Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Jane Boolittle

I start the new year with this observation:


Damnit Monster High, Doctor Doolittle wasn't a monster. The whole point of your toy line is that your characters are the teenaged girl (or boy) versions of famous monsters. If you want to introduce a monster character that talks to animals, fine, I'm sure a lot of monsters would have that ability. It's just lazy to decide that you want the character to be the teenaged girl version of a non-monster character and then just change the original character to a monster.

That's like asking someone to name their favorite species of dog.
"I like Lions."
"That's not a dog."
"Lions are dogs now."
"But..."
"Liondog. That's what it is. This interview is over."
"This isn't an interview, I was just curious about your favorite dog."
"And I told you, it's the Liondog."

What's odd is that the story for the character is actually interesting. She's the adopted daughter of Doctor Moreau and Doctor Boolittle... DAMNIT MONSTER HIGH! Creating a parody character and giving them a monster-pun name does not... ARGGH! And why would she have a witch doctor's staff... Okay, clearly this character was invented as a plot point for a cartoon adventure where they get lost in the jungle, but this just feels like the jump-the-shark moment for the franchise.

Which is a shame because this is such a clever toy line. They have an invisible man character who has a pet box which may or may not have a cat in it.

3 comments:

  1. I guess even Monster High has expand i mean really there are only so many monsters to go around right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But they did expand, into a second toy line. Happily Ever After High or something like that where the characters from fairy tales go before they become fairy tales. It's an interesting idea where they all know what fairy tale the will become, so some of them, especially a few bad guys, are trying to rebel against their destinies. Also, they had a transfer student from Monster High.

      Delete
    2. No that does sound pretty interesting lots of story and character ideals could come out of that.

      Delete