Monster High returns again!

[Carrehz]

I wish they'd make a Gory doll too! Her and Fawn the deer girl were the two cartoon-only chars I really wanted dolls of.

[Leave a Whisper]

Monster High’s live-action movie is a freaky, fang-tastic musical - Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/23189621/monster-high-live-action-musical-trailer

Well then.

[Zapper]

Monster High’s live-action movie is a freaky, fang-tastic musical - Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/23189621/monster-high-live-action-musical-trailer

Well then.

"My name's Frankie, projouns: they/them"
What. Frankie is very obviously female, they didn't even try making her look androgynous? So why?

This looks like it had no real money put into. The special effects look like it came out in 2015. This movie is several years too late and tries too hard to do "current teen trend" such as the introduction with pronouns stuff. Frankie's pronouns don't even exist in several languages so I am curious how this is gonna get translated.

Mattel is doing a Barbie movie with a Hollywood star directed by an Oscar Winner and for MH we just get... this. It's Jem all over again, isn't it.

[Wardah]

Monster High’s live-action movie is a freaky, fang-tastic musical - Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/23189621/monster-high-live-action-musical-trailer

Well then.

"My name's Frankie, projouns: they/them"
What. Frankie is very obviously female, they didn't even try making her look androgynous? So why?

This looks like it had no real money put into. The special effects look like it came out in 2015. This movie is several years too late and tries too hard to do "current teen trend" such as the introduction with pronouns stuff. Frankie's pronouns don't even exist in several languages so I am curious how this is gonna get translated.

Mattel is doing a Barbie movie with a Hollywood star directed by an Oscar Winner and for MH we just get... this. It's Jem all over again, isn't it.

The actor who is portraying Frankie is trans so that might be why.

[Leave a Whisper]

Monster High’s live-action movie is a freaky, fang-tastic musical - Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/23189621/monster-high-live-action-musical-trailer

Well then.

"My name's Frankie, projouns: they/them"
What. Frankie is very obviously female, they didn't even try making her look androgynous? So why?

This looks like it had no real money put into. The special effects look like it came out in 2015. This movie is several years too late and tries too hard to do "current teen trend" such as the introduction with pronouns stuff. Frankie's pronouns don't even exist in several languages so I am curious how this is gonna get translated.

Mattel is doing a Barbie movie with a Hollywood star directed by an Oscar Winner and for MH we just get... this. It's Jem all over again, isn't it.

  I have no idea

[Lady Frostbite]

I thought it was a pun on the fact that Frankie is technically made up of different body parts, so the they/them pun would be hilarious in that context. They don't need to be particularly androgynous, they can identify as NB and still dress feminine.

Her skin is a weird shade that's throwing me, but I'm glad they've kept her hetrochromia. I'm going to go through it and screencap who I think is who, but looks like we have Cleo and Ghoulia and Abbey for sure, as well as Heath (urgh) and Deuce. The fact Deuce doesn't have his snek hair is a 0/10 for me, even with no budget. Cleo's hair looks offffffff GIRL WHERE IS YOUR GOLD STREAKS ITS YOUR SIG LOOK **AND** YOUR FAV COLOUR!!

I am amused they didn't give Draculaura her squeaky voice. I preferred the lower-pitch 2d animation voice to the higher pitches they used in the 3d movies

'Holy Headless Horsewoman!!' ... does that mean Headless Headmistress Bloodgood ISN'T a Headless Horsewoman? I have questions, Clawdeen

It just doesn't seem to gel with MH's original message of being freaky-fabulous, I don't know what they're going for in this story. Plus, we covered the 'there's a normie in here' aspect in Ghouls Rule; it was Jackson, and he IS technically a monster, just with a normie side.

Post Merge: July 03, 2022, 01:38:14 AM

As promised, here are some screens! Along with my hesitant identification. Everything is under a spoiler as it will be quite image heavy. Can confirm that it looks like ALL SIX ORIGINAL GHOULS APPEAR!!!

Spoiler

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Headless Headmistress Bloodgood. I think I see a seam around her neck, so chances are her head DOES come off at some point.

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Deuce Gorgon and Heath Burns

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Frankie Stein

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Clawdeen Wolf

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Draculaura

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Deuce Gorgon (no snek hair? No shades? 0/10)

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GHOULIA YELPS!!!!! RED ALERT WE HAVE GHOULA I REPEAT WE HAVE GHOULIA!!!!!

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Cleo De Nile and Lagoona Blue (honestly, I was confused who she was but seeing her ear fins and mermaid tail earrings in a later shot confirms this is supposed to be Lagoona).

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The obviously Normie teacher. He's a VERY good candidate for Jackson Jekyll/Holt Hyde and I am betting that's who he is supposed to be. If they make him Viktor 'Sparky' Frankenstein I'm calling nonsense.

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... 'goona what u doin

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IS MY GURL ABBEY BOMINABLE!!!!!! SHE'S HERE!!!!!!! Movie saved, best monster is here, we can go home now

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Ghoulia, Heath and Abbey. Proof that Ghoulia at least won't be a cameo, even if I wish Mattel would stop pairing my girl with this idiot

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Proof my earlier identification is correct and Riverdale's Jughead IS supposed to be Deuce. What did they do to you man. Also, why aren't you wearing shades instead of regular glasses.

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Ghoulia waking up? C'mon girl, G2 left you behind but you're back in the game!

[Zapper]

Monster High’s live-action movie is a freaky, fang-tastic musical - Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/23189621/monster-high-live-action-musical-trailer

Well then.

"My name's Frankie, projouns: they/them"
What. Frankie is very obviously female, they didn't even try making her look androgynous? So why?

The actor who is portraying Frankie is trans so that might be why.

And in real life this actor introduces herself/himself with "hello, I am *insert name here* and I am trans"? I doubt it. Nobody talks like that irl, it's a social media thing. That's why Clawdeen has to do it, too.
It's the modern equivalent of asking "a/s/l"? If that happened in a kids movie back then I would have raised an eyebrow, too It's very "we studied kids online behaviour to understand what they want, so how do you do fellow kids?" Nothing but pandering to an online crowd.

I have met people who ID as "divers" irl since I live in Germany and we have this recognized officially on papers. None of them stated it to my face upon meeting them, they didn't tell me pronouns. They just said "hi, I'm *insert name*" like a normal person in real life would

That being said, I wonder what the new cartoon will be like. I hope they get a bigger budget than this movie got for FX and costumes.

Post Merge: July 03, 2022, 04:37:27 AM

Oh, almost forgot... since I am on a roll bashing this movie for looking cheap:

https://www.syfy.com/face-off/photos/spotlight-challenge-monster-high#209392

This is what special FX make-up artists did with the MH theme on SyFy's show Face off. Some of these designs that artists came up with on the spot look better than what is presented in this movie. They look close to the original characters, too. Some of the people in the movie look like Halloween cosplay.

[Lady Frostbite]

I disagree that a/s/l is the same as pronouns, that is quite frankly a different ball park entirely. A/S/L is for cyberchat in an adult context and a good indication of what thw questioner wants. Pronouns is just simply stating preference, and it can be a HUGE asset to avoid misgendering. My first name is genderless, I put she/her in my email signature to indicate I am female, and I imagine it would be extremely useful for those with genderless, ambigious, or names that are not commonly heard and have no gender typically associated with it. Leslie/Lesley is a very good example, I've met both male and female Lesleys and always hesitate with pronouns until an indication ia given.

So, in this context Frankie is female presenting so  they want to get it right from the start with Clawdeen by clarifying they prefer they/them, which is cool, and Clawdeen also clarifies she prefers she/her. It's simply pronouns, nothing more, they aren't graphically explaining why they prefer those pronouns or whats in their pants, I am all for pronouns being normalised. My old name was CONSTANTLY leading to me being misgendered, so I am 100% on board with this.

And yes, I do meet people irl who introduce themselves with names and pronouns, especially in LGBT+ spaces, and I see pronouns in my work and private emails as well as have mine in my signatures

[Carrehz]

Huh, I guess if the actor is trans then that's why they changed Frankie? I'm just confused if this means they've changed the character overall or if this is just for the live action film. It looks like this film has a lot of other stuff that's wildly different (Lagoona is pretty much unrecognizable) so... ???? maybe it's just for the film? I dunno.

I'm tired of this new film already, I just want to see the dolls

[Lady Frostbite]

WILL there be new dolls released in time for the movie? Or tie-in dolls? It kinda feels like a feeler for how interested people are in MH, which is sad because the film doesn't showcase what made MH so popular in the first place

EDIT: I looked at the trailer again, why is Lagoona the only one with her skin colour not put in? Everyone else who has inhuman skin tones like Lala, Frankie, Ghoulia, Heath and Abbey have the right or roughtly right tone, why is 'Goona not ... Blue?!

[Esbayne]

The obviously Normie teacher. He's a VERY good candidate for Jackson Jekyll/Holt Hyde and I am betting that's who he is supposed to be. If they make him Viktor 'Sparky' Frankenstein I'm calling nonsense.

According to IMDb his name is "Mr. Komos."

Interestingly, Operetta is also on the page, but listed as uncredited.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1447981/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm


Personal opinion- I think this looks like a train wreck.
The costumes are.... So embarrassing, and I don't get the design choice for Lagoona. I will say Abbey looks pretty good, but she doesn't look like Abbey. I thought it was Ghoulia in a different outfit at first.
The Lagoona roar was... also SO embarrassing lol, I'm hoping that's not a done special effect but the fact it's in the trailer makes me think otherwise. Again, didn't even realize that was Lagoona, thought it was Clawdeen because.... WHY is she not blue???
I'm also willing to bet Ghoulia talks, because I've seen several screencaps of her that looked like she was mid-sentence, and I don't get why Draculaura's a sorceress now..? It seems like they watered down all their personalities, and then stuck random extra stuff in to pad it out, lol.

I haven't been particularly impressed by the dolls, either- I love the collectors' but Dracula was *very* underwhelming, especially for the price- and the HC ones just don't tickle my fancy enough for their price & quality, either- not to mention distribution/quantity issues.

It just doesn't seem to gel with MH's original message of being freaky-fabulous, I don't know what they're going for in this story. Plus, we covered the 'there's a normie in here' aspect in Ghouls Rule; it was Jackson, and he IS technically a monster, just with a normie side.

I have to agree with this.
It does also feel very "how do you do, fellow kids?" I saw from another post above.

Post Merge: July 04, 2022, 03:54:44 PM

Just saw it’s been confirmed Ghoulia talks normally.
Oof.

[Carrehz]

Re: Operetta, I'd take that with a grain of salt unless you can find it somewhere else, since anyone can add stuff to IMDB.

Lagoona feels like they're trying to ape Rainbow High and those sort of dolls - she'd look right at home in those doll lines. It's not even that it's a bad design, it's just.... not Lagoona? At all??? I don't get why they didn't just make that one a new character. The others mostly look different too but they're still at least somewhat recognizeable. (Well except Deuce.. WHAT happened to him!!)

I don't get the sorceress thing either... Why does she have to be a vampire AND a witch? If they wanted a witch char why not bring Casta back, or again just make a new character? She feels more like a Bratzillaz character honestly. (Lol, didn't a lot of the Bratzillaz have two-coloured hair with the colours split down the middle, too?)

Just saw it’s been confirmed Ghoulia talks normally.
Oof.

What!!!!! Are you freaking kidding me!!!

edit: Whoops, forgot to reply to this one before, sorry.

WILL there be new dolls released in time for the movie? Or tie-in dolls? It kinda feels like a feeler for how interested people are in MH, which is sad because the film doesn't showcase what made MH so popular in the first place

There was a leak of a new Cleo floating around recently (I don't have the pic to hand atm) and I've heard rumours of leaked product listings etc but not sure how much stock to put into those. But there are playline dolls coming up, yeah. I haven't heard if there'll be movie dolls or if the new dolls will be out in time for the movie though.

Also apparently the movie's leaked, I don't know where to find it though.

[Wardah]

I don't get the sorceress thing either... Why does she have to be a vampire AND a witch? If they wanted a witch char why not bring Casta back, or again just make a new character? She feels more like a Bratzillaz character honestly. (Lol, didn't a lot of the Bratzillaz have two-coloured hair with the colours split down the middle, too?)

The idea of a witch being a type of monster is kinda offensive to people who practice witchcraft irl. (Which is actually really trendy these days) At least they are treating it as a human thing here.

[Carrehz]

I just realized who the new Lagoona reminds me of... She's a dead ringer for Radia Rainbowfish from Enchantimals. Hmm.

Anyway, new doll leak:

http://venivididolli.blogspot.com/2022/07/news-monster-high.html

From what I understand, one of the Mattel staff put this on their site and then I guess took it down, but yeah it's legit.

Would like to see more photos before I make any real judgements.... but Draculaura looks cute (though man what's with that giant Lydia Deetz hat?), Clawdeen isn't bad but definitely not Clawdeen (looks more like a younger Clawdia tbh) - hate the giant glasses - I don't mind her having glasses in general (again, makes her seem more like Clawdia, but I could get on board with it) but I'm just not a fan of giant glasses in general. Wolf nose is cute. I dunno, she's cute in her own right but really doesn't look like Clawdeen, more like a sister or something.

Not a fan of this Frankie at all... she (they? still not clear on if that's just for the movie or if they've changed pronouns across the board... confusing) looks too real somehow?? like, the face reminds me of those "live action movie" dolls you get if that makes sense... not a fan... and why is she grey?? and no neckbolts?? wha..

Disappointing that it looks like the classic-style MH molds are only going to be used for the collector dolls. :/

[starrynights]

I...I actually think I really like them. I like their faces a lot. I hope the rumor of a Toralei being made is true. Hopefully she won't be all smiles though