Review: Monsters at Work “A Monstrous Homecoming” ; “The C.R.E.E.P. Show”

Overview

“A Monstrous Homecoming”

It’s homecoming weekend at Monsters University, and Tylor Tuskmon is being celebrated as a former Scream King.

“The C.R.E.E.P. Show”

The MIFTers join Mike and Sulley in representing Monsters, Inc., at the C.R.E.E.P. Show, an energy convection where they hope to promote laugh power to industry professionals.

Our Take

Whenever Disney does a TV-adaptation of a franchise, especially if it’s animated, it’s typically for a cash grab and this feels no different. In vibes more reminiscent of Dora but spliced with cheap workplace comedy jokes that seem ripped right from LinkedIn for Babies, Monsters At Work loses all of the minutiae that made the Monsters Inc movies special.

In season two, Tylor’s position and friendships at Monsters, Incorporated are put at risk when he receives a job offer to work at business rival Fear Co and quite frankly I can understand why Tylor would want to leave. Granted, the cast of Monster’s Inc is all here and is quite impressive and it includes the voices of Billy Crystal and John Goodman reprising their roles as Mike Wazowski and James P. “Sulley” Sullivan from the films with a number of voice actors from the films reprise their roles as guests which continues during the show’s second season. Season 2 features Jennifer Coolidge, Bowen Yang, Danny Pudi, Cody Rigsby, Jimmy Tatro, Danny Trejo, and Alan Tudyk as guest stars with Steve Buscemi also returning, but none of this helps the fact that there is not one funny joke in this entire series that’s supposed to be about monsters doing stand-up routines for kids to help them go to sleep.

Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers replace Bobs Gannaway and Stephen J. Anderson for Monsters At Work season two but I’m not sure it helped. While the character designs for the monsters look fine, the kids seem a bit too plasticky in appearance, somewhat reminiscent of early Pixar work from the mid-90’s as opposed to anything made within the last few years. This series needs a lot more work.