Review: Monster Mia is a tried-and-true treat

Monster Mia, the new spooky-seasoned family flick hitting theaters in the US on Friday, hits like a bag of plain M&Ms in your trick-or-treat basket. It isn't the most exciting sweet of the night, nothing you haven't seen/tasted before. But it's tried-and-true, always hits the spot, and is the kind of stalwart standby that needs to exist for other more daring candies to really shine. Is this metaphor extremely stupid and getting stupider by the minute? Yes, yes, it is.

What I mean is that Monster Mia is like a Frankenstein's monster of solid movie parts and tropes (yup, here I go again). There isn't anything here you haven't seen before, but it's made up of these familiar bits and pieces because those bits and pieces work, and often work quite well. That's the case here. This is a movie you'll kind of feel like you've seen before, but because of that, it feels like cinematic comfort food. It goes down easy and feels like a forgotten not-quite-classic of your childhood years that you're happy to finally reunite with. 

Mia Munster (whose last name is often mispronounced as "Monster") is different from her perfect twin sister Marie in every way. Where Marie is polished, responsible, and punctual, Mia is, in just about every way, a mess. Her hair is all in tangles. Her side of the room is in shambles. She's always late to school, and prone to getting in trouble. Her town, Primrose Valley, prides itself on being monster-free for almost 500 years (the big celebration is coming up), but Mia is obsessed with the notion that monsters are still out there, and that they might be misunderstood. This does not go down well with just about anyone in town, but Mia is eager to prove herself right.

Mia's quest to find and present evidence leads to her expulsion, and she gets transferred to a school no one has heard of: Rotwood. When she arrives, Mia wonders why all of her classmates are in Halloween costumes. Ends up they're actually all real monsters, living and going to school in this magically sealed-off part of town that none of the humans know about. Just as the humans are virulently anti-monster, so the monsters feel about their human not-quite-neighbors. The school has an alarm system that goes off if a human enters the premises. The students are horrified at anything cutesy or sparkly or pink. They all insist there's no such thing as a kind human.

For her part, Mia pretends she, too, is a monster, and makes fast friends with Oscar (whose head can and often does detach) and the swoon-worthy vegan vampire Paprika, who would've done numbers on Tumblr back in the Rise of the Brave Tangled Frozen Dragons days. She loves her new monstrous world and friends, and is eager to finally get some evidence that she was right all along. Though the anti-human headmaster Van Vlad (a vampire, naturally) and jealous witch classmate Penelope have their eye on Mia, and aren't so sure she belongs at Rotwood at all.

You can probably see where this is going. The movie tackles prejudice and preconceptions head-on, and shows that our differences aren't scary, but rather worth celebrating. The power of friendship, all that jazz. Again, I find it hard to bemoan movies that are, ultimately, aimed at kids for trotting out these same familiar themes, because movies are a great way to instill values in kids. Movies are a great generator of empathy, so I'm always happy to see a new one that will help young viewers to look at people who are different with kindness and curiosity rather than hatred and disdain. 

The movie has a bit more originality and flair in its visuals. The animation is lovely, and takes some minor cues from the Spider-verse school of dropped frames and mashing up various styles. Mia often has little notebook doodles pop up around her head that give an insight into her state of mind (like little popping hearts when Paprika is around, natch). The monster designs are fantastic, and some of them are kind of out-there. There's one monster who pops up late in the movie who looks like a building, with a clock for a face and the ability to spit bricks. Probably my favorite design in the whole bunch.

I also quite liked the English voice dub (the original language is German), which has some off-kilter line readings. I found the not-quite-natural flow to be really charming, and never distracting. Rather, it speaks to the film's European origins, and gives it a little extra something to set it apart.

While Monster Mia might not be a new Halloween season classic, it has enough flair and heart to warrant a watch. It's got great animation, timeless themes, and some fun beats (both narratively and musically -- the end credits song goes hard). 

Also, I found it delightful that the credits include just one Production Baby. I don't know why that tickled me so. I'm used to big American productions having a couple dozen. But here, it's just Lilian.