Monster Family - Review/Thoughts

Hello, everyone! I have another review for you on SpaceHey. I'm trying to find a good movie or TV show to take a break from the bad stuff. This is the last bad thing I'm reviewing. 

I have a question for you: How do you make a film adaptation of something that doesn't seem bad, and then make it more awful? Let me give you some context. It started in 2011 with a book called Happy Family by German writer David Safier. According to Goodreads, the reception was mixed, with reviews ranging from positive to negative. Then, in 2017, a German company, Ambient Entertainment GmbH, adapted the book into an animated movie. They cast actors from the United Kingdom. It was released in 83 theaters, and it grossed $27.8 million. What did the German filmmakers think after that? They made a sequel in 2021 called Monster Family 2, which grossed $6.7 million. Two movies, two box office flops. The team behind the movies didn't learn what not to do.

Despite the German title of the movie being "Happy Family," the Wishbone family is not very happy with their lives. One day, they attend a costume party, and then an evil witch named Baba Yaga, sent by Dracula, transforms them into monsters: Emma becomes a vampire, Frank becomes Frankenstein, Fay becomes a mummy, and Max becomes a werewolf. Emma, the mother, turns into a vampire; Frank, the father, turns into Frankenstein; Fay, the daughter, turns into a mummy; and Max, the son, turns into a werewolf. The family embarks on an adventure to turn back into normal people. 

The film's concept of a family turning into monsters is interesting. Looking at still images and reading the synopsis, one might think the movie would get an immediate 10/10. I thought the movie was good because of the CGI animation. However, I realized that it isn't the best Oscar contender because of its poor writing. The best way I can describe this movie is simply that it's average. Imagine a flat racetrack in a sandy area with two snails on the ground. Now, watch them slowly race. You wait for one to win or for something interesting or surprising to happen during the race. That's what this movie is like. First, remember that it's a 103-minute movie with messy writing choices. It's clear that the filmmakers didn't consider the runtime and forced these choices into the film, resulting in something boring and uninteresting. It's like sitting in a school desk for too long. There's a sequence of Emma chasing Baba Yaga, random clips of her teleporting, and the most baffling sequence of the whole family wandering in the desert just to get to the typical breakup scene seen in movies. I tried to find something interesting or memorable, but I couldn't. The film lacks passion and feels meaningless. According to professional movie websites, the film has a story, but it's just a careless series of scenes that are worth speeding through.

The humor could make this movie watchable if you ignore the poorly written storyline and the humor doesn't work. It's another case of gross humor in an animated piece of media, similar to Rocket Monkeys. However, to be fair, it's not as gross as that show, but the humor is still flawed because it's mostly fart jokes shoved down your throat four times. There are also gross jokes that aren't about farts. For example, a bat sneezes on another bat, and in another scene, a bat eats earwax with his violin bow.

You would expect a joke that isn't gross to be funny, but it isn't. Others are mediocrely timed and rely heavily on slapstick. You can't tell if it's supposed to be a joke. That's all I can write for this review. I can't find another way to describe the movie, since most of the humor is childish and immature. It feels like the filmmakers' children wrote it.

Animation

The models, shading, lighting, and effects don't seem too bad. In fact, they're pretty good. You can tell that the people behind the movie clearly found an art style that fits this movie. However, there's something important about the animation: the motion. The motion here is a mixed bag. I thought some of the movements were okay, like Baba Yaga's movements in the chase scene. It's interesting to use squash and stretch in CGI animation, and it makes it feel like Looney Tunes. However, the other characters' movements are pretty bad. They are sometimes unnatural and feel stilted and forced.

The most glaring problem with the animation is the lip-syncing. You'll see characters talking with their mouths closed despite the understandable voice acting. Maybe I understand why this is a problem. Obviously, this was originally made in Germany and had an English dub, but the lip-syncing in German isn't good either.

I'm giving the animation a 7.1/10.

Voice Acting

I don't see the point in listing the voice actors and describing and reviewing their roles. All of the performances I hear are poor, and the voice acting doesn't match the setting. It's even worse because it doesn't match the lip-sync.

The main characters live in New York, but they have British accents, which raises the question: Why didn't the casting directors choose American voice actors instead of British people for consistency? There are better American voice actors, such as Jason Griffith, Marc Thompson, and many more. But, oh no! This casting decision frustrates me.

Nick Frost is cast as Frank Wishbone. At first, he doesn't seem too bad, but his performance as a human is tolerable at best. He doesn't have anything memorable. The worst comes when the character is transformed into a Frankenstein monster. All the voice actor does is moan. It's embarrassing. They could have cast a separate voice actor for the monster form and not wasted Frost's talent. This makes me sad. Bad animated movies cast celebrities and waste their talents. This is the worst case I've ever seen in a movie.

I'm giving the voice acting a 2.5/10.

Soundtrack

I have nothing bad to say about the soundtrack. It's quite inspired, and you can tell the composers hoped the music would be in a good movie. Sadly, that didn't happen, but I'll let it slide.

I'm giving the soundtrack a 10/10.

Characters

Let's start with the worst one.

Fay is the worst character I have ever seen in my life. She is clichéd, a jerk, and a brat. She insults her family and bullies her brother, Max. For example, there was one time when she hit and kicked him. One thing we know about her is that she wants to get the popular guy. There was one stupid moment when she transformed into a mummy by Baba Yaga. Instead of reporting it to the police or staying with her parents, she went to her crush's house and asked him for help.

Emma is bland. She's an overworked wife and mother. There's even a part where she's okay with cheating on her husband, Frank, with Dracula. There's also a moment where she ends up driving him away for no reason.

Max is at least tolerable. I'm not a fan of his, but I feel bad for him because he doesn't mean any harm, yet he gets bullied at school and at home by his sister. However, he has a few flaws: He's a clichéd nerd and a punching bag.

Frank is tolerable, too, like Max, because he isn't as bad as Emma and Fay. However, he has one defining trait: flatulence. That's the only gag they use with him.

Dracula is a pathetic version of the original because he only wants to hunt down and seduce Emma after she accidentally calls him and says she wants his teeth. Also, why would Dracula have a phone? I know of another version of Dracula in Hotel Transylvania that has a phone, but nobody cares. However, in this version, it's poorly executed.

Dracula's sidekick bats are just a rip-off of the Minions, an attempt to copy their popularity. But they fail because they are pointless, and to add insult to injury, they aren't funny.

I'm giving the characters a 1.2/10.

Final Verdict

In conclusion, it is a boring, annoying, and overwhelming film.  It suffers from messy writing, awful characterizations, mediocre voice acting, and mixed-quality animation. Even though it has a few good qualities, like decent art style, Max and Frank being tolerable characters, and a fine soundtrack, it's still a pretty bad film. It seems to imitate animated comedy monster films like Hotel Transylvania, but it doesn't work. It doesn't capture the charm. If you find this movie and want to show it to your kids, think twice because they'll forget it.

Overall Rating

Animation: 7.1

Voice Acting: 2.5

Soundtrack: 10

Characters: 1.2

Storyline: 0.6

Final Rating

4.3

What did you think of my review? Tell me in the comments!