Posted in: Disney+, streaming, TV | Tagged: billy crystal, disney, interview, john goodman, Meet The Robinsons, monsters at work, monsters inc., Steven J Anderson

Monsters at Work Director Stephen J Anderson on Expanding Franchise

The Monsters Inc franchise for Pixar has had a long unique history with the original film coming out in 2001. Following its original success, a prequel was made in 2013's Monsters University and Disney+ allowed a sequel TV series in Monsters at Work. Original stars Billy Crystal and John Goodman reprised their roles as Mike and Sulley, respectively. While promoting the 15th anniversary of Disney's Meet the Robinsons, I spoke with director Stephen J. Anderson about the dramatic changes the characters had to go through 20 years later.

"Working on 'Monsters at Work' was really fun because I would definitely put the original film [Monsters Inc.] on my top favorite Pixar movies," Anderson said. "The charm of the movie, the heart of the movie, the fun of the movie was being able to kind of pick up that world, and say, 'Ok, what happens the day after the end of the first movie?' 'Monsters Inc' went through this huge kind of transitional upheaval. Their world is now upended. Everything is different. They're switching from scare power to laugh power. What does that mean? What happens?"

Breaking down the changes in Mike and Sulley's world, "Those are great stories always benefit from beginning in a time of transition, those are always the time word where things are the most heightened, where the old ways are dying and new ways are beginning and those are sort of sometimes the most compelling and I think timeless stories because that never changes," Anderson explains. "That's just a part of the human experiences is dealing with change. So that was a neat theme in the series 'Monsters at Work'. Examining that from different angles: what's it like for the people that are for the monsters that already worked at Monsters Inc? Then what's it like for those on the outside who want to get into Monsters Inc and come in and find that everything's different and they have to do what they have to now… kind of find a new reality, find a new way of living within this new paradigm. So I like that it felt very universal too, especially right now when I think our world is in a big time of transition. Lots of things are changing, lots of new things or new ways of being and new ways of working. It's all being redefined right now and it's very relevant."

Monsters at Work also stars Ben Feldman, Mindy Kaling, Henry Wrinkler, Lucas Neff, and Alanna Ubach.

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