Monster High

Monster High
Creator	Garrett Sander
Original work	Toys
Miscellaneous
Toys	Monster High
Spin-off(s)	Ever After High

Monster High is an American fashion doll franchise created by Mattel and launched in July 2010. The characters are inspired by monster movies, sci-fi horror, thriller fiction, and various other creatures. Monster High was created by Garrett Sander, with illustrations by Kellee Riley and illustrator Glen Hanson.^[1][2]

The franchise includes many consumer products such as stationery, bags, key chains, various toys, play sets, video games, TV specials, a web series, and direct-to-DVD movies. Lisi Harrison is the author of the Monster High books. The characters are related to, or the offspring of, famous monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Mummy, Medusa, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Phantom of the Opera, zombies and more.

The entire franchise was rebooted in 2016, starting with Welcome to Monster High, using new face molds, movie animation, a slogan ("How Do You Boo?"), and the song "This Is How We Boo", performed by Jordin Sparks.

Overview

In the town of New Salem, Oregon, United States (which is the home of humans and monsters), the teenage children of famous monsters attend a school for monsters called Monster High.

Characters

Monster High features a variety of fictional characters, many of whom are students at the titular high school. The female characters are classified as Ghouls and the male characters are classified as Mansters. The characters are generally the sons and daughters, or related to monsters that have been popularized in fiction. The franchise's official website identifies six of the characters as Original Ghouls:^[3]

• Frankie Stein (voiced by Kate Higgins speaking, and voiced by Allison Iraheta in "New Ghoul @ School" singing) is the daughter of Frankenstein's monster and his bride. She has white hair with black streaks, even though her mother has black hair with white streaks, and light, mint-green skin, the color of mint-chip ice cream. Frankie is a simulacrum, meaning her body is made of many different parts, similar to a hybrid, but she is more than two monsters and more than three or four. Also, she is clumsy, sweet, and always kind to others. She has a new crush on Neighthan Rot, even though she used to date Jackson Jekyll and Holt Hyde (not in the diaries, Draculaura was dating Jackson and Holt in the diaries).
• Clawdeen Wolf (voiced by Salli Saffioti^[4]) is the daughter of the Werewolf. She is described as furry, outgoing, and sweet. Clawdeen is a bit, or more than a bit, of a fashionista, as she loves fashion with clothes and clothing design. She has a bit of a temper at times when messed with, but can easily control it when coaxed properly. Clawdeen's Basic doll outfit includes of a purple, fur-trimmed, waist-length jacket, a peach tank top with leopard or cheetah print black stripes, fishnet stockings and purple, golden-buckled, wedged, open-toed boots for shoes with openings in the back.
• Cleo de Nile (voiced by Salli Saffioti) is the daughter of the Mummy Ramses de Nile and is 5842 years old at the start of the series. She is the captain of the fearleading squad. Cleo prefers to accessorize with light-gold bandages or mummy wrappings. She is, or is based on Cleopatra. She is also the queen of the social scene and has a boyfriend named Deuce Gorgon.
• Draculaura (voiced by Debi Derryberry^[4]) is a vampire who is the daughter of Count Dracula. She is in a relationship with Clawdeen's older brother Clawd Wolf. She is a vegan who faints at the sight of blood.^[5]
• Ghoulia Yelps (vocal effects provided by Audu Paden^[4]) is the daughter of the zombies who is Cleo de Nile's personal assistant. She is very smart, but can only speak a zombie language which consists of moans and groans. Ghoulia is absent from the 2016 reboot.
• Lagoona Blue (voiced by Laura Bailey,^[4] voiced by Larissa Gallager in Great Scarrier Reef) is the daughter of the Gill-man (Creature from the Black Lagoon)^[6] and a sea nymph. Lagoona is from "Down Under" and speaks with an Australian accent. She can talk with water animals. She is in a relationship will Gillington "Gil" Webber.

Conception and development

The initial characters were created by Garrett Sander and his twin brother Darren.^[7] In researching the look, the Sander brothers went shopping with girls and noted they were buying goth fashion items such as skulls, chains, and black. They remarked that because the characters are monsters, they had more freedom to do things that ordinary kids could not do.^[8] Other inspirations include children's interests in Tim Burton and Lady Gaga.^[9] Kiyomi Haverly, Mattel's design vice president, said "Honestly, it was very surprising to us. We just noticed girls were into darker goth fashion." The dolls were created by Garrett Sander and illustrated by Kellee Riley.^[9][10]

Production

The dolls are approximately 27 cm tall. Their bodies are made from ABS plastic and their heads are made from soft PVC. The dolls have many skin tones, including blue, green, orange and pink. Each character has a unique head mold, except for C. A. Cupid (Daughter of Eros), Ghoulia (Daughter of the Zombies), and Meowlody/Purrsephone (Werecat twins). All female dolls have rooted saran hair, but male dolls have flocked or hard, colored plastic hair. Each doll has its own fashion style and personality and each has attributes of the monsters to which it is related (i.e., fangs, stitches, wolf ears, fins, bandages, snakes, etc.).

Media

Website and animation

The Monster High website went live on May 5, 2010.^[11] Visitors can access games, character bios, several downloads and several more activities.^[12] The site also makes available online webisodes for Monster High.^[13] Two songs titled "Fright Song" and "We Are Monster High" have been released digitally along with live-action music videos on YouTube.^[14][15][16]

Monster High has also had several TV specials on Nickelodeon, "New Ghoul @ School", "Fright On!", "Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love", "Escape from Skull Shores", "Friday Night Frights" and "Scaris: City of Frights".

Starting in 2012, films were released as direct-to-video. The film have made Monster High #2 children's direct to video franchise.^[17] The films and specials have also appeared on home media as well as streaming services.

Video games

Monster High has several video games based on the franchise. The first video game released was Monster High: Ghoul Spirit which was released on October 25, 2011. It is available for the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii with special "Ghoulify" feature for Nintendo DSi. The game revolves around the player being the new 'ghoul' in school and must work their way through activities and social situations to finally be crowned 'Scream Queen'. Another video game for Nintendo DS and Wii titled Skultimate Roller Maze was released in November 2012. The third video game for Wii, Wii U, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS titled Monster High: 13 Wishes was released in October 2013. In this game players take on the role of Frankie Stein who must free her friends from a magical lantern by collecting thirteen shards of a magic mirror. A couple of apps titled Ghoul Box and Sweet 1600 are available on iTunes for the iPad and iPhone devices. The Monster High website has also released a series of catacombs themed web games: "trick or trance", "phantom roller" and "scary sweet memories". In November 2015, Monster High: New Ghoul in School was released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U.^[18]

Books

The Monster High young adult novels are written by Lisi Harrison, who previously wrote the book series The Clique and The Alphas. The books take place in a different fictional universe than the webisodes and deal with the Regular Attribute Dodgers (RADs) and their struggles with love, social life, school and not be outed as monsters to humans. Mattel released the first Monster High novel on September 26, 2010. The book revolves around Frankie Stein and Melody Carver. The second book in the series, The Ghoul Next Door, was released at the end of March 2011^[19] and features chapters on Cleo de Nile. The third book featuring Clawdeen Wolf is titled Where There's a Wolf, There's a Way and was released on September 29, 2011. The fourth novel titled Back And Deader Than Ever was released in early May 1, 2012^[20] and features Draculaura. A Monster High book called Drop Dead Diary was released on January 19, 2011; true to its title, it is in diary format. It is written by the alias Abaghoul Harris.^[21]

A book by Gitty Daneshvari, titled Ghoulfriends Forever, was released on September 5, 2012. The book is about Venus Mcflytrap, Robecca Steam, and Rochelle Goyle and their friendship at Monster High and a continuation/sequel titled Ghoulfriends Just Want To Have Fun was released April 2, 2013. The next book in the Ghoulfriends series is Who's That Ghoulfriend? and was released on September 10, 2013.^[22] Additionally, the fourth book Ghoulfriends 'Til the End was released in spring of 2014. The fifth book is an activity book with an exclusive story about Robbecca {if possible} to be face-to-face with her father. ^[23]

Discography

• Monster High: Boo York, Boo York Soundtrack (2015)

Spin-off

In July 2013, a new spin-off line launched as a companion line to Monster High, called Ever After High.^[24] Ever After High is based on the children of fairytale characters. Monster High's C. A. Cupid is a main character in the Ever After High webisodes where she is an exchange student there. In the 2015 Monster High movie "Boo York, Boo York", a character Astranova makes contact with Apple White and Raven Queen from Ever After High suggesting a crossover in the future.^[25] However, the 2016 reboot resulted in the cancellation of those plans; brief storyboard animatics were released during summer 2016 on the official Monster High YouTube channel under the title The Lost Movie,^[26] and early designs for the EAH characters intended for the crossover have been released online.^[27]

Reception

In response to the creation of these dolls, rival toy company MGA Entertainment released a witch-themed line of dolls known as Bratzillaz (House of Witchez) which were launched in 2012 and are a spin-off from MGA's Bratz toy line. Many other horror-themed fashion dolls, such as Playhut's Mystixx vampire dolls, WowWee's Once Upon a Zombie dolls and Jakks Pacific's Zombie Girls dolls have been released (all with varying degrees of success) as a result of Monster High's success, in attempts to cash in on the trend. Likewise, rival Hasbro announced in early 2013 the creation of the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls toy line as a spin-off of the 2010 reboot of My Little Pony franchise.

See also

• Universal Monsters

References

Book references

• Terrace, Vincent (2014). Internet Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Television Series, 1998–2013. McFarland. ISBN 9781476616452. 

External links

• Official website