Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Monsters At Work’ On Disney+, A ‘Monsters, Inc.’ Sequel Series Where A Young Monster Goes To Work For MIFT

Ever watch a TV version of your favorite animated film and thinking something was missing? The voices aren’t the same, the animation is a little different and the stories and jokes aren’t quite the same. If you’re thinking that Monsters At Work, the series sequel to the Monsters, Inc. films, is going to be that way, then you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise.

MONSTERS AT WORK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A darkened kid’s room. A door slowly opens and a big purple monster with horns walks in and tries to scare the kid.

The Gist: It’s only a simulation, but Tylor Tuskmon (Ben Feldman) passes with flying colors; he’s at the top of his scaring class at Monsters University. In fact, his professor tells him he’s already been accepted as a scarer at Monsters, Inc.

There’s one problem, though; because it’s been shown that scaring kids is harmful, the company has taken up the proposal by the short, one-eyed Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) to power the plant and the monsters’ world via the power of children’s laughter. It’s become such a big thing that CEO Henry Waternoose III has been ousted as CEO; Waternoose’s sluggish assistant Roz (Bob Peterson) informs Mike and his best friend, James “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman) that they’re in charge; oh, and she’s leaving, with her twin sister Roze (Peterson) taking her place. Mike promotes receptionist Celia Mae (Jennifer Tilly) to floor supervisor.

Not knowing that his scaring services are no longer needed, Tylor can’t understand what’s going on when he reports for his first day of work. He wants to be on the scare – er, laugh – floor, but HR director Ms. Flint (Bonnie Hunt) hears that he used to work in his father’s hardware store and assigns him to MIFT.

While he tries to figure out what MIFT is, a furry U-shaped monster named Val Little (Mindy Kaling) runs into him; she talks really fast, but it turns out that they took one class together at Monsters U., which Tylor doesn’t even remember. But Val thinks they’re “old college friends,” so she gives him a lift to where she works — MIFT.

At MIFT, he meets a rule-following crab named Cutter (Alanna Ubach), who loves talking about previous MIFT members who died gruesome deaths; a multi-eyed plumber named Duncan (Lucas Neff), who thinks that Tylor is out to steal his spot as heir apparent to MIFT; and Banana Bread (Dee Bradley Baker), who just honks and brings banana bread every day. Then he meets Fritz (Henry Winkler), his boss; Fritz looks like a purple tapir, and is so happy to see a new member of the team, he wants to basically stalk Tylor.

At least Tylor finds out what MIFT means: Monsters Incorporated Facilities Team; they keep the whole factory running. Tylor is so annoyed with where he is that he leaves to wander the floor and runs into Mike and Sulley, his heroes. He manages to mess up the “laugh” floor, but impresses the new bosses; in fact Sulley recommended Tylor for the scarer job when it still existed. Mike decides to start a comedy class so monsters like Tylor can train to make kids laugh instead of cry.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? What we appreciated is that Monsters At Work feels like a continuation of Monsters, Inc., and its prequel Monsters University, and Disney hasn’t shaved any corners in bringing the franchise to series.

Our Take: Like we just said, it’s great that pretty much all the major Monsters, Inc. voices are back for Monsters At Work, and that they don’t just play minor parts. Yes, the show concentrates on Tylor starting at his dream company in a job he doesn’t want, with goofy co-workers that he tends to roll his eyes at through the first two episodes. This is not a small thing; Crystal doesn’t do voices for series, and Tilly is a poker player now, rarely if ever acting. So the pull of Disney and Pixar shows that big-time movie voices can be lured back to reprise their roles, if the series isn’t a pile of junk.

And Monsters At Work is definitely not that. It’s smart at turns, funny at others, and still can pull out touching or emotional moments even though each episode is only 23 minutes. One of the fun things is that Tylor’s turn at MIFT has opened up a world of characters, ones that likely came out of a brainstorm by showrunner Bobs Gannaway: What kind of monsters work to keep the joint running, and not for the glory of the scare?

If there can be a bunch of “weirdo” monsters, the group at MIFT is it. Listen, is it pretty much the default that Kaling is going to play a gossipy, deluded, speed-talking monster, the furry equivalent of Kelly Kapoor? Sure. Is it the default that Winkler will play the truly “good ta see ya” kind of boss that somehow keeps things running via teamwork and not intimidation? Perhaps. But they fill their roles well, as does Neff as the duplicitous Duncan.

The second episode dives more into what MIFT actually does, but first Fitz takes Tylor through the goofiest initiation ever. After we saw that, we wanted to work with this group of misfits. So, we’re guessing that Tylor will still have doubts and never fully think he belongs in MIFT, but will have warm feelings for them nevertheless. It’s a workplace comedy, essentially, with monsters instead of people.

But there are stories for the old characters, too; Mike gets charged up on a bottle of 36.5 Hour Energy after overworking himself making kids laugh. He also starts his comedy class. We’re hoping to see that mix going forward, because integrating the “legacy” characters with the new ones will only make the Monsters, Inc. world better.

What Age Group Is This For?: If they were old enough to enjoy Monsters, Inc., then they’re old enough to enjoy Monsters At Work, no matter what age they are.

Parting Shot: Tylor spreads out his letter, crosses out the word “Scarer” and writes in “Jokester”. There’s hope that he may make it to the floor yet.

Sleeper Star: We mentioned Neff, but some other voices we’ll hear as time goes on is Aisha Tyler as Tylor’s mom, John Ratzenberger as Tylor’s dad and his old role as the Yeti, and Gabriel Iglesias as Mike’s arch-enemy Gary Gibbs.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we can see.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Monsters At Work is Pixar’s first “official” venture into series TV (Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was Pixar-adjacent) succeeds because Disney knew that they couldn’t make a Monsters series on the cheap. And the results are really entertaining.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

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