First came the dolls, then the YouTube series — and now the cute yet spooky kids of Mattel’s Monster High are getting a new animated series for Nickelodeon as well as a live-action musical. The latter will mark the first time the characters have stepped out of their candy-coloured cartoon surroundings.
This news comes straight from Nickelodeon, which has shared Monster High content in the past but is now throwing its weight behind the Mattel creation. The premise of Monster High, which debuted in 2010, is that the kids of famous monsters — who are all exceedingly fashionable mini-monsters themselves, and have names like “Clawdeen Wolf,” “Draculaura,” and “Frankie Stein” — are all in high school, dealing with typical high-school stuff but also the supernatural stuff that’s a part of their daily lives. The concept is pretty fluffy, but there are strong messages of “be yourself” and “embrace people who are different” running alongside all those wild hairdos, exaggerated eyelashes, and extreme Hot Topic outfits.
“Monster High’s strong message of inclusivity is more relevant than ever,” Fred Soulie, general manager of Mattel Television said in a press release. “Nickelodeon shares our passion for the brand and its purpose having worked on the franchise when it first launched more than a decade ago. They are the ideal partners to bring these beloved characters and their stories to life through episodic television and the live-action television movie.”
Both the Monster High series and the “movie musical event” (from Zack Olin and Shauna Phelan) will be arriving on Nickelodeon’s various platforms sometime in 2022.