Walt Disney Presents at Disney’s Hollywood Studios now has a new display worth stopping for: a set of “monsterfied” animal maquettes straight out of Monstropolis, the massive Monsters, Inc.-themed land currently under construction in place of the old Muppets Courtyard.
If you thought the weirdest thing about a Monsters, Inc. land would be the monsters themselves, wait until you see what they’ve done to the local wildlife.
The display features maquette sculptures of three creatures guests will encounter roaming the streets once Monstropolis opens: a Monster Pigeon, a two-headed gray bird with mismatched horns, orange talons, and a genuinely unsettling wide-open beak baring a full set of teeth; a Splitting Hare, an orange rabbit-like creature with three oversized ears, wide green eyes, and a soft round belly; and a Monster Squirrel, a three-eyed, horned squirrel clutching what looks like a small pink creature or fruit against its chest, with three fluffy tails fanned out behind it. According to the signage accompanying the maquettes, Walt Disney Imagineering worked directly with Pixar to create this whole cast of “monsterfied” creatures specifically to add personality and charm to the city’s streets, rather than treating the land as populated only by named characters from the films. Maquettes like these play a real functional role in Imagineering’s design process too, helping translate a character from a flat concept sketch into an actual three-dimensional form before it’s built at full scale for the park.
It’s worth knowing that these animal maquettes actually replaced an earlier display. Walt Disney Presents previously showed Mike and Sulley maquettes pulled specifically from Monsters University, and Disney has since swapped those out for this new set focused on the land’s background wildlife instead, alongside updated Monstropolis concept art, including a newly revealed look at the Glob Theater lobby. That lobby art shows blue walls, red curtains, eye-motif chandeliers, and a Monster Concessions stand that will likely display fake monstrous snacks for guests to look at while queuing, rather than function as an actual working snack counter. The Glob Theater itself is the reimagined replacement for the old Muppet*Vision 3D theater and will house a new show called Welcome to Monstropolis.
For anyone who hasn’t been following Monstropolis closely, here’s the full picture of what’s coming. The land was first announced at D23 back in August 2024, when Billy Crystal, the voice of Mike Wazowski, appeared on stage to reveal it would include Disney’s first-ever suspended roller coaster, sending riders through the door vault from the original film. Muppet*Vision 3D and the surrounding Grand Avenue area closed in June 2025 to make way for construction, and the land officially got its name, Monstropolis, in October 2025. The story premise driving the whole land is that humans are being let into Monstropolis for the first time, as part of an in-universe celebration called H.U.M.A.N. Day, short for Humans Understand Monsters Are Nice, meant to show the city’s monster residents that humans aren’t actually so frightening after all. At D23 2026, Disney revealed the land splits into distinct neighborhoods, including Old Town Monstropolis and Frightening Heights, alongside dining and shopping locations like Harryhausen’s, Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza, a Monsters University Alumni Club lounge, and a shop called Scareporium.
The timeline is genuinely a bit more complicated than a single opening date. Disney announced at D23 2026 that most of Monstropolis will open in 2027, with the massive suspended door coaster following in a separate, later phase, since the coaster itself involves building an enormous Monsters, Inc. factory structure behind the existing buildings and will feature Disney’s first vertical lift on a coaster. Recent aerial construction photos still show scaffolding, exposed utilities, and unfinished facades across much of the site, so while a 2027 opening for most of the land is the official target, there’s real construction still ahead before opening day actually arrives.
Seeing these maquettes up close is honestly one of the best previews available right now for a land that’s still very much a construction site behind the scenes. The level of specific, weird detail packed into something as small as a background squirrel says a lot about how much personality Imagineers and Pixar are trying to build into every corner of Monstropolis, not just its headline attractions.
We’ll keep tracking every new Monstropolis reveal as 2027 approaches, so check back with Theme Park Scope for updates, and follow us on social so you don’t miss it.
Which of these three monster critters, the pigeon, the hare, or the squirrel, do YOU think will end up being the land’s breakout favorite?
Leave a Reply