of cheap animation and made this series with a level of effort that brings it pretty damn close to Pixar quality, it is the content that ends up falling short. Monsters At Work looks good and has some good moments, but it doesn't come close to being as good as Monsters, Inc. or Monsters University. It was nice to see Goodman and Crystal back as Mike and Sully, but the series doesn't give us enough of them to make it worthwhile.
Monsters At Work premieres July 7th on Disney+.
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