I didn't realize this, but it turns out there's a Disney Plus TV show that's a sequel to Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University. It came out in 2021, but I'm just finding out about it now. (I stumbled upon it while searching for the Monsters, Inc. movies on Disney Plus). Wikipedia article HERE.
So, after having just rewatched Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University, I checked out the first episode of this TV show with my kids.
I don't plan on continuing with the series, so here are my thoughts on just the first episode.
If you want a TV show that will reward your attention to the previous 2 movies, then this is it. There's lots of references to events and characters from both Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University.
Considering that the original Monsters, Inc. came out all the way back in 2001, my initial thought was that this was a bit of a gamble to assume that people still remembered the original movie so well. But, of course, they're not assuming you remember it from 2001. They're assuming that you just streamed it again last night. That's the beauty of a streaming service, I suppose. When everything is at your fingertips, nothing gets old, and it doesn't matter when the original movie came out.
The other problem with so many references to the previous 2 movies is that the episode is in danger of becoming nothing but Member Berries. And this episode is definitely in danger of doing that. But then, it's just the establishing episode of a series. Presumably the subsequent episodes probably break into fresh territory.
Speaking of breaking into fresh territory: after checking in with our old friends from the movies (Sully and Mike Wazowski) we then follow the adventures of a brand new monster: Tylor Tuskmon. I guess the showrunners must have decided that the character arcs for Sully and Mike Wazowski were already completed, and they needed to bring in a fresh character. Either that, or maybe John Goodman and Billy Crystal were too expensive to base the whole series off of?
Either way, hopefully the rest of the show does a good job of balancing the old established characters with the new ones.
The first episode showed some of the whimsy that made the previous two movies so enjoyable, but it also was setting itself up as an animated office sit-com. And I don't have a lot of interest in sitting through 2 seasons of that. (Well, maybe if the jokes in the first episode had been a lot better, I might have considered it. But I wasn't grabbed by the first episode. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't grab me either.) Certainly my kids were not at all interested in an office sit-com, so they didn't ask to see any more episodes once we finished watching the first episode together.
And so, I think we'll leave it there. Probably neither me nor my kids will be continuing with the rest of this series.
No comments:
Post a Comment