Monster High (franchise)

Monster High is a franchise owned, developed and promoted by Mattel corporate. The franchise is a milestone in the company's history, being one of the relative few franchises Mattel owns and the first created to be a media franchise from the get-go.

Preparational development of the franchise began in 2007, based on the ideas of Garrett Sander, and came to an end in the months of May, June and July of 2010, when the world was introduced to Monster High. Monster High immediately garnered the hoped-for interest and has been growing steadily ever since.

History
Monster High was created and proposed for production in 2007 by Garrett Sander, back then a member of the packaging department. For three years, a team of 20 employees worked on what Monster High had to be, both immediately and in the long-run. The earliest trademarks were filed on 23 October, 2007, comprising "Monster High", "Frankie Stein", "Ula D.", "Operetta", and "Howleen Wolf" - suggesting an initial cast setup that was changed drastically over three years.

Monster High was created for two purposes. The first was to acquire a franchise that manages to appeal to a demographic Mattel historically has had trouble getting hold on: tween girls, roughly defined as girls aged 8 to 12. This demographic is of an age that Barbie loses its appeal, but not of an age that toys are no longer interesting, provided they're in line with the girls' teenage needs. Monster High was created to fill the gap. The second purpose behind Monster High was to test the boundaries in setting up a new franchise that Mattel has previously believed in. For decennia, but more relevantly since the '80s, Mattel's modus operandi has been to either create toys for other companies, such as DC Comics and Disney, or to create a toyline first and see if it catches on enough to justify expensive promotion.

As other toy companies, such as Hasbro, embraced the relation between a solid fictional universe and the success of a toyline, Mattel played it safe and found itself generating less profit than proven to be possible. Monster High was to be the evidence the company needed to be more determined in its introduction of new franchises. As such, after the cast of Monster High was decided on by the end of 2008, development and production of not only the dolls started, but also a web-based cartoon, a book series, a website, plushies, a costume line, an assortment of merchandise, and a stand at San Diego Comic-Con. All of this was to be released over just a few months time, starting in May 2010, to garner maximum attention.

As bet on, when the dolls finally hit stores, they were a huge success. Encouraged, Mattel set up a new team of executives only a few months after the May launch, whose sole job is to concoct future franchises to be marketed after the Monster High model.

Reception
Aimed at tweens, Monster High was an immediate hit, unfortunately leaving many a child and parent standing before empty shelves as the dolls sold faster than Mattel could provide them. Moreso, Monster High also found itself in appeal by people outside its target demographic, garnering interest from doll and action figure collectors too for the dolls' clever design, despite significant complaints about quality control surfacing soon after launch.

Without losing sight of the target demographic, Mattel has readily embraced the older elements in the fanbase. While the books contained story elements more suitable for an older audience early on, it took the webisodes and diaries a little more experience with the fanbase before they were ready to incorporate matters of discrimination, fear, death, and even the 'human' side of mean people.

Controversy
Monster High was released with very little criticism and would stay clean of it until March 14, 2011, when the Herald Sun took note of the dolls to be released in Australia on April the first and spent an article on them. On March 16, 2011, Fox News picked up the story and condemned the dolls even more than the Herald Sun had done. The articles' ire was largely directed at what most modern and successful doll lines are accused of: presentation of impossible bodily shapes leads to girls developing eating disorders, mutilating themselves in order to get a figure more akin to the dolls', and/or feeling dissatisfied with their own bodies for not looking like the dolls'. Moreso, the dolls' skimpy clothing ostensibly would lead girls to want to dress the same way.

What set Monster High apart was the criticism specifically leveled at Clawdeen Wolf. Aside from being dressed the most questionable, eyebrows were raised at the Freaky Flaw of her profile, which stated she needed to shave her body often. It was argued that this would encourage girls to "feel ashamed of their bodies, to focus on being sexually appealing and sexually attractive from a pre-pubescent age". The article spread fast, even among people and groups not quick to associate with Fox News. However, as suddenly as the controversy had started, as quickly did it disappear. While up until the end of 2011 people remained who had no good words for the dolls, the controversy has not affected Monster High's popularity.

Another, smaller, controversy was started on September 28, 2011 over the announced team-up between Monster High and the Kind Campaign. In light of the appearance controversy, some people spoke out against the team-up on the grounds that Monster High's philosophies hardly alligned with the Kind Campaign's. Another element feeding the controversy was the content of the webisodes, which also was deemed inappropriate to the Kind Campaign's message. However, the people decrying the webisodes had a tendency to try out the series from the start and without regards to the series' evolution. The first volume of webisodes relies on the gag-per-day format, featuring both very little character development and short stories that are more often than not off in the morality department. However, by the time of the announcement, Monster High had long moved on into Volume 2, which, while not perfect, fixed most of the problems Volume 1 possessed. Essentially, most of the complaints came forth from the idea that Monster High itself worked by static philosophies and could not change for the better itself. As with the appearance controversy, the complaints did not affect the target, in this case the team-up.

The above notwithstanding, it is believed by the fanbase that between June 2010 and June 2011 Mattel did pick up on some complaints, which generally are attributed to parents. This belief is fed by the fact that the same characters released in both the first wave core line and the second wave core line cover up better in the second subline than in the first, and that in general later characters wear either longer skirts or pants. However, there is no confirmation on what caused this change. There are no known reports on significant complaints that have properly reached Mattel, and the Fox News item focussed on more 'wrongs' of the dolls than the clothes alone, while the doll line only showed a change in clothing.

Partners
TBA

Fiction
Mattel has placed its stakes with Monster High on creating an immersive universe to generate immediate and lasting interest in the dolls, accessories and merchandise. This course has resulted in several different media through which the universe of Monster High is exposed, and with that an almost equal amount of different continuities that make up the whole of the Monster High universe.

A continuity is a collection of stories that with (near) certainty can be said to be part of the same storyline. For instance, the diaries together form one continuity, and the books too form a continuity. But the diaries and the books do not form a continuity together, because the premises differ so that events that take place in either do not or cannot happen in the other. And even in one medium multiple continuities can exist. For instance, "New Ghoul @ School" cannot take place in the same continuity as "Fear Squad" because they each have a separate take on one shared event, excluding each other's views. However, the term subcontinuity is more appropriate to describe differing storylines within one medium, since the differences are largely the result of soft reboots instead of differing premises.

Monster High possesses three main continuities - books, webisodes, and diaries - and four or more extra continuities - Facebook stories, Tumblr stories, Monster High Ghoul Spirit, and commercials. Whether material such as the website games or the Freaky Fab 13 storyline are part of one of the above continuities or constitute their own continuities is debatable.

Products
While Monster High is a doll franchise first and foremost, it is also much more than that. The franchise covers a large assortment of products, though not every line has the appeal to last.


 * Dolls
 * Doll Accessories
 * Create-a-Monster
 * Plushies
 * Videogames
 * Costumes
 * Merchandise