‘Monsters at Work’: Billy Crystal’s grandkids love his ‘fearless’ return to ‘Monsters, Inc.’
Billy Crystal's latest outing is grandkid-approved.
This summer, the funnyman returns to Monstropolis to reprise his role as one-eyed monster Mike Wazowski in Disney+ series "Monsters at Work" (first two episodes streaming Wednesday), a sequel to Pixar's 2001 animated hit "Monsters, Inc." Crystal's grandsons, ages 11 and 8, grew up watching the movie and got a sneak preview of the new show.
"They loved it," says Crystal, 73. "They used to call me Mike instead of Grandpa because that was the first thing they saw of mine that I could show them. I mean, I couldn't really explain why there was a woman screaming 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' in the deli (in 'When Harry Met Sally'). That was too spicy."
More: 'Monsters at Work' shows us what happens when the scaring stops—and the laughing begins
The best new shows to watch this summer: More 'Monsters Inc.,' Martin Short and Steve Martin
"Monsters at Work" picks up a day after the events of "Monsters, Inc.," and years after "Monsters University," the 2013 movie prequel that followed Mike and best friend Sully (John Goodman) in scare school.
At the end of the first film, the monsters discover children's laughs are an even more powerful form of energy than screams. That's a problem for fresh graduate Tylor Tuskmon (Ben Feldman), a new character in the series, who comes to Monsters, Inc. with dreams of becoming a star scarer. Now that his position's obsolete, he's transferred to the laugh factory's maintenance team, where he befriends co-workers Val (Mindy Kaling) and Fritz (Henry Winkler) as he tries to work his way up to the new position of jokester.
"Tylor's a kid who's spent his whole life prepping and studying to become a scarer," Feldman says. "And that's where the whole fish-out-of-water story comes in: He's now trying to figure out how he fits into this world, and how he can excel and get ahead and be funny."
Fortunately, Tylor and the other monsters get some pointers from Mike, who now helps run Monsters, Inc. with Sully.
"Mike always thinks he's in charge," Crystal says. "Him now thinking he's the comedy expert when he's not really is a lot of fun for me to play. In (later) episodes, Mike has his comedy classes, which looks a lot like driving school. He teaches them how to be funny when he's really not himself."
The new series also features the return of other fan-favorite characters, including the snake-haired Celia (Jennifer Tilly) and grouchy, sluglike Roz (Bob Peterson).
"We also have a character named Rose that is supposedly Roz's sister, but it's up to you to decide," says executive producer Bobs Gannaway, who adds that more nods to the original film are scattered throughout the series' first 10 episodes.
"Monsters, Inc." earned $529 million at the worldwide box office and four Oscar nominations, winning best original song (Randy Newman's "If I Didn't Have You"). Twenty years later, Crystal believes the film is still beloved because of the characters' "real emotions" and charming relationship with Boo, the little girl who wanders into Monstropolis through her bedroom closet.
"It's the heart," Crystal says. "It's funny, it's so imaginative and the characters are so endearing that you care about them."
The comedian and frequent Oscar host improvised many of Mike's most quotable moments in the movie, including his ditty "Put That Thing Back Where It Came From or So Help Me."
"I love being this guy," Crystal says. "He's optimistic and so daring, so I'm just kind of fearless with him. When I'm done with my (recording) sessions, which are four or five hours at a time, I am exhausted because his energy is so strong and everything he does is so committed. He's a really special guy."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Monsters at Work': Billy Crystal gets 'exhausted' doing Mike Wazowski