Story
To stay human, the Wishbones are supposed to be a happy family. But parents Emma (voice of Emily Watson) and Frank (voice of Nick Frost) are far from perfect. And Faye (voice of Jessica Brown Findlay) and Max (voice of Ethan Rouse) are far from happy.
Their old friend Baba Yaga (voice of Catherine Tate) is abducted from her own wedding by Mila (voice of Emily Carey). Mila’s famous parents, Maddox (voice of Daniel Ben-Zenou) and Marlene Starr (voice of Emma Tate), have sent her to capture monsters from around the world. The idea is to bring back the monsters to a secret lab so that they can contribute to the greater good – or Maddox and Marlene say.
The Wishbones try unsuccessfully to save Baba Yaga fail and are once again transformed into a vampire, Frankenstein’s monster, a mummy and a werewolf. Together they set off to find Mila and stop her from abducting all the other monsters as well.
After Mila meets the Wishbones, she begins to see that perhaps her family isn’t so perfect either. With Max’s help, Mila finally finds the courage to confront her parents. She learns that not only is she not their daughter, but they’ve merely been using her and the creatures she has captured to create a ‘perfect daughter’, whom they call ‘Mila 2.0’.
Together, Mila and the Wishbones set about undoing all the damage the Starrs have done. Together they learn that nobody is perfect and imperfections are part of their nature.
Themes
Abduction; deceitfulness; bullying; the negative role of social media in teenage lives; the pressure to be perfect
Violence
Monster Family 2 has some violence. For example:
- Mila breaks into Dracula’s prison, burns him with the sun’s rays, kicks his legs out from under him, shoves him into a wall, traps him under a fallen chandelier, knocks out one of his teeth, and kidnaps him by enclosing him in a flying bubble.
- A character is struck by lightning.
- Someone hacks into Max’s account and uploads an unflattering video of him dancing and falling.
- Max struggles to fit into his pants and is teased about his weight.
- Fay throws an object at Max and knocks a frog out of the window.
- Baba Yaga is captured by a drone and held dangling in the air, where she smashes into walls as the family tries to fight Mila for control. The family is defeated, and Baba Yaga is taken away, bruised and with a black eye. Max grabs on at the last minute but falls off when Mila weaves dangerously through traffic. He falls into the middle of the road, wearing just his underwear and shirt. A car nearly hits him.
- Mila slams Emma into a wall and knocks Frankenstein out with a helmet. He collapses on Emma, pinning her to the ground.
- Max bites Mila.
- Mila shoots the Loch Ness Monster with a shrinking gun. She later shoots a Yeti and King Kong with the same gun.
- A woman’s limp hand dangles down from an overhead compartment on Dracula Air.
- A man is hit in the head by a bowling ball.
- A Yeti and Frankenstein’s monster smash each other with snowballs.
- Fay causes an avalanche, and Mila falls over a cliff.
- The Starrs tell Mila 2.0 to kill Mila. The two Milas fight and fall. Mila 2.0 rips the flying pack from Mila’s back, which causes Mila to plummet towards the ground.
- Mila 2.0 repeatedly says things like ‘I will end your imperfect life’.
- Max shoots Mr Starr with the shrink gun. Later, Mrs Starr and Dracula are also shrunk.
- Max tries to save Mila, and he jumps after her. Mila 2.0 comes after both of them. She stops only when her shrunken parents fly their aircraft into them, hitting Mila 2.0 who falls towards the ground. Mila and Max make their way through the falling debris and land safely. It appears that Mila 2.0 and the Starrs are destroyed or killed.
Sexual references
There are no sexual references in Monster Family 2.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
There’s no use of substances in Monster Family 2.
Nudity and sexual activity
Monster Family 2 has some mild nudity and sexual activity. For example:
- Mila kisses Max by accident while they’re fighting. She also lands on top of him.
- A spell wears off and Max’s pants shrink to their normal size. They fall down and reveal his underwear. Some girls from his school see this and laugh at him while videoing the moment and then uploading it to social media.
Product placement
There’s no product placement in Monster Family 2.
Coarse language
There are some insults and name-calling in Monster Family 2, including ‘nerd’. Also, Mila repeatedly calls Max ‘Pizza Boy’. She’s trying to annoy him by referring to his chubby stomach and the fact that he must eat a lot of pizza.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Monster Family 2 is an animated sequel to the first Monster Family movie. The main message about finding perfection inside yourself even when you are not perfect is important, but the plot and dialogue leave much to be desired.
Because of its themes and a couple scary scenes, Monster Family 2 isn’t a movie for younger children. It might be best saved for when your children are older. Fans of the first movie might enjoy it.
The main messages from Monster Family 2 are that nobody is perfect and that this is OK because our imperfections make us who we are.
Values in Monster Family 2 that you could reinforce with your children include compassion, courage, persistence, forgiveness and helpfulness.
Monster Family 2 could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the real-life consequences of behaviour like:
- blindly doing what someone tells you to do, especially if it seems wrong
- bullying others either in person or online
- taking what doesn’t belong to you, especially when it’s a living creature
- trying to be perfect all the time.