We were recently sent Monster High on DVD to review. I thought the girls might quite like something halloween ish that I probably wouldn't approve of for a change. It quite amuses them to be able to torture me with films and programmes that makes me go aaaarrrrgh…. But that's another story.
Monster High (I'm told, I was too busy screaming in the corner and buying up vast quantities of costume making netting on eBay) is the story of two sections of a community in a fictional town in America, the Normies and the Monsters. I gather from Maddy that they live quite separate lives with their own schools etc but on Halloween, the Normies are particularly mean to the Monsters.
Interesting premise.
My ears were waggling in the background and I have to say I didn't actually pick up on anything about this story line that had me screaming in despair. It's the kind of thing that could easily be horribly moralistic but it seems to have provoked quite a bit of conversation in the house, with a surprising amount of extrapolating from the younger ones about what it was really illustrating. The themes of bullying, face value judgements and segregation were obvious but they didn't outweigh the storyline. It got watched a few times and while its not a style of animation I'm especially drawn to (drawn.. See what I did there?) I found myself drawn in a few times.
Eventually friendship and do-the-right-thing-manship overwhelms the town divide and they mix and collaborate. Apparently two of them snog from opposite sides of the species fence. I'd left the room by that point. Probably a good thing. Maddy hates it if I see her watching anything with teenager/romantic themes. I think she thinks I was never a teenager.
In conclusion, a fun, older kid halloween cartoon that would be okay the rest of the year too.
Bad Stuff: (according to Maddy) there is kissing and they all have boyfriends.
Good things: (according to Amelie) it came with free nail varnish attached!
Disclaimer: we were sent this free for the purposes of review. All opinions are our own. As you can probably tell. No mothers were harmed in the writing of this review. Nail varnish has been put away till they are 18. My daughters will never snog monsters. Or anyone. Ever.
Debbie Ellard says
so cute. I bumped into your lot at our local country park the other week, Bene was fast asleep in the buggy. Fran just about rememberd Jonny and I.