Ken Pellman

I knew something was up in Tomorrowland today. First the construction walls were moved or

down around the old Circle-vision theatre. Then there was the temporary fence of bushes

that they’ve used in the past when doing previews. (Stitch previews comes to mind.)

Finally, there were three or four attractions managers standing around doing nothing. Yep,

something was going on.

I hung out in the area for a bit while my son played with some cast members who were

brought along to entertain, but nothing was evident. So we went on TTA and of course from

the tracks I saw they start letting in people. Luckily they were still filling the theatre

when I got off TTA and we made it in as part of the last bunch of guests.

The preview was for an early early dress rehearsal of the next attraction to arrive at

Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. "Monster’s Inc The Laugh Floor Comedy Club" is based on

the Pixar film Monster’s Inc and takes place after the film when they try to make power

for Monstropolis by harnessing children’s laughter instead of screams.

The comedy club is Monster’s Inc’s attempt to generate a lot of power at once. Only

problem is they’ve run out of joke ideas. So not only will guests get to hear jokes from

some of the funniest monsters Monstropolis has to offer, but they will hear jokes solicited from the audience (more on that later).

"The Laugh Floor Comedy Club" is set in what was the old Circle-vision theatre (last home to TimeKeeper). It’s been completely transformed. Gone are the screens, projectors, and

leaning rails. Gone is the stage and animatronic figure. In it’s place is the new ‘The Laugh Floor Comedy Club’. (see above illustration for concept art courtesy of the Walt Disney Company)

They’ve brought in big blue plastic benches with cute little ‘eye and stalk’ lights spread

around. They’ve installed a slight theatre rake (they could have gone another 5 percent

steeper I think, it was hard to see over the people in front of me, my three year old had

no chance and the other toddler sitting near me ended up standing on the bench). The walls

are a dark red with the Monster’s Inc logo everywhere and star projections on them

(something could  be done here to plus this (portraits of the Laugh Floor’s best power generators, perhaps)). But in general the theater set design was done really cute and looks like what you would expect a comedy club to look like in Monstropolis (slightly cartoony).

At the front of the theatre is a ‘stage’, which is really a big movie screen, and two

smaller screens (one of which is a ‘closet door’ in station). These are the least convincing effect of the show and require that the audience suspend its disbelief. Turtle Talk with Crush does this better because you’re already in a seabase and because it looks like you’re looking into an aquarium. So the addition of a pre-show and some more ‘realistic

effects’ or verisimilitude (meaning something that looks more like it came from the

Monster’s Inc movie) would make the stage, screen, and door look better.

The ‘closet door’ was used during the show, but it didn’t function how closet doors function in the movie. I would expect to see a child’s bedroom whenever the door opens. It wouldn’t be accessible from the stage. On the right of the stage, beside the closet door, is a big yellow canister, which will be used to capture the laughs of the audience. This did not fill up during the show, but they mentioned it would when the show as live. There was some other light themeing to the theater as well.

After all the guests filed in, the host (my guess; a show producer from imagineering) said we were the very first guests to see the show and that the show was in very early stages of dress rehearsals. He explained that not all the effects were finished and that we should cut the monster’s some slack since they hadn’t had much rehearsal time. He then explained that part of the show was that the monster’s needed more jokes and that guests in the audience could ‘text message’ them in (via cell phone or PDA) and that they might be used in the  show. There was some legalease that went with this, which was pretty funny in its own right.

From here on out thar’ be spoilers… so read on below the cut at your own risk if you want to experience

the attraction uninfluenced the first time. Also keep in mind that this was a very early

dress rehearsal and many many things will change and/or improve. They know there is work

to be done still.

Read More »A very special (and early) preview of Monster’s Inc, The Laugh Floor attraction