Hey everyone, I’m back! Did ya miss me? I figured I’d celebrate my return by revisiting a post that riled up controversy a few years ago, with at least 1 person. Ages ago, I made a rant about Monster By Mistake. To be fair, I had not seen that show in ages. And when I made the rant, I mainly stuck to the first 2 seasons.
However, I decided to do a deep dive this time and watch most of the third season as well. It’s still bad, but it did surprise me in some ways. Before we get into that, allow me to explain what this cartoon is. Monster By Mistake was a semi-popular (at least at the time it came out) Canadian cartoon on YTV.
It came out in 1999, when cartoons made in CG were all the rage. The story revolved around a young boy named Warren who was accidentally hit by a magical spell, causing him to transform into this giant blue furry Frankenstein every time he sneezes. His sister and novice spell-caster, Tracy, spends most episodes trying to fix her brother (or pretty much any problem they come across) with magic.
All the while, an evil wizard trapped in a ball named Gorgool is after them, helped by his nameless henchman known only as “The Servant”. Also, there’s a ghost that lives in the attic named “Johnny” that helps the siblings out on their various adventures. On paper, a show like that could work. The problem is that Monster By Mistake devolved into episodic garbage right away. Most episodes are just Warren and Tracy dealing with a relatively minor problem, they use magic to try and fix it, Johnny warns them not to do it, the magic makes everything worse, Johnny waves his finger at them, they fix the problem, and then everybody laughs before the credits roll.
While that formula is indictive of the era the show came out in, something that elevates it into a whole different realm of horrible-ness is the animation. The show looks incredibly dated, more so than other shows of that era. I’m pretty sure they just reused CG models from the pilot episode, released 3 years prior to the show’s release.
They didn’t bother to touch up these designs initially either, so they ended up looking pretty bland when the show was released in 1999. And then, season 3 happened. Most people don’t talk about season 3, because I don’t think many people actually watched it.
I’m pretty sure after season 2 of Monster By Mistake, interest completely waned in the series. I think that explains why season 3 tried to mix things up. First off, there’s the character design changes. Almost every characters looks phenomenally worse than they did in the first 2 seasons. They tried to give the faces a more detailed look, but it made them look much worse as a result.
What about the show’s general plot and setup? Well, the most this show has for plot is the eternal quest to change Warren back to normal. While this season doesn’t change that, it does add a bit more to it. You see, the jewel they use to cast spells is called the “Jewel of Fenrath”.
Season 3 is very heavily focused on travelling to Fenrath, the dimension where the jewel originated from. This changes the setting from suburbia to a fantasy setting, allowing for more distinct and varied backgrounds. In Fenrath, our heroes have to contend with Gorgool’s previously unmentioned brother, Morgool.
You’d think that this change of setting and villain would allow the show to evolve or grow, but it doesn’t really do that. The formula remains the same: The kids screw up with magic, things go wrong, they fix it, everybody laughs, the end. The change in setting doesn’t change much about the show, aside from adding in more fantastical elements from time to time.
Whenever something about Fenrath shows up that is actually interesting, it’s usually only around for an episode or two and then forgotten about. A big example of this is time slowing down in Fenrath, along with it being connected to the town the siblings live in. The spend an entire episode using Fenrath to jump back and forth from earth to get somewhere in time, which was honestly the most creative use of the setting in the entire show’s run.
I imagine the shoehorning in of Fenrath was due to the fantasy obsession at the time. You had films and games like Lord of The Rings and Morrowind coming out, bringing fantasy-based projects back into the limelight. However, I just don’t feel like Monster By Mistake was a good choice for this kind of setting.
While the show had fantastical elements, its severe lack of actual stakes or engaging characters made these fantasy realm adventures rather dull and bland. Now, you may think I’m being hard on this kids show. To be fair though, I grew up with the show and was in the target demographic at the time I watched it. Even back when I did watch it back then, I rarely enjoyed it.
I only watched it when stuff like ReBoot or Beast Wars wasn’t on, because I was obsessed with CG animation at the time and would watch anything in that animation style. Monster By Mistake was my biggest regret when it came to my passion for CG animation and I would often be reminded of the show every time I saw a film or show with bad CG. It stuck around in my head long after I had stop watching it, despite its terrible-ness.
Going back to it now and seeing that third season finally, I have to say that my opinions have not changed. It’s as bad as it was back then, even if the third season did try to change things up a bit. I’m sure people have fond memories of this show, and I respect that. Please keep in mind that these posts are just my personal opinion.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
Syrup With A Side Of Writing 