Review: Monster High “Horoscare/Flaunt Your Skeleton”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Horoscare

Conflicting predictions from a new app say a visit from Cleo’s favorite influencer will either be amazing or a disaster.

Flaunt Your Skeleton

Ghoulia’s dream is about to come true when she must perform for a superstar alum.

Our Take:

Monster High is one of the franchises that haven’t captured my interest recently, even with its brand relaunch, starting with Monster High: The Movie. Although, this could be because I’m not part of its target audience who loved the fashion dolls it’s based on. However, I managed to have a couple of episodes of the show on as background noise, and I thought they were good distractions for me regarding the characters and humor. So I didn’t mind continuing to watch this spooky yet charming series, including this week’s episodes involving crazy predictions and superstars.

The first episode, “Horoscare”, consists of Cleo de Nile facing a dilemma involving a new app and a visit from an influencer celebrity. The new app invading the school, Horoscare, can tell predictions to any user. So when Cleo’s fortune depicts that her influencer, Pearl, is coming to Monster High, she and Frankie make preparations to ensure her visit is successful, including making Pearl’s favorite cakes and a flash mob.

During the process, the episode sees Toralei attempting to prevent the humans from invading the school due to her prediction from the Horoscare app. The two subplots eventually come together when Toralei sets up ectoplasm traps around the school, which could ruin Cleo’s chance at impressing her idol. However, it turns out that their fortunes are just for fun, meaning all of their hard work is for nothing. On the bright side, the episode does provide some humorous antics involving Toralei and several charming moments between Cleo and Frankie.

The second episode, “Flaunt Your Skeleton”, sees Ghoulia’s dream of being a singer becoming a reality when the superstar Skelly Vonderbone arrives at Monster High to perform with the students. However, Ghoulia’s opportunity quickly dissolved when she got a bad case of “brain freeze”, and I’m not talking about the one involving ice cream. The show’s take on “brain freeze” occurs when Ghoulia gets nervous, causing her to only say “brains” and act like a zombie.

The episode’s plot and humor consist of Ghoulia attempting to get rid of her “brain freeze” before the show with the help of her friends. However, they all end with the same result: Ghoulia acts nervous around Skelly, whether the superstar is real or on the poster. Fortunately, Skelly’s secret level code helped Ghoulia find the perfect solution to her annoying habit: embracing it.

Overall, both episodes continue to deliver the show’s charm and humorous antics through their monstrous students and enjoyable stories. “Horoscare” is a mildly fun misunderstanding for Cleo, Frankie, and even Toralei from the fortune-telling app, showcasing the cons of taking predictions seriously. Additionally, it showcases more of Cleo’s friendship with Frankie, which could wind up being something more based on their chemistry. However, “Flaunt Your Skeleton” is the best of the bunch regarding Ghoulia’s amusing predicament. More importantly, it delivers a relatable kid-friendly lesson about embracing one’s unfortunate habits and turning them into their thing regarding Skelly’s rattle bones and Ghoulia’s brain freeze. While I’m not a massive fan of Mattel’s monster franchise, I can admit that the show still has enough tolerable moments to make my stay at Monster High worthwhile.