Monster High 2 didn’t know who’s story it wanted to tell. The first film was a story around Clawdeen and her acceptance of herself. Monster High 2 seemed to want to do the same for Draculaura, however, a good half of the movie was based around Monster High’s equivalent of a student body president election between Clawdeen and a new character, Toralei Stripe.
I understand Monster High is an already known brand, and they wanted to include more of their characters but I feel like there was no need to add Toralei. There were other characters in the first film that could’ve been played with and for Toralei’s role, Cleo could’ve worked great. The election in itself has no weight to it. Either Clawdeen wins or Toralei wins. That’s literally it. Toralei isn’t some demon from another realm trying to gain a state of power in the student body to take over the school. No, she is just a werecat, going against a werewolf, trying to become student body president. Also, Tortalei has a line after it is revealed she will be running against Clawdeen where she says “It’s on hu-mon.”, almost made me turn the movie off. I guess maybe her big thing was she is against humans at Monster High but overall she serves no real purpose in this film.
Now Draculaura’s story had WEIGHT, and it introduced more lore behind the witches versus vampires that was touched on in the first film. Draculaura trying to bring peace between witches and vampires, the queen of the Salem coven kidnapping her, using her to cast a spell that will kill all vampires. Spoiler alert, it doesn’t work, but, the fact that this entire plot wasn’t getting the majority of screen time is wild to me. The film gave both Clawdeen and Draculaura’s stories the same amount when their importance was not and very, respectively. Having them share the same screen time made both feel unfinished. Don’t get me started on Draculaura’s big fight scene that wasn’t shown.
On the positive, just like the first film this film preaches acceptance and inclusivity, if not more so. Even introducing a “Pride Club” for half monster half humans and also just like the first film is stuffed with monster puns. Both the music and choreography took a step up from the first film, although not by much, and you’re still getting those good ole’ Nickelodeon TV movie special effects (sarcasm).
I didn’t enjoy this second installment to the series as much as the first, but with the set up for a third in the final scene I am hoping they learn from their mistakes.
★★½
Monster High 2 releases on Paramount+ tomorrow.
