IN A NUTSHELL: I never saw the first Monster Family in 2018, so I was excited to see what this franchise was all about. This film is also known as Happy Family 2, as happiness is one of the themes in the story. After watching this sequel, I'm definitely going to go back and watch the first movie. I think it's pretty cute! If you've seen and liked the first movie, you'll definitely get a kick out of this next one, but if you haven't, it's still very enjoyable as a stand-alone film. The film is produced by British-German Ambient Entertainment.

The story is about a Monster Family who tries to free Baba Yaga (a friendly witch of some kind) and Renfield (her hunchbacked-butler boyfriend) from the clutches of young Monster Hunter Mila Starr. The Wishbone Family once more transforms into a Vampire, Frankenstein's Monster, a Mummy, and a Werewolf. Aided and abetted by their three pet bats, the Monster Family zooms around the world again to save their friends, make new monstrous acquaintances, and finally come to the realization that 'Nobody's Perfect' - even those with flaws can find happiness.

THINGS I LIKED: The animation itself is really cute with adorable details. For example, if you pay attention, you'll see a little rubber duckie appear in several scenes, which made me laugh. The landscapes are absolutely fantastic with impressive realism. Hair, fur, plants, moss-covered rocks, and water all look incredible. I love the freckles all over the characters' faces and the characters' movements look very human-like.

The bouncy soundtrack is light and fun. There are even a couple of musical numbers...sort of. They keep things energetic and entertaining.

Lots of visual and spoken humor.

You get to see a lot of scenes with the famous Aurora Borealis. Seeing the Northern Lights has been on my Bucket List for decades. I finally got to see them in November when I went to Iceland! Talk to your kids about how amazing his beautiful planet is!

Kids will be introduced to legendary monsters like King Kong, Loch Ness, the Abominable Snowman, Dracula, and more.

Keep watching during the final rolling credits for another cute scene.

For a kids' movie, it's a pleasant surprise that there is no farting or vomiting in the movie.

Ultimately, I think my 4 sons would have liked this when they were younger. One of my sons has grown up to be a video game animation artist and I think he would be impressed with the artistry of the animation. I was!

There are quite a few moral lessons that parents can point out to children after watching the movie together. It's definitely family-friendly for all ages.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of cliched dialogue. As talented as the cast is, their voice work often sounds surprisingly uninspired. I think that has to do a lot with the writing.

As a mom trying to raise my sons into responsible, caring men, I always cringe when I see male figures represented as useless fathers.

Some parts of the story don't have a final resolution, but young kids probably won't even notice.

The original Monster Family featured Dracula as the villain. He's in this movie but doesn't have the strong presence of the primary villain. Still, he's voiced by the awesome Jason Isaacs, who always plays delicious villains like in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and The Patriot.

The Monster Family isn't quite as quick or talented as The Incredibles. For example, there is a crucial fight scene where most of the family members just stand there until it's their turn to get conquered by the bad guys. There were many other moments when each family member could have used their distinct talents, but they often go under-utilized.

It made me want to know what I missed in the first movie. For example, there are some friendly bats that provide humor, but I don't know how they came to be the family's pets/sidekicks. I could tell that Dracula had an important role to play in the family's life, but I also knew I was missing a big story from the first film.

TIPS FOR PARENTS: A teenage girl talks about dropping out of school.

You see a boy's underwear several times Cartoon violence Parenting styles I was excited to discover these fun activity sheets that Viva Films provides for kids! I love it when film studios do that for kid-friendly movies! You can download them at MovieReviewMom (dot) com. Then, after your child fills in the blanks or colors a picture, or creates the face mask, have them post it on social media and tag @VivaKidsFilms!

If I remember correctly another movie was supposed to come out exactly close to this time of the year before it got pushed to next year. Also the theme of that movie was monsters turning into humans and this movie is about humans turning into monsters... also the source of the transformation is basically advanced crazy science mixed with magic green gems.

It just feels like this fish out of water story is a bit used in movies these days. And that every movie is basically the same movie mixed with surface level differences.

And this movie? Well you can either watch this movie or Hotel Transylvania 4... you choose... it's all just the same formula...

Hadn't watched the first one but we needed a hallowe'en movie to watch as a family. The animation is top notch, however, the plot is a mash of generic monsters in peril, so cliched it's probably ironic "oh no we're monsters again?" inciting incident and uninspiring vocal performances. I think it's one of those productions where the producers need to sell it to different territories and with different voice actors, so you don't get any identifiable facial expressions or tics. The worst example is Nick Frost as the Dad. Usually the animators have the voice cast's performance to use as a guide but I'm sure here the voice cast were hired during or after production.

All in all it was a forgettable 90 minutes with a weird mix of too much plot and not enough storytelling.