Apr 9, 2019

Monsters, Inc." series to debut on Disney+ with original voice cast

In an investor presentation this week, Disney is expected to reveal more details about its Disney+ streaming service, but ahead of that, the company teased new details about the "Monsters, Inc." animated series that will be exclusive to the platform.

The show, titled "Monsters at Work," is slated for release in 2020 and will feature John Goodman and Billy Crystal returning as Sulley and Mike Wazowski, respectively. Other members of the original cast confirmed to be returning for the spinoff are Jennifer Tilly (Celia), Bob Peterson (Roze, Roze's twin sister from the original film), and John Ratzenberger (Yeti). Ratzenberger also voices a new character named Bernard.

The story takes place six months after the ending of the original film. In "Monsters at Work," the power plant employees do not scare the children, but rather harvest their laughter as energy to enrich the city of Monstropolis.

However, Mike and Sallie are not the protagonists this time around. Instead, we have Tyler Taskmon (voiced by superstore owner Ben Feldman), an enthusiastic mechanic who works as part of the facilities team and whose greatest dream is to work with Mike and Sulley on the laugh floor.

Other new characters in Monsters at Work include. Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars: The Last Jedi The Last Jedi) voices Tyler's best friend Val Little; Henry Winkler (Barry) plays boss Fritz; Lucas Neff (Raising Hope) is Duncan, a plumber with ulterior motives plays the role of the "Cutter"; Alanna Ubach ("Coco") voices the rule-following Cutter; Stephen Stanton ("Star Wars Resistance") voices the factory's incompetent janitorial duo, Smitty and Needleman; and Aisha Tyler ("Archer") is Tyler's mother, plays Millie Taskmon.

Disney Television Animation is producing the series, with Disney veteran Bobs Ganaway ("Planes") directing: Ferrell Barron will produce. Cat Goode and Rob Gibbs will direct. Gibbs handled the animation and story departments for both the original "Monsters, Inc." and the sequel "Monsters University," and co-wrote the Oscar-nominated short "Mike's New Car."

Disney+ is expected to launch by the end of 2019. The company's CEO Bob Iger previously said the service will include the studio's entire film library in addition to new original content like "Monsters at Work."