Monster High 2 (2023)

 

 

Last year Monster High: The Movie, a Halloween themed TV movie/musical basically made for tweens, aired on Nickelodeon.  In an attempt to prove that I watch any and all Halloween related stuff I went ahead and checked it out and was pleasantly surprised.  I gave it three fangs out of five.  This year we have the sequel Monster High 2 which covers the sophomore year of Clawdeen Wolf (Miia Harris) and her monster friends.  Todd Holland who also directed the first film returns here and also co-wrote the script with Matt and Billy Eddy.  Other returning monsters are Draculara (Nayah Damasen), Frankie Stein (Ceci Balagot), Deuce Gorgon (Case Walker), Cleo De Nile (Jy Prishkulnik), Lagoona (Lina Lecompte), and Heath Burns (Justin Derickson).  This year at Monster High, witches have been granted admission to the school after having been banned prior years. 

 

 

To make things more interesting a student named Toralei Stripe (Salena Qureshi) returns after studying a year abroad in France.  Toralei is a werecat and antagonistic towards Clawdeen and her friends.  Toralei also leads the group of students that are against the idea of witchcraft being allowed in Monster High.  When some other witches break into the school and start causing chaos, Headless Headmistress Bloodgood (Marci T. House) re-bans witchcraft effecting Draculara who practices the art.  The goal of the invading witches is to wipe out all vampires.  Complicating things even further is Draculara's new love interest, Ellis (Bonale Fambrini) is revealed to be a human witch and not a vampire at all that he had been passing himself off as.  Also co-starring is Scott Valentine (Disney's A Christmas Carol and The Walk) as Dracula, Scotch Ellis Loring (Firehouse Dog and K-911) as Apollo, Clawdeen's father, and Ana Ortiz (Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son and The Keeping Hours) as Zamara Prue the leader of a coven of witches and Ellis's mother.

  

 

 

The sets in Monster High 2 (at least for the scenes in and around the school) are once again on point as well as the costuming and make-up.  I mean how often do we see a teen aged gorgon with snakes for hair and a werewolf for a girlfriend?  When Clawdeen leaves the monster-verse and comes back to the human world some of the charm is lost but at least the vibrant costumes and makeup transfer over well.  Just like I enjoyed the first film as well as Disney's Halloweentown series of movies which is also aimed at kids, this one was pretty good as well.  The theme of this one feels a little more serious especially the last half hour.  My biggest negative (I hesitate to call it a complaint as it's not that big of a deal to me really) for the film is the songs, while all being OK and passable, it doesn't have that one big song like the first film had that made me go look to download it right after hearing it.  So while I know I'm being generous here I think preteens would still love this film and I will give it three clawditoriums out of five.  Who knows maybe other Halloween lovers out there that can appreciate a kids themed Halloween film would appreciate this as well.