What to watch: Monsters At Work

What to watch: Monsters At Work

If you like Monsters, Inc., this... isn't great, but it's certainly watchable.

OzzieMejia

There's a definite void when it comes to Disney+ shows at the moment. I had gotten accustomed to setting aside Wednesdays for Loki, but that's over for the moment. So then what do I watch now? Well, I suppose I could watch this new Monsters At Work show. And it is very... okay.

Let's get something out of the way. Monsters AT Work is not exactly a "Pixar" joint, per se. Oh, it uses the Monsters Inc. world and its characters, but the bulk of the work is being done by Disney Television Animation. The result is that this show is missing a lot of its Pixar magic.

The good news is, it's still great for kids. The show revolves around MIFT (the Monsters Inc. Facilities Team) and its wacky crew, which includes newcomer Tyler Tuskmon (Superstore's Ben Feldman). The team works to assist with repair requests, which come in a little more frequently as Monsters Inc. begins its shift from scaring children to trying to make them laugh. A lot of the humor and a lot of the jokes are definitely aimed at the younger set and this is still a better kids show option than most of what's out there today. It's just not for everyone the way Pixar movies usually are.

The other positive is that Billy Crystal and John Goodman still share some fantastic chemistry. I could watch Sully and Mike all day and just to throw an example out there, last week's episode where the two went to a ballpark was easily one of the show's highlights. The problem is, there isn't nearly enough of Mike and Sully, as they're releated to supporting character roles. There's nothing wrong with that on its face, except... if they're just going to be supporting characters, why go to the trouble to get Billy Crystal and John Goodman? It seems like a waste of A-level talent to me, but what do I know?

But again, this is not a bad show. It's just not as good as it could be and definitely not as good as what I'm used to from Pixar or even from other Disney Television Animation shows. (Go watch The Owl House, if you haven't already.)

If you need something to check out on Disney+ and have burned through the rest of the good stuff, give this a look. Otherwise, go catch up on something better first.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 21, 2021 11:20 PM

    What to watch: Monsters At Work

    Read more: What to watch: Monsters At Work

    • reply
      July 22, 2021 5:17 AM

      Pixar isn't Pixar anymore. The golden age ended somewhere right after UP. They have made good films since but they aren't as good.

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        July 22, 2021 5:22 AM

        It's almost as if a small studio of independent artists sold out to a soul-less mainstream mega-corporation. I wonder what happened.

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        July 22, 2021 7:30 AM

        There is that, but its also the other major 3d animation studios have stepped up their game so that we're no longer in awe of Pixar's animation capabilities. Its easy to hate on some of Dreamworks and Illumination films for their less-inspired plots but their animation still is right there with Pixar's to the average moviewatcher's eyes.

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        July 22, 2021 9:09 AM

        Stove Jorbs did spend a lot of energy trying to keep Pixar insulated from that corporate world...

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        July 22, 2021 2:26 PM

        I don't necessarily agree with that. I would put Soul and Coco up there with any of the Pixar golden age movies.

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      July 22, 2021 7:25 AM

      We watched the first couple episodes. I don't like the premise of the show; I love that at the end of Monsters Inc. they've seemed to seamlessly pivot from scaring kids to making them laugh, but instead the series they seem to have ignored the final couple minutes of the movie and OH NO IT'S HARD TO MAKE KIDS LAUGH HOW WILL WE DO THIS???

      I get that there's maybe some meat to that story, but I'd way rather the show just be FUN instead of trying to create drama.

      I really do love Monsters Inc. haha

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        July 22, 2021 7:38 AM

        Yeah I noticed that too - the implication at the end of the movie is that since laughter is 10x more potent than screams, there's no longer going to be an energy crisis. Instead they have power outages all the time still.

        It's still insane that 20 years later we finally have a Monsters, Inc. sequel in TV show form.

        And I know it's not done by Pixar directly but it kinda looks like the graphics are missing a final pass or something. Like when you watch some segment on their DVDs where they show you all the different passes they have to do to the graphics to make them look like they do in the movie, it's like they skipped the last one and things don't quite look right.

        Also it occurs to me I have Monsters University on Blu-Ray and I've never watched it. Not sure why.

        • reply
          July 22, 2021 3:24 PM

          Monsters University is really good

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