Monster High has been through a lot over  the years, from being rebooted twice to trying to increase sales for Mattel’s doll collection. Each reboot is given a name that corresponds to the type of age demographic they are trying to target from the 1st generation (2010-2016)  that follow Frankie Stein, the new ghoul (girl) at school, attending a 2,000 year old school and going on adventures with her ghoulfriends (girlfriends), all the way to the 3rd generation now following Clawdeen coming to a new school with fellow monster and having to hide a secret that could possibly get her kicked out. And because of the New Gen 3 making an appearance with a  movie and an already produced season, I wanted to rank all the Monster High movies. So let's get into this scaretastic (fantastic) article, and yes, I will be using some of Monster High's monsterrific puns.

Monster High Electrified ​

This is the 2nd and final movie in the 2nd Generation reboot of Monster High, and it’s  completely obvious why it was the final movie in that generation. This movie follows Clawdeen Wolf as she opens a salon for both monsters and normies (humans). This film completely messes up her character; throughout the film, she is shown drawing clothing designs; why not just make her a fashion designer like the previous generation, but the story decides that she should open a hair salon? Why couldn't they just make her a fashion designer like the first generation did? This movie just felt very random, from the side plot of irrelevant monsters starting a band to Franikie  quite literally having a baby “Znap '' by shaking her hands and electric currents coming out, completely frightening. There was just too much going on in the movie, like why is Frankie able to change people's clothing with electricity; why does she even need these "superpowers?" Finally, Moanica, the villain, has illogical reasoning; she wants to ruin the grand opening of Clawdeen's salon for what reason? She just fell very flat and her solution to drain all theatrical power to stop the grand opening just didn't make sense. ​

Welcome to Monster High 

This is the first movie in the 2nd generation to tell the origins of Monster High. This movie scraps every idea that the first generation had, now making the school Draculara's house, completely throwing away the lore and mystery the first Gen 1's monster high had with it being open for years. Because of this being a newly created school, they need students.How do they find those students? Well, Frankie and Draculara now somehow have the ability to transport and find monsters to recruit to come to their school. The animation is terrible; it was hard to look at Frankie because at certain points she just looked like an old blue lady. Going into it, I was trying to take it as it was, but I just couldn't get over the fact that charters that I had grown to love were rewritten with new unnecessary characteristics or removed completely. Only thing that I did enjoy was the idea of Monster High being a boarding school. ​

Monster High: Great Scarrier Reef ​

This movie follows Lagoona and her case of stage fright as the ghouls (girls) get magically transported to the Great Scarrier Reef. I really wanted to love this movie, but the writers rewrote Lagoona just for this movie; Lagoona had never had stage fright, but all of a sudden she does when she is dancing; she is actively on the fearleading (cheerleading) team, and has danced in Monster High episodes before. She just wasn’t like herself; this movie just clashed with her established easy-going personality. The concept was horrible, the plot twist of making the villain Kala’s dad be the ridiculed kraken was not a surprise. It just felt lackluster. The only thing that I enjoyed was the ending with the speech about don't be afraid of who you are and don't project your insecurities onto anyone else.

Monster High: The Movie ​

This is the most recent movie in the rebooted Monster High generation 3, following Clawdeen, who is half werewolf and half human, going to Monster High. I love the inclusion of the portable to go from human world to monster world because that concept had never been explained in previous movies, how places specific to monsters existed and human places at the same time. But there were just some changes that were outlandish, like the focus on having a “true monster heart,” which after watching the movie I still don't understand what it means. Being that this movie is a musical with dance breaks and songs spread throughout I can say that I hate all the songs sung, except for Coming Out of the Dark; I have played that too many times to count. I also love the inclusion of the LGBTQ with Frankie now using they/them pronouns, which makes sense since Frankie is made up of body parts of other people. Monster High is known for its fashion and I know that now that this is live action they are constrained, but I still feel like they could've had better costumes. Also, the character changes, like Lagoona and Cleo being best friends, Draculaura practicing witchcraft, Ghoula being able to talk, Frankie being blue, and Cleo and Deuce not being in a relationship felt unnecessary. The villain being Komos was obvious and he is not memorable, especially his demise of accidentally turning himself to stone after taking Duece's powers was lackluster and a horrible ending. ​

Monster High: Fright On

Fright On! follows vampires and werewolves coming to Monster High. The movie tackles diversity by using the stereotypical vampire vs wolves. While the message of unity is important I would have preferred it to be more subtle or at least focus on why exactly the vampires and werewolves didn't like each other. Van Hellscream was the perfect villain. He had the right motivation; if you divide the monsters, the humans will be safe, and his plan was actually working up until the end. Overall, this was not necessarily the best but definitely one of the most rewatchable and its 46 minute run time

Monster High: Escape from Skull Shores ​

In Escape from Skull Shores, the main ghouls and Gil are going on a spring break trip where they end up stranded and then lured onto Skull Island by a normie man named Farnum. The one thing I kept focusing on in this movie was how irritating Gil was. Lagoona was pretty much begging him the whole time to tell his parents about their relationship, Gil's parents wouldnt  approve because Gil is a fresh water monster and Lagoona is a salt water monster, and Gil kept making excuses. One thing that was not really tackled in this movie that somewhat creeped me out was that Frankie and the scientist girl looked exactly the same, so does that imply that Frankie's body parts, or at least her head, is of the scientist. Lastly, the ending was not needed and showed Andy Beast, one of the new characters and Frankie's love interest in a bad way and was not needed. They could've ended the movie by them leaving the island, not bringing it back to the school.

​Monster High: Friday Night Frights

In Friday Night Frights! The ghouls join the Skultimate Roller Maze Championship in the boys' place when they get hurt. This trope “if boys can do it, so can girls” isn't new, but it was beautifully done. It tackles sexism in an understandable way for a child to be able to digest. Things that just didn't make sense were that if the school loses their school’s crest after a loss the school starts breaking down, I guess they were trying to say that the crest symbolizes the school spirit, which is taken away, but this is never mentioned again in any movie or episode. But this movie was worth watching because it introduced one of my top 5 favorite characters, Robecca Steam.

Monster High: Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love?

In Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love its Draculaura Sweet 1600th, but because of the appearance of her "ex" Valentine, she is now pulled into a choice between him and her boyfriend, Clawd.  This movie was fine. It starts off strong but loses its footing during the course of the movie making me pause it in the middle to remember what the story was even about. Valentine has to be the top 3 best villains in Monster High. Taking girls' hearts and putting them in a trophy case is brutal, then making a holiday for one of the girls and naming it after yourself, Valentine's Day, is even more brutal. Also, the introduction of Cupid is nice and her inevitable move to another franchise, Ever After High, increased the speculation for a crossover between the two shows. ​

Monster High: Ghouls Rule

Ghouls Rule shows the relationship between the normie and the monsters. This movie actually acts like the human world does exist, and we don't see that in many Monster High movies, which was refreshing. This is also centered around Jackson/ Holt Hyde and their pull between being half normie and half monster. Van Hellscream’s niece Lilth as the villain in this movie was a nice touch to connect it back to Fright On! But she was not as good in her methods of turning the humans against the monsters. The only part I didn't like was the subplot of Clawdeen doing speed dating. I like her as the independent ghoul she is and would have preferred her to also have been in the main plot.

Monster High: Freaky Fusion

This movie covers intermonster (interracial) familes because the monsters are looking into their scareatiage (hertiage). This movie felt overloaded with different plots; the WHOLE story is supposed to be about fusions but it somehow takes a back seat. The new group of monsters that were combinations of monsters, the hybrids, didn't play as big a role as they should have, this movie revolved around their appearance in Monster High. The time travel aspect was my favorite, being able to see what Monster High was in decades prior. Most importantly, Frankie dies; she literally dies in this. As a child, this made me cry and even now I teared up even though I knew that we were going to put her in the recharge station and come back to life, but it still had emotional effects.

Monster High: Haunted

This movie, Haunted, is the most visually impressive of all the Monster High movies. In Monster High, Draculara's being haunted, which is against ghosting rules since the Red Lady's terror, so Spectra brings the rest of the ghouls to the Ghost World to figure out who is behind this. It was nice to see another school outside Monster High. We are usually told about the schools but have never seen them, but this was a gorgeous school. Loveable characters like Porter were a breath of fresh air. Him and Spectra’s hint at a relationship was amazing, him willingly taking the punishment so she could go free and come up with another plan. Characters like Kiomie were a beautiful character design, as she has no face but her face changes color based on her emotions. Even though it was obvious that the Red Lady was the principal of the school, Spectra's ending speech calling out and at the same time comforting her was the best speech in Monster High history. ​

Monster High: 13 Wishes

Be scareful (careful) of what you wish for is how I can describe this movie. 13 Wishes is like Aladdin, but on steroids. This follows Howleen Clawdeen's little sister making wishes to get popular and out of her sister’s shadow, showing off the tremendous and lovable Twyla trying to stop her bestie from making the biggest mistake. This movie, hands down, has the best villain. Wisp has the right motivations to her actions, always having to live in the shadow of Gigi, the actual genie of the two. The clothing designs of the characters are impactful and just all out gorgeous. Even though I love this movie so much, I wish they could have slowed down the ending; it felt too rushed. They automatically solve the problem by Howleen just wishing for Wisp to be an actual genie and for Gigi to be free of the lamp.

 Monster High: Scaris, City of Frights

A movie about Clawdeen was definitely needed. In this movie, Clawdeen follows her passion for fashion and travels to Scaris to win a fashion competition made by Moantella Ghostier. I am a little biased towards this movie because I did have many dolls from it: Gholia, Cleo, and Clawdeen. But even without that, the movie was good at introducing new characters from different skulltures (cultures)like Skelita from Mexico and Jinafire from China, I just wish some of the more established characters had more of a presence. At times it just seemed like they were thrown in there to just be filler. The fabulous fashion is undeniable, and was predicted since this is a fashion movie. But what really makes this a good movie is the end credit scene showing the characters on a mini adventure coming back to Monster High. ​

Monster High: Boo York, Boo York ​

Boo York was the first musical that Monster High had made. There are a lot of plots, but they all conveniently work, none overpowering the other and fitting into what I guess is the main storyline: Deuce and Cleo having relationship problems, Catty Noir trying to find herself and meeting Pharoah, and Ramses and Nefera trying to get Cleo to get with Seth Ptolemy (Pharaoh). All the music in this musical is amazing. Empire, It Can't Be Over, and my personal favorite Steal the Show. The best and saddest part of the movie is the ending, with Astranova calling Apple White and Raven Queen, characters from another series, Ever After High, telling them Monster High does exist. For this crossover to only be ultimately being canceled after Ever After High got discontinued and Monster High rebooted.

Monster High: Frights, Camera, Action!

Frights, camera, Acton! Is nothing short of amazing. This movie follows Draculaura when she is told that she is the rightful heir to the vampire throne, but quickly finds out that the real ones are still out there. The characters in this movie are just clawsome (awesome) with the introduction of new amazing characters like Viperine, Clawdia, and Honey Swamp. They visually look so gorgeous and are a great addition to Monster High. What really makes this movie for me is WhoDoo Voodoo. He is absolutely hilarious and brings comedy that fits perfectly.  I love the flip back and forth between their travels and the argument at the school over two vampires in the movie. Even though the twist in the vampire queen was the actress Elissabat, the plot twist in the side plot that two vampires that people were fighting over were actually the same was super interesting.

Overall, as a long time Monster High fan, I do have bias towards the 1st Generation movies, and seeing the drastic change in the adaptions is scary and irritating. But from what I have seen from the newest movie I do have hope for this new generation, introducing more fans to a franchise that I absolutely love.

Betty rivers