Trivia / Monster High

• Acting for Two:
  • Audu Paden voices Manny, Slo-Mo, and Ghoulia.
  • Salli Saffioti voices Cleo and Clawdeen.
  • Erin Fitzgerald voices Abbey, Cupid, Rochelle, Scarah, Spectra, Clair, Fawn, Wydowna, and Elle.
  • Evan Smith voices Deuce, Invisi Billy, Garrott, Gillington, Rocco, and Thad.
  • Cam Clarke voices Heath, Hoodude, and Mr. Rotter.
  • Cindy Robinson voices Gory, Holt, Jackson, Madame Ghostier, Operetta, and Lux Ptolemy.
  • Laura Bailey voices Bloodgood, Lagoona, Honey, and Skelita.
  • Stephanie Sheh voices Jinafire and Jane.
  • America Young voices Toralei, Howleen, and the werecat twins.
  • Kate Higgins voices Frankie, Iris, Lilith, and Casta.
  • Jonquil Goode voices Clawdia, Gigi, Djinni, Twyla, and Ari.
  • Haviland Stillwell voices Avea and Vandala.
  • Paula Rhodes voices Iris and Sirena.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: For much of the 2010s, it went head-to-head with Mattel's own Barbie for sales. The popularity of Monster High led to a whole subgenre of similar dolls.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In G3, Skelly Vonderbone is voiced by drag queen Trixie Mattel.
• Development Hell: A Live-Action Adaptation musical was planned for 2012. The musical part got carried to the 2015 CG movie Boo York, Boo York.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor:
  • Kayla Cromer, an autistic actress, voices the autistic Twyla Boogeyman in G3.
    • Tangina Stone, Twyla's singing voice actress in her music video in G3, is also autistic.
  • In both generations he is in, Finnegan Wake has a motor disability in his tail and uses a wheelchair. His voice actor in G3, Cole Massie, has cerebral palsy and either uses his wheelchair or a walker.
• Executive Meddling: The series was rebooted in 2016 to highly polarized opinions. The motivation was to expand the target audience to younger kids, which caused fans of the (slightly) edgier tone to be upset, and many complained that the edge was gone due to the softer faces, despite the increased detail on older characters. While the tone shift can easily be explained, the cost-cutting measures such as the absence of doll stands and cheaper boxes seem to have been tacked on to the reboot to excuse the changes. (Interestingly, sister franchise Ever After High had similar cost-cuts and updated faces, but not a reboot.)
• Fake Brit: Julie Maddalena as Robecca Steam, Stephanie Sheh as Jane Boolittle, and Jonquil Goode as Ari Hauntington.
• Fake Nationality: Pretty much every character. Technically averted with Stephanie Sheh as Jinafire Long, as she is American, but of Taiwanese descent.
• Follow the Leader: With the line being a top seller, you bet there are imitations:
  • MGA, before they took a break to rebrand Bratz, expanded the line with Bratzillaz, the witch "cousins" of the Bratz. They're best to copy MH in presentation - a quick check of the Bratzillaz Youtube channel had webisodes and a live-action music video. Fandom Rivalry was strong here.
  • Novi Stars: MGA's line of dolls with an alien gimmick and Punny Names. They're also following the music video and webseries trend.
  • Playhut came out with Mystixx, which copy the look of the Monster High dolls (with some possible recasting of the Mattel molds) and features some possibly traced character art.
  • Midnight Magic, a line of multi-colored witch dolls found mostly at discount stores, and a slew of various bootlegs and copycats coming from China.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic getting a Monster High-like makeover.
  • Even comics can't resist, as The DCU now has its own line of various female characters going to high school (in all fairness however, DC was pushing for that to happen even well before Batman Beyond was created- but likely went ahead now thanks to other similar lines being successful). Granted, the merchandise is another Mattel property, not another company.
  • Descendants is Disney's answer to both this line and Ever After High, focusing on the offspring of Disney Animated Canon characters and specifically toplining the ones who have villainous ancestry. As it launched in 2015 and Mattel handled the toyline, some fans of either or both prior franchises believe that this was a factor in their being discontinued over 2017-18. While the extent of this is unknown, it is known that the franchise's popularity was a factor in Disney selling the Disney Princess and Frozen licenses to Mattel's rivals at Hasbro.
  • Of course, Monster High itself wasn't exactly immune to this. The Hanna-Barbera 1990s cartoon Gravedale High featured the usual monster stereotypes in high school, with a human teacher (voiced by and modeled after Rick Moranis) that may be a direct inspiration for Lou Zarr.
• International Co Production: At least for Generation 1, the voice acting was done in America, but the animation was done in Vancouver, Canada (of course...)
• God-Created Canon Foreigner:
  • The Save Frankie and fusion cosplay lines were invented for the Freaky Fusion toyline, but aside from a quick shot of some design sketches for the latter right at the very end, neither appears in the film.
  • Despite being part of the Welcome to Monster High toyline, "Dance the Fright Away" Abbey and Moanica do not appear in the film, with Abbey herself not appearing in any form.
• Live on Stage!: Monster High Live opened in 2023, and is produced by previous Mattel partner Family Entertainment Live. It's based off of the G3 era
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Pretty much every character is from a foreign country (mainly Europe), and the voice actors give them American accents, though Lagoona is given more of an Australian accent.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Deuce, starting with the "Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love?" special, is now voiced by newcomer Evan Smith. Smith also replaced Yuri Lowenthal as the voice of Gil. Cam Clarke filled in as Deuce's VA until Evan was cast. The vocal change also marked a change in his personality that not everyone agrees with.
  • Clawd was initially voiced by Yuri Lowenthal for "Fur Will Fly" for only one line; he's currently voiced by Ogie Banks.
  • Heath was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal in Season 1, but Cam Clarke voices him in Season 2.
  • A few of the voice actors changed for the reboot.
• Prop Recycling: The dolls often reuse shoe and accessory molds to cut down on costs, though it's usually a different color. The most blatant case would be Gooliope's Shriek Wrecked purse, which is just a scaled-up recolor of Vandala's to fit Gooliope's giant theme. This has even been done with some faces. Ghoulia and Cupid share a face, Amanita uses the Create-A-Monster Vampire face, Catty and Toralei share a head mold as well.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor:
  • For both live-action movies, Frankie is nonbinary and played by Ceci Balagot, who is trans and uses he/they pronouns.
    • A cancelled stage show, "Monster High Live," had casted Ciara Hickey, a non-binary actor, to play Frankie.
  • For the Generation 3 animated series, Frankie is nonbinary and voiced by iris menas, who is also nonbinary.
    • For their music video, Frankie's singing voice actor is Amanda Kruger, who is also nonbinary.
• Refitted for Sequel:
  • A few of the G2 doll releases, like the Scream and Sugar Amanita and Nefera and I Love Fashion Whisp, are plainly G1 dolls that weren't able to release during G1, since their facial designs and bodies are in the G1 style. Furthermore, with Whisp, her format is a hint—the I Love Fashion series was a G1 staple that first existed to provide dolls with several outfits and then gained the function of being the place where female characters that had formerly been SDCC exclusives got a wide release. Whisp was the only such character to not get an ILF doll prior to the end of G1, indicating alongside her visual design that her G2 doll was always intended for a G1 release.
  • Some collab items released at the start of G2 were given the G2 logo but clearly use the G1 designs, such as the Funko Pops and the Hallmark itty bittys, clearly marking them as having been intended for G1 and quickly having the new logo slapped on.
• Saved from Development Hell: The idea of a live-action musical was brought back for 2022 to coincide with the franchise's second reboot, with help from Nickelodeon.
• Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: Most of the time, the dolls are pretty good representations of their depictions in their character art, the webisodes, and the movies, but usually their faces are much milder. Some more notable inconsistencies include:
  • Gil's dolls have a layer of head scales to simulate shaved hair around his fin "hair", similar to Deuce and some scales on his chest. However, the cartoon version has a completely smooth head and chest. Gil's also lacking a doll of his signature outfit, due to his limb fins preventing him from wearing long sleeves and pants.
  • The CGI art on Kiyomi's box gives her a pink hair accessory and silver chain earrings similar to her belt. The doll itself has a sea green hair accessory and simulated pierced ears, but no earrings.
  • Animated Toralei's hairstyle is more like a pixie cut, but her dolls give her a neat bob style, and until the reboot, her dolls only had a feline nose shape, but not the black color.
  • Spectra's dolls tend to look off, thanks to the stoic expression and totally straight hair as opposed to the constant cheerful smile and unkempt hair.
  • Animated Elle's hairline is a squared-off widow's peak to keep with her angular robotic details. The actual doll's hairline is completely smooth.
  • A detail that almost made it: Posea's animation model and artwork have gills on her face, but this feature never made it past the physical doll's prototype.
  • The artwork for Gigi's "School's Out" doll gives her a low ponytail with hair swept across her face, and a small section of her midriff is visible. The doll's hairstyle is a high ponytail, and her outfit is one piece.
  • Twyla's Freak Du Chic artwork lacks the fishnet sleeves that the doll's outfit has.
  • Draculaura in Welcome To Monster High has a right forearm's worth of bangles, a punk multicolor-studded bracelet on her left arm, and tights under her dress. These are not present on her doll. Also from this movie, Moanica's boots have more detail in their painting and her belt is different.
  • Ghouls' Getaway Spectra's art includes some pink tribal facial markings, but the doll has none.
  • The G3 animated series depicts Ghoulia, Toralei, and Purrsephone with short hair, while their official dolls have long hair. Similarly, Meowlody's offical doll has her hair in long pigtails, while in the show she has it styled in twin buns.
• Similarly Named Works: There is another, completely unrelated movie Obscurus Lupa reviewed called Monster High (that predates the franchise by almost 20 years) which contains gory shots of people exploding and gratuitous amounts of Rape as Comedy. Pray that an unwitting parent hasn't confused the two.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The very first proof-of-concept mockup dolls, made on more typical fashion doll bases before the MH body and head molds were made, featured a Frankie with pale Caucasian skin. In a Facebook post sharing the mockup dolls, Garrett Sander explained that executives turned down a green Frankie, saying it would sell poorly with girls. Sander was vindicated when test audiences of girls reacting to the concept said Frankie ought to be green like her dad, resulting in the final design being so, and likely opening up the door for the sheer range of fantasy skin colors the dolls ended up having.
  • Prototype images indicated that Clawdeen (and presumably other werebeasts) was going to have her ears mounted on a headband rather than molded onto her head.
  • Early images of Wydowna and Scarah show differences; Scarah was to have a Letterman jacket and Wydowna lacked her comic-book theme, instead wearing a fairly ordinary gingham dress.
  • Posea Reef's prototype and artwork show that she was going to have gills on her face, but the final doll lacks these.
  • The long-awaited crossover with Ever After High, a Fall 2016 TV special named Feary Tale, got cancelled due to the reboot of Monster High and the cancellation of Ever After High. The Monster High Youtube channel released some or the storyboards and their scratch tracks on Youtube in MST3K-esque short clips as "The Lost Movie", indirectly confirming that it fell through.
  • Several characters (be they toy-characters or cartoon-characters) were never released: Euna (a kumiho who would have appeared in an Ever After High crossover), Jean Claw (trademarked in 2012 but dropped in 2013), Sam/Lux Ptolemy (trademarked in 2014 and dropped in 2015), Lycana Wilde (trademarked in 2015 and dropped in 2017), a giant girl (would have appeared in Boo York, Boo York), a female unicorn, a griffin-based Fright Mare, and a dragon-based Fright Mare.
  • Several Toyless Toyline Characters were intended to have toys at one point, but they were ultimately cancelled: Seth Ptolemy, Quill Talyntino, Spelldon Cauldrononello, Gory Fangtell, Dedyet de Nile, Tiki, and the Sea-Mares.
  • As shown in various prototypes, G3 Lagoona was originally meant to have entirely blue skin like her counterparts from the previous generations. After her skin was changed to be mostly pink, Mattel wanted to change her surname since she wasn't blue anymore; it was ultimately decided to leave it as is.
• Word of Gay: Creator Garrett Sander confirmed that several characters were meant to be LGBTQ+ (hinted at in their diaries): Finnegan Wake (pansexual), Neighthan Rot (unconfirmed, suspected to be bi/pan), Kieran Valentine (gay and struggling with internalized homophobia and misogyny), and Kiyomi Haunterly (lesbian). Interpretations he's voiced support for include: Clawdeen Wolf (lesbian), Kala Mer'ri (bi/pan), and Gilda Goldstag (trans).
• Boo York, Boo York is the only G1 line to include dolls of every standard body size (little sister, standard, big sister, and male.) Since the stand design is new, it is also the only line with a different stand and all of the body types.
• Each of the core trio within the Original Ghouls has been the protagonist of a generation of Monster High. Frankie Stein was the protagonist of G1, Draculaura was the protagonist of G2, and Clawdeen is the protagonist of G3.

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