#clawdeen and deuce is weird tbh

[ghoulgirly]

i (like many others) am not a fan of g3 toralei being an anti-human antagonist. if they weren't cowards they would make her and clawdeen girlfriends because obviously they are meant to be together

however. the enemies to lovers potential.

[scarah-screeeaaammss]

okay now that its been a week, I have some Thoughts on monster high 2 so spoilers up ahead.

First off, I loved Torelai. She was fantastic, no notes. Same with Frankie but I think that goes without saying.

I also really loved Heath??? He was awesome. And Deuce was also very good. He felt more fleshed out and whole and I enjoyed his story bits. I thought his friendship was Frankie in that one scene in the van was incredibly sweet and I wish we had gotten more of that, not just from them but everyone.

That one song with Clawdeen and Drac before Frankie comes in? That was a breakup song tbh, and poor Frankie all caught in the middle.

Aside from actual characters and characterization, I thought the metaphors were pretty heavy, not in a bad way tho. What really fucking confused me tho was that... Torelai was proved right???? The witches were evil and trying to kill Draculaura and the other vampires??? Like wtf. That absolutely threw me. I was expecting it to just be like one or two of the higher up witches to be evil but no. It was all of them. I feel like that seriously muddled whatever the moral was supposed to be. Bc the whole time Drac and co are saying witchcraft is fine, and it is, but then oh btw its only Drac who's not evil about it. Like okay weird. Don't like that.

Also they had a really interesting story for Frankie set up, discussing not feeling monster enough and changing themself to better fit in but still feeling useless and wanting to be the best they can be and then it just... ends. Like that did not feel like a good arc, Frankie felt so forgotten to me by the end. Which ticks me off, I love them so much and it just felt bad. Like their fear coming true. Idk just the whole "the purpose of life is to be useful not happy" like I felt like they could have done something where frankie realized they can be happy and useful and both are good but happiness is definitely super important, that life is about more than one thing.

Wish we could have seen more of Drac and her leveling up to a full vampire, that felt a little left over too. Idk it just felt like there was so much set up and nothing completed. Except...

Hey so why did they have to have that kiss. I did not want to see that. They work really well as friends, I liked their interactions but umm. Torelai and Clawdeen had WAY more chemistry. Anyway. I feel like you could theoretically put them together, but they didn't do it right and they never will.

Anyway. I know I had a lot more to say but these were the highlights.

[leoninekelter]

I watched the new Monster high movie finally, and... I like it?

Like, when you think about the witchcraft idea it's not actually that weak. Witches aren't born witches, they're humans who practice magic. Because of this, it's looked down upon and seen as a disgrace to monsters so Draculaura, Dracula's daughter of all people, practicing it is something that could get them into a lot of trouble. It also explains why Draculaura is so okay with Clawdeen being half human.

Clawdeens story I really related to as latine/American diaspora and I think it's handled really well as a metaphor.

A huge critique I see is that they are so separated from their original characters, and white that's true in the first part, they evolve into their true personalities.

Draculaura is dark and closed off because she has no one who supports her. Once she gets friends who want to support her learning witchcraft, she becomes much more positive. Clawdeen is anxious as Ultimate Diaspora, but once she meets monsters who accept her as half human, she becomes more confident etc.

Also Frankie was funny as HELL. They made me crack up every time. They are my blorbo.

It didn't focus much on characters outside of the main 3, but Cleo got some okay if rushed Growth and I expect the show will be able to focus on an expanded cast better than the movie.

All of the Music, while I was skeptical about the song about Hyde, turned out to be really good and while I'm not an authority on if choreography was good or not, I think it at least complimented the energy of the songs they were performing. The lighting, sets, and acting were all AMAZING, especially fro a movie with a seemingly lower budget. Whoever made this movie really cared, or at least everyone who worked on it did, and you can really tell! The actors do a really good job! The makeup and effects were mostly go with a few weird flaws, but the effects with Draculaura's spells were really enjoyable.

It's main flaw is getting rid of the accents and bad puns, as those were part of the charm, and while I believe the movie outfits of the main 3 are still pretty solidly alternative the rest of the characters are toned down and straight up aren't themselves, which sucks. It's why my score of the move lies at a 7/10 and not an 8, which it would've been if Abbey was still jacked and Russian, and if Deuce still spoke like he was always badly pretending to be a syerotypical surfer lmao. Also the implied Deuce and Clawdeen romance moved it down the first two points. But honestly it made me laugh, the songs were good, qnd I was invested in their stories! I went into this movie pretty prepared for it to disappoint me, but tbh it didnt and I'm happy.

I also have more to say on the Lagoona complaints, but I think that should be it's own seperate post. I'm glad she's from the Amazon's and were getting diversity and if you disagree that's fine but dni

[hey-haven]

My overall opinion of the Monster High movie:…Eh, it was okay.

SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE KINDA SORTA

Like as a longtime fan, a lot of things irked me, but I can see kids enjoying it. Also just pirate the movie. Literally don’t support the director in any way cause he’s a racist dick. But generally SOME of the changes were kinda cool to see, and I had fun watching it albeit with most of the entertainment coming from me making fun of it.

Obviously Frankie is the best thing to ever happen to the movie. I think they hold up the heart of G1 Frankie while improving other aspects like not just making them the rather bland “nice” character. They were super awkward and weird (and autistic, I will fight you). They’re super smart and they know it while being reallyyyy lost on social settings, but their willingness to learn was a big charm to their character. They’re just so happy and excited to experience a whole new world that the enthusiasm was infectious!

I also like the bond Clawdeen has with both Frankie and Draculaura. Their friendship was really genuine as they uplifted and supported one another through and through. Frankie and Clawdeen were especially fun to watch together. They immediately clicked and were joined at the hip since day one, and I may or may not think they have the potential to make a cute pair. Anything is better than Clawdeen and Deuce.

And like yeah no it SUCKS that as soon as Clawdeen was pushed to be the main character, her sexuality was immediately erased! I know it wasn’t Sanders’s original intention to make her a lesbian, but the lesbian community clearly saw themselves in Clawdeen to the point where he was like “yeah she’s gay now.” And like if they were so blunt about Frankie’s gender, why couldn’t they go through with making Clawdeen a lesbian?? It’s dumb and upsetting and I hate it. Deuce is gay now out of my own spite and anger. They’re pretending to date till they feel ready to come out, that’s my canon./lh

Other general thoughts uhhhh: I miss G1 Abbey, the climax battle wasn’t really a climax and was a massive disappointment, I think it’s creative to have the school itself be alive, I actually like that they’re carrying the monsters v human theme from the previous two generations only I think it wasn’t handled all that well in this movie, Deuce is fucking lame and I miss the punk dude bro, Frankie is officially my favorite character of G3, some of the newer choices for characters are hit or miss overall tbh, annnd I don’t know it’s a kids movie produced by Nickelodeon with a racist director, so I went in with no expectations while coming out of it with an okay experience. I give it a solid 3.5/10. Maybe a generous 4/10.

[thenightjillcamehome]

ok so i watched the new monster high episodes n i’ve got a lot of thoughts (spoilers under the cut). overall i do enjoy the cheesy nature of it all n it makes me happy to watch <33

things i do like:

• clawdeen being a weird awkward girl w a fixation on monsters n horror like girl me too!!!!

• frankie spectra draculaura n lagoona i LOVE YOU!!!!! my faves

• a lot of the character designs for g3 are so pleasing to look at,, i love the colors n animation style tbh

• british toralei makes me laugh every time i hear her voice so she gets a like from me

• frankie’s other body parts (like their eyes n ears) being detachable…chefs kiss

• the theme music is a bop n i like the title card/ staff credit music

things i don’t like:

• clawdeen not knowing she’s a werewolf until the end of the monstering??? don’t werewolves act up during the full moon??? clawdeen’s 15 she should’ve experienced these changes a long time ago

•clawdeen not knowing her mother was a werewolf????? why was her werewolf heritage hidden????? was it cause they had to live around humans???

• speaking of her mother where the hell is she??? did she straight up abandon her family or something cause the way clawdeen’s dad said he hopes she comes back someday got me like ??????

• the voice coming from the necklace was annoying n felt very…obvious? like instructing clawdeen to go into the woods when it’s supposed to enhance clawdeen’s instincts

• “your dna test came back saying you’re 50% werewolf”…why are we giving monster children dna tests???? also 50% werewolf…werewolves are half human half wolf oh my GOD

• still don’t understand why witchcraft is forbidden??? makes absolutely zero sense

• deuce’s snakes representing the seven deadly sins is bizarre to me…i don’t like that they talk

• draculaura’s bat form is UGLY. there i said it

[look-how-the-lights]

Genuine question, how is Clawdeen canonically a lesbian?

Didn't Garrett just vaguely say he was on board with the idea or something?

I haven't seen any specific quotes from him saying that Clawdeen is/was intended to be a lesbian so I'm just confused and google is not helping 😀

[freaky-flawless]

i have no idea why they made clawdeen the main character when most aspects of her movie personality could’ve been attributed to frankie?? that way even the romantic plot line with deuce would kinda make sense…

My theories as to why Clawdeen was made the main character are that:

Mattel recognized that she is a fan favorite character and wanted to capitalize on that and

Both Frankie and Draculaura had their turns being the main character, and they figured it was Clawdeen's turn

The 2016 reboot did the same thing with Draculaura, where she kinda took on Frankie's personality, and Frankie kinda became the new Ghoulia, albeit in a very preppy way. And the fact that they're doing it with Clawdeen just shows that Frankie maybe should have stayed the main character. Then they could have addressed/corrected the things that the fandom didn't like about them, such as their tendency to hop from boy to boy. (Tbh there are a lot of things I think they could have done with Frankie to make them a more interesting character, but that's not relevant)

Anyway, I think its sets this weird precedent that kid show protagonists all have to have the same bland personality. There are plenty of shows they could have taken inspiration from to keep Clawdeen's personality as is, while still making her an endearing character. True Jackson and Penny Proud come to mind immediately.

In terms of the romance, I have no idea what Mattel's intentions are. At this point I think they just wanted to really rile up the fanbase, which they accomplished, so kudos to them.

[cometcrystal]

monster high (2022) review

SPOILERS AHEAD OBVIOUSLY. SCROLL PAST IF U DONT WANT EM.

and don’t ask me for the movie either, i’m not gonna share it cause i made a promise to the person on reddit i got it from

i probably won’t bring up the lightwashing in the review proper much since other people have said it better than i could. but here’s my mention of it: clawdeen and cleo are both lightwashed and whitewashed, respectively. and we know it’s not like they’re not capable of hiring actors with the proper skin tones/races because bloodgood is a dark skinned black woman (and she was great tbh). so it’s just really disappointing and i will not be supporting the movie financially when it comes out because of it.

okay first off i wanna talk about the characters themselves. there’s a lot of weird things they did that aren’t Bad changes but they’re just bizarre and idk where they came from. like some people said it was like they were mixing and matching character traits and that feels pretty spot-on.

clawdeen - half human half werewolf as we already know but i’m more concerned about her personality. this clawdeen is more...generic? generic nice girl? she’s not a pushover but she also isn’t nearly as headstrong as og clawdeen. and the only hobby we see her do is skateboarding.

frankie - this frankie RULES. they are constantly bringing up which famous person their body parts belonged to and saying random weird facts. theyre a huge socially awkward weirdo. they still have the patented frankie stein friendly to a fault optimism. they probably are the most similar to their original version and are 100% the main reason to watch this film.

draculaura - she’s very dry and crabby?? not bubbly at all. and she does witchcraft which i will talk about more later. unclear if she’s still vegetarian or not: she threatens to suck the blood of frankie and clawdeen if they dont stay out of her side of their dorm room

deuce - you can see his eyes. his shades look like they’d be useless. also apparently used to be a big troublemaker and is trying to turn over a new leaf. still very chill and nice. has a bit of human hair in addition to his snakes. gorgons are apparently feared in the monster world and he’s insecure about that

cleo - she is not a character in this movie she is just a Mean Girl prop. exists to look pathetic trying to get deuce back and to be mean to the main 3 ghouls. the biggest disappointment to me, both for personal reasons (i love her) and for subjective reasons. it’s like they took every ounce of depth that every preceeding mh media gave her (her love for her friends, her trauma, her reasons for doing things, the fact that she’s not a cruel person) and put a cookie cutter in her place.

lagoona - she isn’t Blue anymore i guess but that doesn’t bug me. she only has a couple lines. other than that she just stands next to cleo. personally i think her outfits are very good but i wish they had found an indigenous australian actress to play her

abbey - i think she has like 2 lines and then she screams at something. doesn’t appear to have the same personality as og abbey, but it’s hard to tell. she seems more preppy and more influencer-type. also doesn’t have her accent and speaks fluent english

ghoulia - she speaks fluent english as well. huge L for autistics. she’s kind of the Quirky weird one who tries to scare the new students so i like that direction for her but my god i wish they had her still speak zombie.

heath - he doesn’t get to do a whole lot but he’s probably the 2nd closest to his og character. i liked him alright he was fine. comic relief guy character. nothing much more to say

now let’s talk about The Good

like i said, frankie is great. they stole every single second of their screentime. theyre an angel and i love them. had the only genuinely funny lines in the movie

bloodgood was mostly good. but we always stan bloodgood.

some of the outfits were KILLER. i will definitely be giffing a few.

a couple of the songs are boring but true monster heart and the three of us both BANG and they will be going in my playlist as soon as theyre released. if nothing else the people they hired to act in this movie can SING

speaking of the songs i loooove the lyric “i see the monsters, they look like family” especially coming from frankie. i love u.

the friendship between the main 3 ghouls is really sweet and feels organic

they/them frankie real

MONSTER HIGH THE SCHOOL IS ALIVE!!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW SICK THAT IS!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i liked clawdeen’s dad apollo a lot he was sweet

draculaura talks to her dad thru a moving painting. im scraping the bottom of the barrel but i thought that was cool.

i LOVE getting a new universe/canon to play around with. we’re up to 4 now, possibly 5 with the new animated series, and i couldn’t be happier.

this isn’t related to the plot itself but watching the unfinished vfx version adds a layer of joy to the experience. maybe once the movie’s out it’ll be widely available for people to watch. seeing a terrible animation of png clipart spiders crawl on abbey’s cup of coffee is so so so special to me.

ok now The Bad. i’m gonna do a read more here because this is already long and the most spoilers will be in this section.

clawdeen’s supposed to be hiding the fact that she’s half monster from humans but her house has a family portrait with her and her mom’s wild ears completely out just. on the mantle in full view

i’m so confused on the status of witchcraft in this mh canon. some characters call it a filthy human hobby. then draculaura says that vampires and witches have been at war for centuries. and then later, lala is still able to use witch magic even after her vampire monster powers are taken away from her. she says witch magic is different from monster magic. but if witchcraft is a human thing, why are humans scared of monsters? what is the truth.

mr komos is the villain, surprise surprise. but just wait til you hear this: he’s hyde’s SON and is trying to get revenge on monster high for not accepting jekyll/hyde. he drinks a Monster Potion that jekyll/hyde made and turns into a big muscle version of himself with giant horns. what really gets me is that HE is the one who led the students in a song about how humans suck and thus contributed to the prejudice against human/monster hybrids. this guy is a complete dumbass. also there is no mention of jackson/holt BTW and i dont really miss them but its just a weird choice to make

for the whole movie, the school is like. reacting badly. and everyone’s like it’s because there’s someone without a True Monster Heart in the walls of monster high. and clawdeen thinks it’s her but it’s komos ofc. and hes 100% a dumbass but he had the motivation of hating the fact that mixed human/monsters weren’t allowed to attend and were hated by humans as well???? god this plot sucks.

i wasn’t expecting anything different but all the prejudice is solved by the end of the movie, both against human/monster people and against witchcraft. i just mention it because every kid’s movie does this and it never stops being funny. racism RESIGNED!

NOT A MODICUM OF CLEUCE TO BE SEEN. cleo and deuce interact twice. the first time, she tries to make him want her back by saying she’s moved on, and he calls her self-absorbed. the second time is just her telling him to get help because komos hulked out (and he ignored her 6 calls before that one). deuce gets his powers stolen by komos and TURNED TO STONE and cleo is just standing 5 feet from him watching like :///. honestly what an absolute disservice to both their characters. the reason i love both of them so much is because they’re both constantly defying what viewers expect from a popular girl/popular guy couple and this is just back to square 1. this is worse than square 1 actually.

yes, deuce/clawdeen is a thing here. i didn’t want it to be true because i thought surely NOBODY IS STUPID ENOUGH TO DO THIS but here we are. she’s the one at deuce’s side during the aforementioned stoning and he says “at least i got to stare into your eyes.” before he is Stoned. he unstones later dont worry but this scene sucked. but other than a song together + the eyes comment it doesn’t amount to much. they talk about insecurities together ig.

i mentioned this earlier but it truly feels like the writer’s room for this movie was given only pictures of the characters to work off of. nothing else. at least the lisi harrison appears to have been given character blurbs for her books. there’s so many bizarre choices in this film that it would literally make total sense if the writers had never actually watched monster high a day in their lives. they just got lucky with frankie and heath.

like i said before, ghoulia talks, and all of the characters lose the accents they had before. the only one with an accent that isn’t Generic American is lagoona. and for some of the charas it’s not the biggest deal in the world but for charas like ghoulia it takes away some important representation.

they/them frankie is CANON which is a GOOD THING!! but i’m mentioning it here again because i can’t think of a single instance where they refer to them as anything but “frankie”. it might just be my memory so correct me if i’m wrong but i don’t think it happens. the only time their pronouns are used is when they’re introducing themselves. and its like. what’s the point if youre not gonna use the pronouns lmao

bloodgood being a part of excommunicating hyde. it’s only a picture in a slideshow but it still sucks. it’s the only part of her character in this movie i don’t like.

anyway. i give it a 4/10. might skim thru it once the official release is out so i can see what the final effects look like. but if you end up watching this, do so illegally and do it for frankie

[brush-it-gently]

I don’t want to bother people in that post, but I want to talk about the new characters design, so let’s gooo

Clawdeen: Meh. I don’t like it, but I feel kinda neutral about it. Doesn’t look like the same person anymore, but we are kinda way past that I suppose. 

Draculaura: Love her. Very cute, BUT. I do see sparks coming out of her hands. Still think it’s a weird choice to make her into witchcraft.

Frankie: Love their design! I especially love how it seems like Mattel is making their pronouns canon. Really cute, and I want to see their prosthetic leg.

Deuce: Looks fine. Not much to say about it tbh.

Cleo: Mmmmmmm I don’t like her but I’m not sure why. I always had the impression that Cleo had an air of maturity and superiority to her, and I’m not feeling it from this design.

Heath: Looks ugly as sin.

Lagoona: Cute, but not giving Lagoona at all. Apparently they’re making her latina because of the Monster of the Blue Lagoon, but I thought that even tought her name is a reference to it, she’s not this monster’s daughter. But ok. She was my favourite character, upset to say goodbye to her old vibes.

Toralei: It’s fine. I don’t know. I don’t feel positive or negative about it.

Bloodgood: Looks really good!! Another change I’m hapy about, it does seem more modern and I feel like it gave her more character.

Some general closing toughts: Meh, it’s fine. It seems like the changes seen in the live action movie are all going to be canon, and were not a decision by the movie makers, but Mattel. I have mixed feeling about it.

On one hand, they seem to be going for more explicit diversity, which Monster High was always about, and I love it. Love that Frankie is non-binary. However, if they’re going along with the movie, I guess they’re making Deuce Clawdeen’s love interest. I guess we can say goodbye to hopes of canon lesbian Clawdeen? Also, not every media needs relationship drama. I hate love triangles and I think that’s what they want to introduce?

In the end, I get that this reboot is meant for entirely new fans, and very much Not For Me. But I do think they could have capitalized on the nostalgia for the old dolls a little bit more (and I tought they would, given the reproductions and collectors dolls) and attract new and old fans. I think Frankie is an example of character that could succed in doing both.