New Ghoul @ School

"New Ghoul @ School" is the first Monster High TV special and the only one released in 2010. It is part of Volume 1 and represents an alternative sub-continuity to either the first half of or all of Volume 1. The TV special aired on October 31, 2010, and the DVD was packaged with the four single pack Dawn of the Dance dolls released in July 2011. No surprise, it ties into the Dawn of the Dance doll line.

Description
Being the new girl is totally terrifying. See what really happened during Frankie Stein's first week at Monster High!

Summary
It is Monday and Frankie Stein's first day at Monster High. Everything is new and intimidating to the girl aged 15 days, but entirely unprepared she isn't. She has a collection of magazines with her in which she hopes to find guidance on how to work through teenage monsterhood. Taking the advice from SevenTween, she tries to make "an awesome first impression", but only manages to convey that she's very, very, very new. Making her way to the crowds of student, Frankie worries that she'll never have friends and will have to spend all high school as a "loner".

On Tuesday, Frankie makes her way to Trigular Calcometry 101. At the classroom door, Deuce Gorgon passes her by and greets her. As Frankie has a moment of happiness for being noticed, and by such a handsome guy no less, Slo Mo enters and accidentally knocks her over. While Frankie collects her stuff from the floor, Cleo de Nile and Ghoulia Yelps enter. Cleo doesn't see Frankie and nearly trips over her, which earns Frankie Cleo's dislike. Little more is said when the teacher arrives and the class commences. Lou Zarr turns out to be a very boring man though and Frankie turns to her magazines for advice on how to survive. At that moment, Draculaura lets herself down from the ceiling next to Frankie and starts talking to her. A little weirded out, Frankie lets her, happy to finally have someone notice. When the bell rings, Draculaura is still talking and Frankie follows her into the hallway.

At the chalkboard, Zarr has fallen asleep and Ghoulia finishes the calculation he was working on for him.

As Frankie and Draculaura walk and talk, they suddenly find themselves alone and Draculaura's attention perks when she hears moaning coming their way. The two are too late to escape the zombie flashmob, though they are cornered at the girls' bathroom. It's door is opened by Clawdeen Wolf to let her friend and company inside. Frankie and Clawdeen hit it off well during their time waiting for the zombies to leave. When they are gone, Draculaura and Clawdeen leave, telling Frankie she can text them. Frankie realizes too late she does not have their numbers, but is optimistic about having made two possible friends. She believes she can still do better though and decides to join one of the school's clubs.

On Wednesday, Frankie signs up for various clubs in order to make more friends. However, either her clumsiness or her lack of investment in the clubs cause that plan to fail. She doesn't bother to learn the rules of chess when joining the Chess club, her charge electrifies the Swim Team, and she only realizes she doesn't know what she's asking signatures for during Community Service until Cleo asks her. Frankie also electrifies Cleo and ruins her hair when she hands her a pencil to sign the petition. All in all, Frankie messes up so badly that her chances to make friends become lower than before Wednesday.

Nonetheless, a poster announcing fearleader tryouts gives Frankie new hope, as she has no doubt she can do that right. That is, until she arrives at the tryouts and finds out that the Fear Squad captain is no one else than Cleo de Nile, the girl Frankie probably offended the most in the past three days. Nonetheless, she stays, and Cleo gives her a chance like everyone else. The applicants are ordered to watch a performance by the current members of the Fear Squad, then repeat it. However, the Fear Squad's performance is so impressive that all applicants but Frankie run away afterwards, too intimidated to try mimic that. Frankie just gives it a go and is a success, but her chance at fame is ruined when her foot comes loose ends up in Ghoulia's drink, splashing the liquid mostly over Cleo, which causes Cleo to scream at very high volume that could break glass.

Frankie runs off in embarrassment, crying, to the solitude of the swimming pool at that time. Or rather, the expected solitude, as Lagoona Blue is there making a few laps. She strikes up a conversation with Frankie, listening to her frustration over the past three days and offering advice to stop trying so hard and just be herself. Frankie happily takes Lagoona's advice and encouragement, but casts it aside again when she glances at her Monster Beat magazine, which advises "Don't be yourself. Yuck! Be the dream-you." Pondering this, Frankie loses herself in a fantasy in which she's a talented singer and gains immense popularity through a killer performance. She awakens from her fantasy when Deuce addresses her, as he needs her to close her locker so he can open his. A moment later, Heath Burns walks by and pushily starts flirting with Frankie. Noticing her discomfort, Deuce petrifies Heath and drags him away. Deuce's kindness makes Frankie become interested in him, but her attention is soon taken by Clawdeen and Draculaura, who show up to tell her that Cleo was impressed with her performance regardless of what happened at the end and that she is invited for an interview that will determine her membership. Frankie is overjoyed, but from a distance Lagoona watches, realizing that Frankie will try too hard to be accepted into the Fear Squad.

On Thursday morning, Frankie turns to her magazines again for final advice. An article in Monster Beat about the link between unpopularity and teenaged lunch ladies convinces her to fake her way to glory. She meets up with Draculaura and Clawdeen at school for a pre-interview briefing, during which Deuce happens to walk by and greet her. Frankie is overjoyed at the attention and confidently makes her way to the creepateria for her interview. Cleo is still intimidating, but Frankie is sure she is ready. Cleo starts the interview with quick-fire questions, one of the final ones being "favorite singer?". Frankie replies that that would be Justin Biter and that he, in fact, partially owes his current success to Frankie's father. Cleo elatedly proclaims her own love for Justin Biter's music, but swiftly moves on to the next question, "Boyfriend?". Frankie feels pressured and just at that moment, Deuce comes walking into the creepateria and again greets her. Frankie quickly claims that he is her boyfriend, much to the horror of everyone witnessing the event. Cleo angrily declares the interview over and walks up to Deuce, accusing him of cheating on her. Then she leaves the creepateria, bursting in tears once outside. Frankie too decides to leave and runs off to the swimming pool again. She meets up with Lagoona, but this time the sea monster is not on her side as she's heard what happened. As Frankie processes that Lagoona just turned her back on her, she spots Cleo, who also chose to come to the swimming pool to cry. When she spots Frankie, she reverts to anger and tells Frankie she doesn't want to see her again.

On Friday, Frankie recalls the past week and decides she has to fix things with everyone she hurt. She looks at one of her Monster Beat magazines-one with Justin Biter on the cover-one more time and gets an idea. She makes her way to the bathrooms where Clawdeen and Draculaura are working on the latter's makeup and both apologizes and asks them for help to make it all up to Cleo. Clawdeen and Draculaura agree to help, their role being to lure Cleo to the gym. Meanwhile, Frankie talks to Deuce and explains the situation to him, and the two of them await Cleo in front of the gym's doors. When Cleo arrives, Frankie explains what happened and thereby brings Cleo and Deuce together again. But as relieved as Cleo is that Deuce didn't cheat on her, she's still furious at Frankie. Frankie answers she knows that and that this isn't the full of her apology yet. She invites Cleo into the gym, where a makeshift stands with Justin Biter ready to rock — Frankie got him to give a concert at Monster High just for Cleo on account of him owing the Steins a favor.

The entire school has a great time at the concert. Frankie observes her friends having fun and is approached by Cleo, who tells her she made it into the Fear Squad, though on probation. Frankie is happy with this arrangement, but to herself notes that the Fear Squad is not that important anymore now that she has friends.

Cast

 * Frankie Stein - Kate Higgins
 * Cleo de Nile / Clawdeen Wolf - Salli Saffioti
 * Draculaura - Debi Derryberry
 * Lagoona Blue - Laura Bailey
 * Deuce Gorgon / Gillington "Gil" Webber / Heath Burns - Yuri Lowenthal
 * Ghoulia Yelps - Audu Paden

Crew

 * Written by Anne D. Bernstein, Audu Paden, Lauren Rose and Ira Singerman
 * Voice Direction - Audu Paden
 * Talent Coordinator - Marsha Goodman Einstein
 * Art Director - Eric Radomski
 * Animatic Editor - Mike Mangan
 * Executive Producers - Margaret M. Dean, Barry Waldo
 * Supervising Producer - Audu Paden
 * Produced by - Vincent Edwards, Ira Singerman, Shannon Nettleton
 * Associate Producer - Haven Alexander
 * Production Manager - Robert Romero
 * Production Coordinators - Melissa Moore, Lauren Rose
 * Storyboards by Tim Eldred
 * Animation Character Design - Myke Chilian, Layron DeJarnette, Jenny Goldberg, Michael Huang, Lois Min Lee, Hal Newman
 * BG Design - Brad Gake, Jeff Logue, Richard Lee, Robert Romero, Deanna Rooney
 * Flash Clean-up Supervisor - Jason Flowers
 * Flash Clean-up - Big Star Animation
 * Additional Flash Clean-up - Sara Anderson, Jenny Goldberg, Robert Romero, Casey Mitchum
 * Animation Supervisor - Shawn Toshikian
 * Lead Animator - Stephen Sawran
 * Animators - Joe Apel, Nick Butera, Daisy Church, David Haines, Cesar Henriquez, Anna Hollingsworth, Michael Huang, JoJo Ramos, Bob Rutan, Toni Tysen, Anne Walker
 * Technical Director - Chris Staples
 * Compositors - Andrew Hodges, Rich Ramazinski, Anthony Sipsas, Steve Wilson
 * Post Production Supervisor - Don Devine
 * Music - Steven Argila
 * Editor - Michael Mangan
 * Finishing Supervisor - Jim Cerrotta
 * Finishing Coordinator - Rodney Mann
 * Recording Studio - Salami Studios, North Hollywood, CA
 * Post Production Audio - Salami Studios, North Hollywood, CA
 * "Scars" By Toby Gad and Elyssa James
 * "Friday I'll Be Over U" By Tiffany Amer, Savan Harish Kotecha, Max Martin, Johan Schuster
 * Mattel Creative Consultants - Samantha Negley, Virginia Reneau, Kirsti van Rinsum, Garrett Sander, Julee Shapiro, Joel Smith, Erin Bloodgood, Elaine Gant, Jean Gomez, Eric Hardie, Cindy Ledermann, Kathleen Muray, Wendy Trilling
 * Special Thanks - Catherine Demas, Bob Eckert, Neil Friedman, Tim Kilpin, Susie Lecker, Dr. Michael Shore

Continuity

 * "New Ghoul @ School"'s relation to the Volume 1 webisodes is either that it provides an alternative sub-continuity to the whole lot or only to the first half. Regardless, the following webisodes all feature events equal but different to those in "New Ghoul @ School"
 * "Jaundice Brothers" - Frankie is 15 days old.
 * "Fear Squad" - Frankie becomes a member of the Fear Squad.
 * "Substitute Creature" - Lou Zarr teaches Trigular Calcometry 101.
 * Heath Burns was new at school in the webisode "The Hot Boy" and this was after Frankie had been in school for a while, but he's been a student for longer than Frankie in "New Ghoul @ School".
 * "New Ghoul @ School" establishes Frankie's reliance on magazines to get her through teenage monster life. The webisodes pick up on this starting "A Scare of a Dare".
 * In "Fur Will Fly", Draculaura also explains how she used to like the Jaundice Brothers but is a fan of Justin Biter these days.
 * In "Cyrano de Ghoulia", Draculaura too voices her need to be 1700 before she is allowed to have a boyfriend. Of course, this condition is ignored or no longer in effect during Volume 2, when she starts dating Clawd Wolf at age 1599.
 * "New Ghoul @ School" introduces Cleo's scream-powers. They'll be first featured in the webisodes in "Idol Threat".
 * Heath hits on Frankie one other time, in the webisode "Date of the Dead". It could be a continuation of his flirt in "New Ghoul @ School" or an alternative take on the same event.
 * Frankie will be taken off probation in the course of Volume 2, but never officially so. She asks Cleo to take her off in "Scream Building", but is denied because she again causes Cleo to be covered in a drink. The subject never comes up again, but given everything Frankie and Cleo go through as part of the same team, it's not to be expected Frankie's still on probation.
 * The Mirror Bed shown in Frankie's room was released in November 2010, and reappears in the 2011 TV special "Fright On!".
 * While it is not clear where to place the Volume 3 webisode "Fashion Emergency" continuity-wise, it too represents a scenario that cannot take place in the same sub-continuity as "New Ghoul @ School" on account of the story of how Draculaura and Clawdeen acquire their Dawn of the Dance outfits.
 * Frankie recalls her leg coming loose during fearleading tryouts and 'hitting' the captain in "Escape From Skull Shores".

Milestones

 * The Glitterati make their cartoon debuts, but still haven't appeared ever since.
 * Frankie's bedroom is shown for the first time.

Errors

 * During the intro shot of the Tuesday segment, Frankie's eye colors are switched.
 * Draculaura notes that her "parents say" she can't date until she is 1700. As later established, Draculaura only has one parent, her adoptive father.
 * In most of Monster High fiction, zombies only speak Zombie, but in the zombie flashmob-scene, the mob of zombies is moaning in English.
 * SevenTween is mentioned when Draculaura actually is looking through a magazine called Monster Beat - in fact, Monster Beat is the only magazine the girls look at in the entire movie minus the spreads Frankie has pinned-up on her bedroom wall.
 * Two times during the example routine, while there is a close-up on her left arm, Cleo wears her Basic jewelry instead of her fearleader bracelet.
 * At one point during the routine, Cleo's ankle bandage is located on her right leg instead of her left. It may seem this happens twice, but the second time is actually a reused shot from when Cleo was turned away from Fear Squad candidates, even though she is at that time facing them according to the surrounding shots.
 * When Cleo tells the candidates its their turn, her torso is not aligned with her hips.
 * In Lagoona's introduction scene, when she comes out of the water, she wears her Basic outfit, while all later shots show her in her pink bathing suit. She wears her hood in all shots, even though it is or should be attached to her  'Basic'  jacket.

Other

 * The correct webisode-special's name, by what it says on headings of TV and on YouTube is "New Ghoul at School", but is stylized as "New Ghoul @ School" in the titles/subtitles of the beginning of the intro of the TV special, before this was made.


 * Several scenes, art, and animation parts are taken directly from the webisodes:
 * The zombie flash mob animation is also featured in "Fear Squad".
 * Lou Zarr's animation and class scenes are also featured in "Substitute Creature"
 * The scene of Frankie magnetizing the lockers and electrifying a row of students was also used in "Bad Scare Day".
 * The moment in the creepateria before Frankie approaches Cleo for her interview has the same background layout as the intro shot of "Photo Finish".
 * Cleo's art and animation when she gets electrified when Frankie asks her to sign the petition is also used in "Freakout Friday" when she gets electrified by bad luck.
 * "New Ghoul @ School"'s intro music is a different piece from the Fright Song than the Volume 1 webisodes use as their intro music, but it's the same piece as the Volume 2 and Volume 3 webisodes use.
 * In addition to the above, "New Ghoul @ School" commences with the opening of a fearbook. This setup would be copied by the webisodes starting Volume 2.
 * In both "New Ghoul @ School" and "Fear Squad", the fearleaders wear outfits without Monster High logo. The logo will appear on the uniforms starting Volume 2.
 * "New Ghoul @ School" contains one of the very rare appearances of Heath Burns's "backgrounder"-style model~animation. The one other time it shows up is in "Bad Scare Day".
 * The teenaged lunch lady on the cover of Monster Beat has Frankie's blue and green irises. While it can be argued that, as with the cover featuring Lagoona, Frankie is projecting on the cover, it is very subtle and the only way in which the girl looks like Frankie.
 * This is currently the only TV special that can be seen on the official site, since "Fright On!" and "Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love?" have been removed.