Girl vs. Monster

This came out when I was 10 and I loved it so much, I am going to go re-watch it asap just for some memories of childhood. I would recommend this title to anyone who had children that are into defeating monsters or who are excited by futuristic devices, as this will fulfill their imagination as it definitely did to me. I loved this movie!

Of course I had never heard about this 2012 movie titled "Girl vs. Monster", as I happened to stumble upon it by random chance here in 2024. And believing that it was a horror comedy, of course I opted to watch it. Yeah, I didn't know that it was a Disney family movie. And had I known that, I might have skipped on the movie entirely.

Writers Annie DeYoung and Ron McGee put together a script and storyline that appealed to quite a different audience than what I am in. So I didn't particularly enjoy this movie, to be honest. Not that it was a bad movie, I guess, but I just wasn't the target audience of the movie.

While I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list, I will say that the acting performances were good, despite of the storyline failing to entertain me. And truth be told, I do enjoy watching unfamiliar talents on the screen.

Visually then "Girl vs. Monster" was nothing outstanding. Sure, there were special effects, and they were up to par with what you would expect from a TV movie or a Disney TV movie, I suppose. So that counts for something.

My rating of Stuart Gillard's 2012 movie "Girl vs. Monster" lands on a four out of ten stars. This just simply wasn't my cup of tea.

Trying to keep a rival from her crush, a teen's attempt to sneak out to a party frees the captured monster spirits collected by her monster-hunter parents and must round them up before they overtake the town during the Halloween party.

This here managed to be a pretty enjoyable and entertaining children's horror effort that has a lot going for it. By starting off with all the usual teen drama over the wishful relationship, the friendships between each other and their ability to almost be superheroes by accomplishing anything no matter the situation or solution presented gives this a rather easy integration into the horror scenes, watered-down as they are for such a release format as this one has, that come later on. Those aren't bad, with a creepy graveyard stalking, a rather enjoyable confrontation in the woods between the group and a pretty creepy creature as well as a rousing hunt for the creatures inside the mansion party when they get released and begin wreaking havoc with the guests, only to be saved by another dose of the super-teen lifestyle mentioned earlier. It's also got a lot of good by showcasing the monsters mostly as practical effects instead of CGI only for minimal use, plus it has a lot in the overcoming of your fears which is a good message to spread and does nicely in managing to mix the two genres together nicely. As usual, the comedy's hit-or-miss but it's not enough to hurt it much overall for the lame joke or pratfall doesn't hurt it as much as it could have.

Rated Unrated/PG: Mild Violence.

Monsters are gaining strength and power as they feed on the increased fear of humans on Halloween. Meanwhile, a teen girl who simply wants to enjoy her normal life, discovers she belongs to a family of monster hunters

There is definitely an audience for this movie. Just not a very big one. The problem with movies like this is that they don't age well. The music and the story are geared toward a very specific audience and time period. There's a line in one of the songs that says, "You don't have to try that hard." That feels like the motto for this movie. From an adults viewpoint, it's poorly written and poorly executed to the point that it's hard to overlook and enjoy what's presented here. It feels long and gets repetitious. The acting and dialogue is cringey at times. I've never seen ghostbusters, but from what I know about it, this movie feels like a preteen version of that movie.

The Magic Kingdom came up short with this made for TV movie designed to showcase the talents of Olivia Holt and Luke Benward. Girl vs. Monster if you're over the age of 12 will have you laughing in all the wrong places.

Not that Benward and Holt are bad, in fact they make this somewhat tolerable. Their best moments are in the musical interludes. There should have been more of them.

Young Olivia typical teen with strict parents wants to go to a Halloween Party real bad, but she's got a curfew. The parents have reason to worry about her though. Unbeknownst to their daughter, they're professional monster hunters with equipment that the Ghostbusters got rid of of in a garage sale. When some monsters get loose on Halloween that's when Olivia discovers her roots.

Now maybe if the folks who made Ghostbusters did this one it might have been a whole lot better. Girl vs. Monster is not the best product out of the Magic Kingdom.