Screams Out, Laughter In! Disney Reveals More of Monstropolis at Hollywood Studios

Disney’s villains aren’t the only ones preparing to bring a few more scares to Walt Disney World.

The monsters are taking over too.

While Magic Kingdom is preparing to welcome some of Disney’s most infamous villains into their very own Villains Land, over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios another not-so-scary group is getting ready to open the doors to their world.

And for the first time, humans are invited.

It has been more than two decades since Pixar first opened a closet door and transported audiences into the colorful, chaotic and monster-filled world of Monsters, Inc.. Since then, Mike, Sulley and the citizens of Monstropolis have remained some of Pixar’s most recognizable characters.

Now Disney is taking us beyond that closet door.

During D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, Disney revealed a massive collection of new details surrounding Monstropolis, the upcoming Monsters, Inc.-inspired land currently under construction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

And while its highly anticipated door coaster is still being built, we won’t have to wait quite as long to start exploring the monster world.

Parts of Monstropolis will officially open to humans in 2027.

Humans Are Finally Welcome in Monstropolis

Of course, humans simply wandering around Monstropolis would have been completely unthinkable during the original Monsters, Inc.

Remember the chaos caused by one tiny sock?

But a lot has changed.

Following Mike and Sulley’s discovery that laughter generates more power than screams, Monstropolis has begun changing its relationship with the human world as well. Instead of seeing humans as dangerous creatures that need to remain on the other side of the closet door, monsters are finally getting curious about us.

That has led to the creation of the Department of Human Relations and something called H.U.M.A.N. Day — Humans Understanding Monsters Are Nice.

For the first time, humans will be invited into the city to meet its residents, explore its streets and discover what everyday monster life actually looks like.

It’s a clever way of making guests themselves part of the story.

Rather than simply recreating locations from the movies, Disney is moving the Monsters, Inc. world forward and answering a pretty fun question:

What happens when the doors between our worlds finally stay open?

Mike and Sulley Are Putting on a Show

Naturally, our introduction to monster culture needs a little entertainment.

The Glob Theater will become home to Welcome to Monstropolis, a new show hosted by Mike and Sulley designed to introduce humans to their world and prove that monsters and people might not be all that different.

Sulley apparently has a small, homespun production planned.

Mike, being Mike, has bigger ideas.

And somehow we suspect things aren’t going to go entirely according to plan.

Making the experience even more special is a new song of the same name from Disney Legend Randy Newman. “Welcome to Monstropolis” marks the first song Newman has composed specifically for a Disney theme park.

We’re Finally Going to Harryhausen’s

But Disney isn’t stopping at the characters.

Some of the smaller pieces of the Monsters, Inc. universe that fans have known for years are finally becoming real places we can visit.

Yes.

We’re going to Harryhausen’s.

The restaurant made famous by Mike and Celia’s disastrous date in the original film will become an actual dining location, complete with a new Audio-Animatronics sushi chef using his many tentacles to prepare monster-sized creations.

And thankfully, there will be more than sushi on the menu.

Elsewhere, guests can grab a slice from Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza, explore the Monsters University Alumni Club and discover its Scarer’s Club honoring legendary MU monsters.

And because no trip through Disney World is complete without bringing something home, the Scareporium will give human tourists a place to pick up souvenirs from their visit.

The Monster World Is Becoming Real

That’s perhaps the most exciting thing about everything Disney has revealed.

Monstropolis isn’t simply giving us a Monsters, Inc. attraction.

It’s giving us Monstropolis.

The restaurants, businesses, theater, university references and strange little pieces of monster culture are helping turn something we’ve only seen through Pixar’s films into an actual city guests can explore.

And eventually, there’s still that massive door coaster waiting in the wings.

For a movie built around the idea that an ordinary closet door could secretly be a gateway into another world, there is something wonderfully fitting about Disney finally allowing us to walk through that door ourselves.

For generations of Pixar fans, Monstropolis has always been somewhere humans weren’t supposed to go.

Come 2027, that’s changing.

So grab your hard hat, practice your best roar and watch out for any 2319s. We’re going to Monstropolis.