My Sweet Monster

It's kinda like when your intimate photos or videos end up in someone else's hands, man. That person's wicked face, in this animated flick, is actually depicted as the bad guy we see. But you know what, even when someone's got something on you, you can't go against the love for your family. I absolutely love how the writer flipped the script on those prince charming tales. It's like a Santa Claus-level plot twist for me. Those dreamy stories, they might just be wrapping up another kind of lie. We're in the dark, unknowingly choosing to anticipate and believe in the intricate stories full of exaggerations and details.

Right, well I had no idea that I was watching a Russian-made animated movie when I sat down here in 2023 to watch the 2021 animated movie "My Sweet Monster". It never struck me that the movie might be a dubbed version. But nonetheless, I watched the animated movie with my son.

I had no expectations really to the movie, as I hadn't heard about it prior to sitting down and watching it. But I will say that writers Aleksandr Arkhipov, Dmitriy Novoselov and Maksim Volkov put together a rather enjoyable script and storyline. It is definitely a story that follows an archetypical fantasy fable formula. But it works out quite well.

The version that I saw, the Englished dubbed version, had the voice talents of the likes of Pauly Shore and Jon Heder on the cast list, along with others whom I was unfamiliar with. And it was actually because of Shore and Heder on the movie's cover that I thought this was an American produced animated movie.

The animated movie could have fared better without the singing, especially since the English voice cast were relatively unable to carry proper notes. Most of the singing in "My Sweet Monster", at least in the English dubbed version, was rather cringeworthy.

Something that really impressed me about "My Sweet Monster" (with the original title being "Buka. Moyo Lyubimoe Chudishche") was the CGI and art style. The entire world in which the story took place had such an overwhelming attention to detail that it was just spectacular and breathtaking. It looked marvelous and it really made the world come to life on a very gratifying manner on the screen. I will actually say that "My Sweet Monster" is well worth watching for the CGI graphics themselves.

I was genuinely surprised and entertained by "My Sweet Monster", and if you enjoy animated movies, then you definitely should give this one a chance, should you have the opportunity to do so. It is an animated movie that has an appeal to children and adult alike.

My rating of "My Sweet Monster" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

I went in with no idea what to expect. Enjoyed the first ten minutes with steampunk vibes and robots, the flying light globe bots were cute. The quality of the animation is admirable for not having the full weight of the Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks machine behind it. From the lip synch you could tell it had been made elsewhere and I am a long-time fan of European animation, so was gunning for the high production values. But as soon as our main characters started speaking I felt the ick creeping in. Entitled, backdated attitudes about women, children and authority. Simplistic ideas about property, inheritance and power. I know it's a kid's film and had low expectations for plot and attention span, but this really gave me Eastern bloc vibes from the get go. While the message to respect Mother Nature is admirable, I think every adult watching knows who the real Mother implied in this film is. It's not going to poison the minds of your kids but there's better cr@p out there. I enjoyed the literary villain. We all know publishers are the worst.

My six year old daughter and I loved this movie and thought it was so nice that none of the new Disney nonsense was included! My daughter couldn't sit still because she thought it was so amazing with all the different turns and twists. She couldn't stop talking about Barbara and her adventures. Very cute. Lovely soundtrack.

Did anyone watch this movie? Is this Russian botnight? I was pleasantly surprised with the opening. How it wanted to grasp a steampunk like magic. But everything was clunky. The story, the animation and the acting. Horrible from A to S.