Randy Newman wrote his first Disney theme park song for Monstropolis

By entgrove · August 29, 2026

Disney Parks has debuted "Welcome to Monstropolis," a song Disney Legend Randy Newman wrote for the Monsters, Inc. land coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Disney says it is the first song Newman has composed for a Disney theme park, and that guests will hear it when the land opens next year. The announcement stops short of a dated opening or a placement for the music.

Disney Parks has released "Welcome to Monstropolis," a new song written by Randy Newman for the Monsters, Inc. land under construction at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Disney says it is the first song Newman has composed for a Disney theme park, and that guests will hear it when the land opens next year. The full performance was shared through Disney's official channels alongside the D23 announcement.

A Randy Newman song built for a land, not a film

Newman's work for Pixar is the reason the Monsters, Inc. films sound the way they do, but every one of those cues was written for a screen. Disney's announcement frames "Welcome to Monstropolis" as a departure: a piece composed for a physical place guests will walk into rather than a sequence they watch. In Disney's words, it is "the first song that Randy has composed for a Disney theme park."

The framing matters because theme park music has to work differently from film scoring. A film cue plays once, in a fixed order, under a scene the composer has seen. Land music loops, greets people arriving from any direction at any hour, and has to survive being heard for the fifth time in an afternoon. Disney has not said in this announcement where in the land the song will play or in what form, so the specifics of its placement remain open.

What the song actually says

The performance shared by Disney Parks is a welcome number sung in the voice of the monsters themselves, and it leans on the joke at the center of the franchise: the creatures that once terrified children have spent the years since going straight. It opens with a direct invitation, "Welcome, welcome, welcome to Monstropolis. Come on down. We'll show you around. It's the friendliest town there is anywhere."

From there it addresses the audience's suspicion head on. "Do you remember how we used to be? We were scary and mean. Sorry, folks. It's true," the song admits, before pivoting to the present tense: "Look at us now and you will see. We're the sweetest monsters in world history."

The closing lines acknowledge that guests may not be buying it yet. "You don't believe me. I see it in your eyes. You think this little monster must be telling you lies," the vocal continues, landing on a plea that reads as an invitation to the land itself: "Just give us a chance. We'll show it all to you."

That structure does a specific job. Rather than narrating a story guests already know from the films, the lyric positions them as skeptical visitors being talked into staying, which is a workable premise for a land people are walking through rather than watching.

What Disney has confirmed, and what it has not

The announcement is narrow. Disney has stated the song title, Newman's credit, the claim that this is his first theme park composition, and that guests will hear it when Monstropolis opens "next year" and, in Disney's phrasing, "opens to humans." It carries the D23 tag along with hashtags for Disney Parks, Walt Disney World and Pixar.

Everything past that is not in this post. Disney has not published a specific opening date here, has not named which attraction, queue, or area music loop the song will play in, and has not detailed who performs the vocal or how the recording was produced. Those details are worth waiting for rather than assuming, since the land is still under construction and Disney has historically staged that information across several announcements.

Why this matters for Hollywood Studios

Monstropolis is the largest thing happening at Disney's Hollywood Studios right now, and music is usually one of the last pieces Disney reveals before an opening push begins in earnest. Releasing a signature song this far out, with a composer credit Disney is willing to call a first, reads as the start of that campaign rather than the end of it. Guests planning a trip around the opening should treat "next year" as the only timing Disney has committed to so far, and watch for a dated announcement before booking around it.