One of the most anticipated new restaurants coming to Walt Disney World is Harryhausen’s Sushi, set to open inside the upcoming Monstropolis land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The restaurant is pulled directly from a scene in Monsters, Inc., where Mike Wazowski frantically secures a reservation for Celia Mae’s birthday dinner. But the name on the sign is not just a Pixar joke. It is a direct tribute to a real person whose influence on filmmaking reaches from Pixar to George Lucas to Star Wars, and most guests walking through the door will have no idea.
What Is Monstropolis at Hollywood Studios?
Disney Parks and Walt Disney Imagineering announced the Monstropolis land at D23 in 2024. The new area is coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and will replace the current Muppets Courtyard footprint, which closed alongside Mama Melrose to make way for construction. No official opening date has been announced.
The land will include a suspended coaster recreating the iconic door vault scene from the film, new dining and retail, and a new theater show. Harryhausen’s Sushi is the dining anchor of the land and replaces Mama Melrose as the full-service restaurant in that footprint.
The Harryhausen Scene in Monsters, Inc.
In Monsters, Inc., Harryhausen’s is the upscale restaurant where Mike Wazowski works desperately to get a table for his girlfriend Celia Mae’s birthday. He succeeds, the dinner goes spectacularly wrong when Boo escapes into the restaurant, and chaos follows. The sushi chef behind the counter is an octopus with only six tentacles, one of which is bandaged. He is referred to in Pixar lore as the Sixtopus, a running in-joke that the animators built into the background of the scene.
The restaurant’s name was not random. Pixar creatives confirmed it is a direct tribute to Ray Harryhausen, one of the most influential visual effects artists in film history.
Who Was Ray Harryhausen?
Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) was a special effects artist and animator who spent decades perfecting stop-motion animation for Hollywood films. He was inspired by Willis O’Brien’s work on the original King Kong and developed his own technique, known as Dynamation, which combined stop-motion creature animation with live-action footage. The result made it appear as if real actors were sharing the screen with fully realized fantastical creatures: skeletons, giant octopuses, griffins, and sea monsters, all created by hand one frame at a time.
His most recognizable films include The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and Clash of the Titans (1981). The six-armed skeleton fight in Jason and the Argonauts remains one of the most studied sequences in the history of visual effects. The giant octopus from It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955) is the specific creature the Sixtopus in Monsters, Inc. pays tribute to.
The Pixar, Disney, and Star Wars Connection
Harryhausen never worked directly at Pixar, Walt Disney Studios, or on the Star Wars films, but his fingerprints are on all three in ways the people who built those studios have openly acknowledged.
Pixar animators have cited Harryhausen’s approach to character performance through animation as a foundational influence. His ability to convey personality and emotion through a stop-motion puppet helped establish the standard that computer animation later inherited. Harryhausen’s restaurant name and the Sixtopus character are Pixar’s way of putting that acknowledgment inside the film itself.
George Lucas has repeatedly named Harryhausen as a direct inspiration for Star Wars. The creature designs and action sequences of the original trilogy carry clear DNA from Harryhausen’s work, and Industrial Light and Magic, the visual effects company Lucas founded, traces part of its origin story to what Harryhausen proved was possible. In the second season of Light and Magic on Disney+, Harryhausen is named explicitly by ILM employees as a formative inspiration.
Walt Disney Studios and Harryhausen operated in different traditions. Disney built its reputation on cel animation while Harryhausen worked in stop-motion for live-action films. But his work on films like Jason and the Argonauts pushed the entire industry’s thinking about how fantastical creatures could be realized on screen, which influenced how Disney approached effects-heavy live-action projects in the decades that followed.
What Harryhausen’s Sushi Could Look Like Inside the Park
Disney has not released interior concept art for the restaurant. Based on the film’s version of the space, the sushi bar setting lends itself naturally to a full-service dining experience with strong Monsters, Inc. theming. The Sixtopus sushi chef is the most obvious character anchor for the space, and an animatronic or large-scale figure of that character would fit squarely in the Walt Disney Imagineering tradition of signature dining centerpieces.
Given Harryhausen’s legacy in stop-motion creature effects, there is real creative potential for the space to incorporate nods to the kinds of giant creatures he was famous for, filtered through the Monsters, Inc. aesthetic. Whether Disney goes that direction is unknown, but the name alone gives Imagineers a lot to work with.
For the generation of guests who grew up with Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts, walking into a restaurant with Harryhausen’s name on the sign will mean something specific. For younger guests, it will hopefully spark the same questions the name was designed to raise. Ray Harryhausen’s films are still worth finding, and a Disney World restaurant with his name on it is a genuinely unusual way to make sure a new generation encounters him.
Keep it locked to Fantasy Land News for updates on Monstropolis and Harryhausen’s Sushi as Disney releases more information.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Harryhausen’s Sushi at Disney World?
Harryhausen’s Sushi is a new restaurant coming to the Monstropolis land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It is based on the upscale sushi restaurant seen in the Pixar film Monsters, Inc., where Mike Wazowski takes Celia Mae for her birthday dinner.
Who is Ray Harryhausen, and why is the restaurant named after him?
Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) was a legendary stop-motion animator and special effects artist known for films like Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Pixar named the restaurant in Monsters, Inc. as a direct tribute to him, confirmed by Pixar creatives. His influence on animation and visual effects extends to Pixar, George Lucas, and the Star Wars franchise.
What is the Sixtopus in Monsters, Inc.?
The Sixtopus is the sushi chef octopus character seen behind the counter at Harryhausen’s in Monsters, Inc. He has only six tentacles, one of which is bandaged, making him a Sixtopus rather than an octopus. The character is a tribute to the giant octopus from Ray Harryhausen’s 1955 film It Came from Beneath the Sea.
When does Monstropolis open at Hollywood Studios?
No official opening date has been announced for Monstropolis at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Disney confirmed the land at D23 in 2024.
What else is coming to Monstropolis at Hollywood Studios?
In addition to Harryhausen’s Sushi, Monstropolis will include a suspended roller coaster based on the door vault scene from Monsters, Inc., a new theater show, and additional retail and dining locations.
What replaced Mama Melrose at Hollywood Studios?
Mama Melrose closed permanently to make way for the Monstropolis land. Harryhausen’s Sushi is the full-service dining restaurant replacing Mama Melrose in that footprint.
