Disney+ launches its Monsters, Inc. spin-off series Monsters at Work with two episodes dropping on Wednesday. Billy Crystal returns as one-eyed would-be funnyman Mike Wazowski and John Goodman reprises his role as his fuzzy buddy, James P. "Sully" Sullivan.
The series is based on the 2001 big screen hit Monsters, Inc., which posited that monsters scaring kids at night generated energy for the City of Monstropolis. But the movie closed with the Monsters finding a new source of energy: comedy.
Crystal tells ABC Audio, "The show starts the next day after the first movie ended, and so now they're harvesting laughs."
He explains, "Now the slogan is 'It's laughter we're after,' so the Scare Floor is gone. So now they have to find ways to be funny. And for monsters to try to be funny is really funny."
Crystal adds, "For Mike, he fancies himself [a comedian], 'Oh, I'll teach a comedy class...I'll teach these monsters how to be funny.' And Mike's not that funny, which makes it funny."
Series newcomers Mindy Kaling, who voices Val Little, and Superstore's Ben Feldman, who plays new employee Tylor Tuskmon, leapt at the chance to join the Monsters world.
"I just love the movie so much...it's so timeless," Kaling said. "I showed it to my daughter recently, and she loved it. I was actually prepping her for the show so that I'll be regaled as a hero, but she loved it."
Feldman adds, "I can't believe the movie was 20 years ago...And so, you know, I guess the goal is for our show to be as timeless?"
Monsters at Work also features the voices of Jennifer Tilly, Pixar veteran John Ratzenberger, Henry Winkler, and comedian Gabriel Iglesias.
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