Monster High 2

The second live-action Monster High film continues the story where we left off the monstrous gang last year. The actors and the entire team had enough time to sit down with the new concept, and fans also got used to it, so there is no need to explain anything and the pace is pleasantly fast as a result. The new character is the great Toralei Stripe (Salena Qureshi), always popular in animations for her cat-like quirks. The main theme is traditionally tolerance, specifically toward witches, which puts Draculaura, a magic-practicing vegan vampire with Romanian-Taiwanese roots, in a dilemma. There are really a lot of songs in there, but some of the choreographies are very good, so it's not a problem. Certainly, the costumes have also improved since last time. If every Halloween season brings a new MH film in this spirit, I definitely won't mind. And maybe the classic trio of Lagoona, Abbey, and Ghoulia, who have been slightly neglected, will get more space, because it's fine to include a completely new character like Demi Boovais (half human, half ghost) here and there, but it would be better to exploit the already well-thought-out world of MH. (11/10/2023)