Beloved animated character Mike Wazowski from Disney/Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. has been immortalized for 20 years on the Movie Mill’s entrance way foyer wall.
Sadly, in the name of progress and moving forward, the local business must bid farewell to the iconic one-eyed green monster.
Customers, young and old, have visited the Movie Mill recently to take selfies with the treasured facsimile created by artist Mike O’Brien.
One of the Movie Mill’s owners Chelsea Bretzky said the business has wanted to open up the lobby for a while with renovations. “And not being able to salvage Mike was a concern.”
“We’ve kind of held back and we weren’t going to do it. In the end, it was just, we’re going to move forward with this. We anticipated with the public, there would be sadness. I’m not sure we anticipated it would be quite as big of an outcry, as there was,” Bretzky noted.
After posting the news on social media platforms, Bretzky noted the team asked customers to send in photos to show their cherished memories with Mike. “We halted construction for a few more days.”
“People had a little extra time to come in if they needed that last picture with him. I’ve even made little postcards we have free for people to take if they need a little memento of him,” Bretzky shared.
For the customers who have been coming into the theatre for the past 20 years, Mike has overseen the Movie Mill for those two decades, Bretzky explained. “It makes sense people are sentimental and nostalgic about him.”
“To clarify, because I think some people thought we were painting over him, that’s not happening. We’re opening up the lobby a bit,” added Bretzky.
Work is also being done to create one big party room instead of party rooms, which the Movie Mill has used in the past for birthdays.
“We’re having the muralist that did our Enchanted Mini Golf come back. He’s doing murals in that. We have a lot of people wanting to book our Enchanted Mini Golf, which we just renovated, for parties and birthdays and things like that. We needed a space for them to be able to do cake, presents and things outside of the mini golf area,” Bretzky explained.
The team also reached out to the artist, who graciously provided an interview with Bretzky, which is available on the Movie Mill’s social media platforms. “We had a really good chat about the whole thing. I told him next time if he does a mural for us, it has to be on a board we can move.”
The artist’s daughter, who was a bit of an inspiration for the piece, and a very big Monsters, Inc. fan, is going to take the door, Bretzky shared. “She’s going to have a Monsters, Inc. door from the mural.”
“We loved Mike, too. We’re sorry to say goodbye to him. There’s so many memories to be made at the Movie Mill, and we hope we can just keep making them with you, regardless of what is or isn’t on the walls,” Bretzky said.
