After several years, Monsters at Work is back with their second season! So let’s jump right in and discover everything that happens at Monsters Inc. since the film and the first season ended!
A Monstrous Homecoming
Do you remember how at the very end of the last season of Monsters at Work, Tylor Tuskmon gave up his more formal education as a scarer to become a jokester at the new Laugh Floor of Monsters, Inc.? After settling for his entry level position on the Monsters, Inc. Facilities Team (AKA M.I.F.T.)? Where Val, someone he knew from college was his colleague and now she is his B.F.F. and assistant? Okay, don’t worry. If you forgot, Tylor’s Grandma has moved in, and there is some recap.
More recap comes in case you forgot the original film, Monsters Inc. Remember, It’s laughter they’re after now at Monsters, Inc. since the discovery that laughter is 10 times more powerful than screams. Tylor even has a signature routine, involving donuts and his tusks in a sort of vaudeville stacking act. Grandma prefers the screams, and she knows her grandson is a natural scarer.
Regardless, it’s another beautiful morning in Monstropolis and the morning show, “I Scream! U Scream!” is on. The point/counterpoint show is another piece of recap, this time more focused on the original film and setting us firmly 9 months after the events of that film. Now, the hosts Jack and Jill are debating the controversial alternative energy of Laugh Power vs. the more traditional Scare Power – the energy that built Monstropolis.
Who’s watching this show? Mike and Sulley of course! They are the current heads of Monsters, Inc. and Mike is furious, ready to prove to Jill that Laugh Power is important and real.
Cut to the Laugh Floor, where we see kids laughing through the night thanks to the skilled jokesters of the Laugh Floor – save for Tylor. His donut routine is scoring mild chuckles, and one kid even seems to have a bond with Tylor. Knowing and critiquing his work, Tylor workshops a few new routines but gets no laughs and fails to fill his laugh canister.
A sort of therapy, Tylor and the kid discuss how he used to be a scarer and is now a jokester, even voted as the Scream King at Monsters University – something that apparently this kid has heard numerous times. Thanks to a bit more exposition, we also learn that the big school homecoming and reunion is coming up.
With the canister nearly empty, Duncan (Remember him? From M.I.F.T.?) comes by to collect after a bit of instigating. Through him, we learn that the leaderboard is no longer a thing, and it’s a good thing since Tylor would likely be at the bottom of it. Regardless, the Laugh Floor’s quota has been met, and now, everyone can leave early and head to the Monsters University homecoming game.
Tylor is a bit dejected after failing to fill his canister, but he needs to get his mood up before going back to Monsters University. After all, he’s a former Scream King, he should have higher confidence. Together, Tylor and Val head back to campus and reflect on how much their friendship means to each other and how much it has grown over the last several months.
The rest of the M.I.F.T. team is on hand to help root for their former colleague, who is now on the field for the game with a number of other former Scream Kings and Queens, including Johnny Worthington, a former Scream King that you may recall from Monsters University, and what do you know? He is very familiar with Tylor’s work and resume. Well, why would that be? Hmmmm.
During the halftime show, all of Monstropolis is tuned in to watch the former Scream Kings, including Mike and Sulley. Though he likely should have just smiled and waved, Tylor takes the mic to tell everyone how Monsters, Inc has switched to Laugh Power over scare power and explains his lackluster donut routine in a speech that is probably the worst, and most humiliating thing that could be done. Even Mike and Sulley are aghast watching it on TV before the Professor takes the mic back from him.
As they leave campus, there are shocked murmurs and mumblings over how laughable Jokesters are compared to Scarers. Johnny Worthington approaches Tylor and gives him some words of encouragement, seemingly supportive of whatever Tylor wants to do.
After hours, Tylor heads back to the Laugh Floor and tries to fill up a canister on his own – and his routine doesn’t seem to be working. After inadvertently shooting some donut insides into his eye, Tylor lets out a bit of a roar, scaring the kid who then screams – thus filling the canister. Well none of this was intentional, Tylor has still filled a canister, even if it is a little bit of laugh power and a little bit of scream power.
But, an ominous zoom tells us this might not necessarily be a good thing.
This episode of Monsters At Work is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app, and will debut on May 5th on Disney+.