Monster Family 2

Monster Family 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHolger Tappe
Screenplay byDavid Safier
Based on
Happy Family
by David Safier
Produced byHolger Tappe
Starring
Music by
  • Apollon de Moura
  • Adrian Gucze
  • Jascha Heldicke
  • Sascha Knorr
  • Eric Krause
  • Andreas Kübler
  • Sebastian Kübler
  • Florian Wunsch
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 15 October 2021 (2021-10-15) (United States)
  • 22 October 2021 (2021-10-22) (United Kingdom)
  • 4 November 2021 (2021-11-04) (Germany)
Running time
103 minutes
Countries
  • Germany
  • United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40 million
Box office$6.7 million

Monster Family 2 (also known as Monster Family 2: Nobody's Perfect and released as Happy Family 2 in Germany) is a 2021 animated comedy horror film directed and produced by Holger Tappe, and written by David Safier. A sequel to the 2017 film Monster Family, the voice cast includes Emily Watson, Jason Isaacs, Nick Frost, Jessica Brown Findlay, Catherine Tate, Ethan Rouse (all reprising their roles) and Emily Carey.

The film was released via video on demand in the UK as a Sky Cinema Original Film by the Sky Group on 22 October 2021, and was released in US cinemas by VivaKids a week earlier on 15 October.

Plot

A young girl named Mila, who is part of the Starr family, infiltrates Count Dracula's castle, where the Wishbone family's old nemesis lives, to capture Dracula, who has been frozen by the latter family. The Starr family instructs Mila to capture Baba Yaga on her next mission.

The Wishbone family visits a wedding to witness Yaga and Renfield getting married. Mila arrives and kidnaps both witches. Max, determined to save both witches, uses Yaga's magic amulet to transform his family into monsters, as before. Meanwhile, the Starr family gives Mila a mission to capture Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. The Wishbones reach Loch Ness, where they are attacked by Mila, who then manages to capture Nessie. As Mila returns to the surface, Max develops a relationship with Mila, but she leaves to go to a snow mountain to capture a yeti. The Wishbones follow her to the mountains, but Fay accidentally triggers an avalanche, which knocks Mila onto a cliff, being saved by Max. She then reluctantly sets out to Tora Tora to capture her final monster.

As the Wishbones reach Tora Tora, they befriend a giant gorilla named King Conga. Mila captures the gorilla and takes it back to the lab, where all the monsters are injected into a clone of herself dubbed Mila 2.0. Her family reveals that Mila is not part of her family, and Mila 2.0 is ordered to eliminate the original Mila. As she flees in tears, the Wishbone family arrive, and she shares what happened. Mila 2.0 captures the group and takes them to the Starr family. The Wishbones are reverted to their normal forms. Max tries to shrink Mila 2.0 with a shrink gun, but shrinks the Starr family instead, wrecking the headquarters in the process. The Wishbones free the monsters in the ensuing destruction, while Max successfully shrinks Mila 2.0. However, Dracula escapes, swearing revenge, only to be quickly shrunken by Max.

The headquarters begins to collapse, prompting the Wishbones and the monsters to flee. Mila frees Mila 2.0, but Max falls. While Mila rescues him, Mila 2.0 blinds the original Mila, leaving Max to give command to Mila's control. They successfully evade the collapsing headquarters, and they return to the surface. Yaga and Renfield are then successfully married, before imprisoning Dracula in a smaller version of his castle, and he enacts revenge against the Wishbones.

Voice cast

Release

Monster Family 2 was released on October 15, 2021 by VivaKids in the United States, and then on October 22 as a Sky Cinema original by Sky in the United Kingdom. It was later released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 7, 2022 as a 2-movie collection with the original film "Monster Family" by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (through Warner Bros. Home Entertainment).

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 20% of 5 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.8/10. Tom Cassidy of Common Sense Media gave Monster Family 2 a negative review, calling it "frightfully bad" and "a hollow experience". A review in Stuff.co.nz described the film as "a pallid, insipid sequel that will struggle to entertain even the most undemanding primary schooler". Pablo De Vita of La Nación offered a more positive review, stating that the movie was entertaining, albeit derivative.

Notes

  1. ↑ As depicted in Monster Family (2017)

References

  1. 1 2 Kay, Jeremy (5 August 2021) Sequel to animated international hit 'Monster Family' lands US distribution (exclusive) Archived 2021-09-18 at the Wayback Machine. Screen Daily. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  2. 1 2 Monster Family 2 (aka Happy Family 2) Archived 2021-12-05 at the Wayback Machine. Timeless Films. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  3. ↑ "Monster Family 2 (2021)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
  4. ↑ Kinderfilme: Es muss nicht immer Disney sein Archived 2021-10-22 at the Wayback Machine, 5 October 2021. (in German). Wiener Zeitung. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  5. ↑ Milligan, Mercedes (30 September 2021) Trailer: The Hunt for Fun Is on in 'Monster Family 2: Nobody's Perfect' Archived 2022-01-20 at the Wayback Machine. Animation Magazine. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  6. 1 2 Monster Family 2 Archived 2021-10-22 at the Wayback Machine at Common Sense Media. Reviewed by Cassidy, Tom. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  7. ↑ Monster Family 2 Archived 2021-10-25 at the Wayback Machine on Sky. Sky Cinema, owned by the Sky Group. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  8. ↑ "Monster Family 2". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
  9. ↑ Croot, James (March 4, 2022). "Monster Family 2: A pallid, inspid animated sequel that struggles to entertain". Stuff.co.nz. Archived from the original on July 29, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  10. ↑ De Vita, Pablo (December 2, 2021). "Estrenos de cine: La familia Monster 2 entretiene con una historia efectiva y convencional". La Nación (in Spanish). Archived from the original on July 29, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.