Monster High

As an OG Monster High fan, I absolutely love this new show. I absolutely love the character designs as well as more diversity in the cast. The inclusion of lgbtq/trans characters, body diversity, cultural diversity, and racial diversity makes me so happy compared to how all of that was treated in the original 2010 version.

It makes me so happy as someone who is trans themselves to see a non-binary character in this type of media, it shows kids at a young age that being trans is okay and normalizes it preventing future transphobia from the next generation.

I'm so happy the next generation will get to grow up with this show, I already love it personally and I really hope it goes farther.

Generation 1 may not have had the animation kicks that the second and third generations do, but the original generation knew how to tell a story that involved inclusion, acceptance, and how to solve problems. The Generation 1 stories were fun, cute, but held much more meaning, with a storytelling design that was natural and entertaining that respected the audience watching it. It conveyed the messages well and did not rub it in our faces that we were idiots, too much, always maintaining the sense of adventure.

Generation 2 tried to do the same thing, but it came at the wrong time and the stories were more forced, lamer, and just lacking the pizazz that the built up arcs had done with Generation 1. Yet, it still added character development, natural and funny writing, alongside again a decent cast of characters teaching us a lesson. A tad preachier, the movies at least added some sense of the original, but tried to add its own style, even to the point of causing a little darker atmosphere to the mix for engaging levels. Yet it still respected all audience levels it just did not have the commitment.

Generation 3 has come in this weekend and it's okay for me at the moment, though very much pales to the natural style of the originals. This particular generation is following the trend of the modern day of storytelling of being in your face, simplistic, and more about making sure to raise the banner of the messages they want you to learn. The dialogue is very in your face, cheesy, and patronizing, where all the characters feel whiney, incompetent, and sort of simple minded. I don't enjoy all the changes given how simplified and stupid they come off, but I also don't hate them the further the episodes come into play. And the episodic nature will potentially limit the growth in order to make a fun episode that feels like modern day SpongeBob, silly, over the top, and lacking the general audience the originals did.

It's going to cater to the new age very well, and the excuse that it's not for the older generation does hold some merit. However, the originals knew the importance of bringing families into the fray, and this new style of conveying be who you are and don't follow rules, advice, or other sound words makes for a very limited show. The animation is better, though the design is robbed due to copyrights, making them feel like a combination of MH and Alvin and the Chipmunks. However, the show is cute, representative, and serving the purpose of pushing more dolls for the corporation to make tons of cash.

Thus, at lest for the opening, this series gets a 7 so far, due to the potential for fun, the cuteness, and hopefully toning down the hyper aggressive modern tone for better storytelling and adventures. And please work on the dialogue to not be so juvenile, like the real life Loud House did for Christmas.

I love this new series! It has a charm that some of the previous shows don't have. Don't get me wrong G1 webisodes were great but this has more of an overarching narrative.

I am only rating it eight stars because I didn't enjoy the season 2 finale but I loved the rest of it.

The LGBTQIA+ representation is great e.g, Cleo and Frankie having a pansexual relationship, Deuce's mums being together, Frankie using they/them pronouns and in the monster fest episodes had a popstar that was trans and she was amazing!

I liked the first season the best and enjoyed most of season 2. I am hoping the show continues because me and so many others have enjoyed it.

The references to Egyptian culture with Cleo was well thought out and the texturing for the were-creatures especially impressed me.

The animation is just charming? I dont know how else to describe it! I must say the alternative designs are great to! 8/10 for me ^^

I really enjoy this show so far! Yes, i know many people don't because it's not what they remember from monster high, but it really isn't that bad. I do have to take off some points though, because there's fart jokes in one of the episodes that recently aired, and also i feel like they overuse the word "monster" & clawdeen talking about her being a werewolf so much in the episodes. But, it really is such a good show, even with its flaws. Frankie has got to be one of the best characters in the show, along with cleo too and lagoona too! I really think younger audiences will enjoy this show a lot aswell!

Okay so to start, I am very biased to G1, but that does not mean I will not acknowledge that I think there were some good decisions with this show. Some of the character designs I do like (Clawdeen, Abbey, and Frankie is okay). However, some of them are terrible (Ghoulia (bad hair, eyebrow and skin combo), Cleo (I thought she was Nefera), Draculaura (very boring)). I understand that this is a reboot, so not everything will be the same, but it really is a struggle with these designs. Lagoona's design is good for her doll, but in the show I do not like it. One thing that bothers me is changing Lagoona from blue and Australian (and implied aboriginal) to pink and Latina, i'm all for representation, but I liked it before when she was implied to be native and I wish they could have continued that here with full confirmation. I do enjoy the expanded representation with LGBTQ characters and disability representation! Very good addition, in concept, to the series. I think the choice to make Frankie non-binary makes a lot of sense: she is a frankenstein-like monster with an amalgamation of male and female body parts; I also like that she has a fake leg because that also checks out with her character. I like that they made Catty Noir and Draculaura plus-sized, but I dislike that it's really only Drac's legs that are thicker while her stomach is no different than the other dolls. I understand this series is to make dolls, but it would not have been hard to come up with a way to make her bigger and still be able to make her into a doll (literally like Catty). As it is a reboot, I'm not against the characters or characters personalities changing, something that still bothers me is how Ghoulia now speaks English instead of Zombie; and even at points could be considered non-verbal-it was very special to me and a lot of fans. Cleo's change is very drastic, and im not a huge fan of Clankie, I think a better ship more people would have been on board with (since its been popular since g1) is Draculaura and Clawdeen. I absolutely despise Clawdeen and Deuce dating, it makes absolutely zero sense. In g1, I think the pairings made sense because of not only the way the characters acted but because Werewolf/Vampire pairing made sense because in stories werewolves and vampires are natural enemies, and Gorgon(Snakes)/Mummy(Egyptian) pairing made sense because snakes are a symbol of royalty and divinity in Egyptian mythology.

I think adding music would have been a good idea, if the music was good. I liked that this series was going for avoiding stereotypes like g1 had such a problem with, but then these songs are not only cringe--it being a kids show should not be an excuse, because they definitely know adults and older teens that grew up with g1 would naturally be interested AND you should be able to enjoy music from shows you grow up with without going back and realising it's cringe--but these songs also have stereotypical musical elements (egyptian character has "egyptian sounding song", latina character has "latina sounding song"). Basically, it sounds like the background beats would fit into a "Stereotypical music from around the world" compilation.

Also why the HELL does Draculaura do magic??

The show itself, at its core, is not good. It's not bad, I wouldn't go as far as to say it's bad because it did have the potential to be something great. Something new for the younger generation to fall in love with Monster High like I did so long ago now (I'm 17, for clarity). I liked some of the ideas, I really hope if Monster High gets rebooted again for a new generation of dolls, they can keep some of the ideas I do think were good (Frankie being non-binary, queer characters being in the series, disability rep, and having plus-sized characters). Overall it was just a lot of bad decisions with good ideas, and then maybe im just being petty for some things. I know this show is already cancelled, but I still wanted to share my grievances with this series. Kids should be able to have a GOOD show to go with the dolls you are selling them, instead of something very mediocre and full of cringe. Some cringey stuff is fine, that's the nature of kids show, and even g1 has cringey moments--but it's not the core of the show or make it difficult to enjoy. Kids shows should be something that someone can look back on when they're older and still enjoy without being embarrassed to admit they ever liked it (like me with Girl Meets World), and something an adult can watch with their child and enjoy (not something they would watch on their own persay, but something they can watch with their child without it being insufferable).

Enjoy my essay.