Monday, September 26, 2016

Monster High Reboot Cartoons- More STUPID Than The Law Allows

Okay, I knew the Monster High Reboot was going to suck. When I saw the pictures of the dolls with softened face paint and cheaped out clothes, it was clear to me that Mattel was going to fuck up one of their best-selling toylines. But now that I’ve seen the cartoons to promote the relaunched toyline all I can say is…

I never knew anyone could cram that much STUPID into less than one minute. But here we are. 

I thought Monster High was supposed to appeal to teens and tweens. But the content Mattel put into its new cartoons is so DUMB even toddlers would look up at the screen and say WTF? 

Seriously Teletubbies wasn’t this STUPID when it was on the air. Even Elmo and Baby Bear on Sesame Street aren’t as DUMB the new Draculaura, Frankie Stein, and Clawdeen Wolf are.  Seriously, Clawdeen Wolf’s power is to turn into a puppy. And her family turns into puppies. 

Again WTF? 

While the New Monster High cartoons have state-of-the art computer animation there’s little substance behind its flash. The stories in these one-minute shorts pretty much betray everything the books and the original cartoons were about. Instead of boys and girls being presented with an intelligent series that showed everyone what’s great about being different, viewers are getting a dumbed down series that promotes sexist ideas about interpersonal relationships between boys and girls. 

Under the new Monster High Premise, Monster High is a private academy and girls can get in by making a…sad face. No, you did not read that wrong. The new male Headmaster is so much of a WIMP he just breaks down when teenage girls just give him a look when he says not to them. Seriously, what kind of message is that to send to girls? 

Look pretty, put on a sad face and men give you what you want. Isn’t that Barbie’s premise? And isn’t that why Barbie’s sales are in the CRAPPER these days? Because today’s girls and women have REJECTED the archaic ideas she represents. But here we have Mattel pushing these outdated messages to 21st Century girls and boys in an effort to sell toys.

Unfortunately, what made the Original Monster High concept sell to boys and girls was the fact that it showed the beauty in what socieity perceived as ugly in the original Flash Cartoons. Because we saw the content of the characters of the monsters like Frankie Stein, Clawdeen Wolf, Cleo De Nile and Gholia Yelps we started looking past their appearances and seeing how great these characters were. 

And the original Monster High cartoons promoted the idea that boys and girls got what they wanted through hard work. Frankie wanted friends? She worked for it. Draculaura wanted Clawd? She had to make efforts to let him know. Cleo wanted to get out of Nefra’s shadow? She worked for it. Ghoulia wanted to solve a problem? She worked to solve the problem. When the Monsters wanted to get on the fearleeading squad they had to work together to accomplish it. And when the Monsters fell into a trap laid by someone like Toreliai or some monster like in Gloom Beach they worked together to get out of it.

One of the things I liked about Monster High’s cartoons was that they promoted the idea that girls and boys had to take responsibility for themselves and their actions. It sent a message to both boys and girls to accomplish their goals through hard work, not doing manipulative things like putting on sad faces to appeal to the heartstrings of men like these new cartoons do. 

The other thing I liked about the old Monster High Cartoons was the fact that it showed teens from all walks of horror world came to Monster High. We got to know them and their families. We got to know parents, friends, families and how they interacted with each other around the world of Monster High. This new academy/boarding school concept takes away from the intricate world built around Monster High and makes it a shallower place. 

Once customers looked past their appearances and saw people we could relate to, they started to buy the toys. With these new cartoons I see no reason to buy the toys related to the Monster High Reboot. They’re not monsters. They’re not proud to be Monsters. They hide their best features like their scars behind plastic surgery and pretty made up faces. They’re dressed up not to look distinct and be themselves, but to conform and look like everyone else. And they’re written not to act like themselves, but conform to the standards of their obsolete predecessor Barbie Millicent Roberts. 

Mattel has been running the new Monster High cartoons on YouTube. And they’ve been disabling the comments on all of them. And I believe they’ve been disabling the conent because they don’t want to hear from all the anger from all the fans who made Monster High the hit it was for close to a decade. They have a right to feel betrayed. Everything they loved about Monster High has been tossed to the wayside for a dumbed down premise that talks down to customers and treats them like idiots. Mattel may think these new cartoons will appeal to kids, but all I saw online were animations with stories that would insult a kid’s intelligence. 

While the original Monster High cartoons were crude Flash animations, they had more depth, substance, character and heart than the ones in this reboot. These new Moster high cartoons betray the orignal premise of Monster High’s books and the toys. And they insult the intelligence of viewers. Instead of selling us on what’s great about Monster they show us all how Mattel executives have ruined a great product by trying to turn it into another Barbie clone. I’ll take any of the substance of the stories in the old Monster High cartoons over the flash in the new fancy CGI ones any day. 

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