Monster Mia Review: A Kooky Kid Finds Her Beastly Besties

By Elena Vasquez

Monster Mia sends a monster-obsessed girl to Rotwood Academy, a school for monsters, in a pre-teen animation released for the Halloween season. The Guardian's review describes the film as "entertaining" and "wholesome Halloween fun" for younger viewers.

What is the story?

The film centres on twin sisters with opposite personalities. One twin is a popular straight-A student devoted to fitting in and excelling at ballet. Her sister Mia is, in the reviewer's words, "a chaotic kook" who exasperates her teachers with her determination to discover monsters, "by hook or by crook".

The family lives in Primrose, a town that claims to have been proudly monster-free for the last 500 years. That single number — 500 years without a monster sighting — frames the whole premise: Mia hunts for creatures everyone else believes extinct.

The parents support their golden child while struggling to understand Mia. As the review notes, it is easier for them to praise the child bringing home perfect behaviour reports than the one driving her teachers to despair.

Where does Mia end up?

Mia accidentally enrols at Rotwood Academy, a school for top scarers. The monsters there would be shocked to find a human in their midst. From their point of view, humans are brutal, cold-blooded creatures, best avoided — beings who prefer, in the review's phrase, "ugh! – cupcakes to grave-worms".

That inversion drives the comedy. The reviewer compares the results to "Addams Family Lite hijinks", with culture-clash humour mining the gap between monster norms and human ways.

Mia quickly befriends a group of misfits, including a vegan vampire — the review's standout detail in a supporting cast of outsiders. The scrappy heroine finds her tribe at the school, and the film builds its wholesome message around that discovery.

How does the film handle its premise?

The review identifies a familiar twin trope: films usually write twins as either identical personalities or complete opposites. Monster Mia chooses the second path, and the contrast between the conformist sister and the monster-hunting Mia supplies the emotional engine.

The humour stays gentle and pre-teen friendly. The review situates the film as seasonal family viewing rather than a spook-fest — wholesome Halloween fare rather than genuine horror, with the vegan vampire standing in for the mildest possible version of the genre's monsters.

What is the takeaway?

The Guardian's verdict positions Monster Mia as an entertaining option for younger audiences this Halloween: a scrappy outsider story wrapped in monster-school comedy, with a 500-year monster-free town as its backdrop and a vegan vampire as its scene-stealer. Families seeking non-scary seasonal animation now have one more title on the shelf.