Vampirina caught my eye while I was watching Bluey on Disney+. Optimistically, I figured I give this show a chance and see if it would surprise me like Bluey. Unfortunately, the most surprising aspect of the show is how it took it's unique premise and gave it a really boring execution. From the uninteresting characters to the forgettable songs, Vampirina fails to be even remotely engaging.
Developed by Chris Nee from the book Vampirina Ballerina by Ann Marie Pace, the show follows a vampire girl as she and her family move from Transylvania to Pennsylvania and experience life in suburbia. Right from the word go we already have a problem with this show. These vampires left their more interesting and appealing monster home of Transylvania for the generic and eye roll-worthy small town in Pennsylvania? Why? Unfortunately, they never make it clear other than they wanted to open a bed and breakfast here, but even that feels like a flimsy excuse for the showrunners to avoid going overbudget. If this show made the case for why suburbia was more fun than Transylvania, I'd be more forgiving. But oh brother, do they fail at doing that! Each episode focuses on Vampirina trying to fit in and not freak people out with her differences. In addition to having very formulaic plots, each episode has the same problem of hammering home the notion that vampires and humans don't do things the same way. Yeah, no kidding! I grew tired of this repeated motif very quickly and I just wanted them to move on from that. The show also has musical numbers and not one of them is memorable. They all feel arbitrary and don't fit with the flow of the episode. Not to mention their lyrics just repeat what the characters already established seconds earlier so they just feel like filler. The pacing is also really sluggish with the 11 minute runtime feeling like 11 hours. The worst part about the show's writting though is that it makes me long for the vampires to just go back to Transylvania. The town they live in is small, boring and not unlike your typical one horse town. On top of that, humans constantly shown to be afraid of monsters here and learning to accepting them just isn't likely to happen. They really should've never left Transylvania if suburbia was this generic.
The characters themselves are nothing to write home about...and that's exactly what's wrong with them. Starting with our title character, Vampirina is they typical fish out of water character who's naive to human ways and has trouble fitting in. She should be a relatable and fun character, but her constant lying and embarrassing herself don't make her very likable. What prevents her from being hatable, though, is she's at least caring. Her parents, Boris and Oxana, are the typical parents who never get mad at Vampirina whenever she doesn't something wrong, yet are there for here when she needs them. And no, it's not good parenting to never be mad with your child. If Vampirina grows up spoiled and rebellious, Boris and Oxana only have themselves to blame. Demi is an anxious ghost, Gargoria is a cynical gargoyle, and Wolfie is just a dog who turns into a werewolf, but maintains the behavior of a dog.
Then their are the humans, which never do anying to be interesting other than be runon jokes. Vampirina's neighbors, the Peeplesons*, are the average human household of this town. And by that, I mean they're so uninteresting, I would've even want to talk to them. Poppy is the dull girl who befriends Vampirina, Edgar is the nosey kid who's tries to discover Vampirina's secrets (as if it wasn't obvious by her blue skin) and Edna is the house Mom. The other humans aren't much better with Bridget being an anxious girl and Mr. Gore who's just a basic teacher.
The voice acting is actually not too shabby and Kristi Reed and Maria Estrada did a pretty good job as dialogue directors. Isabella Croventti does a solid job as Vampirina, making her sound chipper and lively. Jordan Alexis Davis was alright as Poppy, giving her strong chemistry with Vampirina. Lauren Graham and James Van Der Beek put on some really convincing Eastern European accents to play Oxana and Boris. Mitchell Whitefield was pretty good as Demi, making him sound fun and anxious. ViviAnn Yee did a solid job voicing Bridget as did Benji Risley as Edgar. The veteran voice actors though were the real standouts thought. Wanda Sykes brought on her sassy voice to Gargoria, Cree Summer made Edna sound very mothery, and Dee Bradley Baker does excellent work voicing Wolfie and Mr. Gore. The other actors aren't bad, but the material they're given leaves a lot to be desired.
Visually, the animation is alright, but not too great in my opinion. Irish animation studio, Brown Bag Films (also responsible for Doc McStuffins, The Octonauts, and Peter Rabbit on Nick Jr.) provided the animation for this show and they did a pretty good job. The character designs are very appealing and distinct with the kids having round heads and the adults having more square shaped heads. They also have complimentary close, differing body types and unique hair styles. I really like Vampirina's pigtales looking like bat wings and her and her parents having blue skin sets them apart from most vampires who have pale skin. The problem with the character designs though is the lack of mass on them. Like, I know for a fact that Gargoria should feel a lot heavier considering she's made of stone. The backgrounds are well crafted and have nice anesthetics. Vampirina's house is the most visually interesting with it's Gothic atmosphere and Halloween like interior. The rest of suburbia looks like, well, suburbia. It's got it's streets, it's other houses, it's school, it's just a generic looking town. Not much else to say about it.
Vampirina doesn't suck blood in this show, but it does suck interest. Vampirina is a boring cartoon with generic writing, dull characters, sluggish pacing and forgettable songs. Sure the acting and animation is pretty decent, but nothin else about this show is worth recommending it. If you're looking for a better version of Vampirina, watch the Hotel Transylvania movies. Yeah, I know they're not everyone's cup of tea, but I guarantee you you'll find much more interesting things there than you will here -.-
*Side note: Man this is an awful surname! Out of the 45,000 English surname, they're last name just had to be Peepleson?! This makes me feel sorry for these people, and not in a good way. Whoever one of their relatives that came up with it was nothing short of a lazy idiot!
Developed by Chris Nee from the book Vampirina Ballerina by Ann Marie Pace, the show follows a vampire girl as she and her family move from Transylvania to Pennsylvania and experience life in suburbia. Right from the word go we already have a problem with this show. These vampires left their more interesting and appealing monster home of Transylvania for the generic and eye roll-worthy small town in Pennsylvania? Why? Unfortunately, they never make it clear other than they wanted to open a bed and breakfast here, but even that feels like a flimsy excuse for the showrunners to avoid going overbudget. If this show made the case for why suburbia was more fun than Transylvania, I'd be more forgiving. But oh brother, do they fail at doing that! Each episode focuses on Vampirina trying to fit in and not freak people out with her differences. In addition to having very formulaic plots, each episode has the same problem of hammering home the notion that vampires and humans don't do things the same way. Yeah, no kidding! I grew tired of this repeated motif very quickly and I just wanted them to move on from that. The show also has musical numbers and not one of them is memorable. They all feel arbitrary and don't fit with the flow of the episode. Not to mention their lyrics just repeat what the characters already established seconds earlier so they just feel like filler. The pacing is also really sluggish with the 11 minute runtime feeling like 11 hours. The worst part about the show's writting though is that it makes me long for the vampires to just go back to Transylvania. The town they live in is small, boring and not unlike your typical one horse town. On top of that, humans constantly shown to be afraid of monsters here and learning to accepting them just isn't likely to happen. They really should've never left Transylvania if suburbia was this generic.
The characters themselves are nothing to write home about...and that's exactly what's wrong with them. Starting with our title character, Vampirina is they typical fish out of water character who's naive to human ways and has trouble fitting in. She should be a relatable and fun character, but her constant lying and embarrassing herself don't make her very likable. What prevents her from being hatable, though, is she's at least caring. Her parents, Boris and Oxana, are the typical parents who never get mad at Vampirina whenever she doesn't something wrong, yet are there for here when she needs them. And no, it's not good parenting to never be mad with your child. If Vampirina grows up spoiled and rebellious, Boris and Oxana only have themselves to blame. Demi is an anxious ghost, Gargoria is a cynical gargoyle, and Wolfie is just a dog who turns into a werewolf, but maintains the behavior of a dog.
Then their are the humans, which never do anying to be interesting other than be runon jokes. Vampirina's neighbors, the Peeplesons*, are the average human household of this town. And by that, I mean they're so uninteresting, I would've even want to talk to them. Poppy is the dull girl who befriends Vampirina, Edgar is the nosey kid who's tries to discover Vampirina's secrets (as if it wasn't obvious by her blue skin) and Edna is the house Mom. The other humans aren't much better with Bridget being an anxious girl and Mr. Gore who's just a basic teacher.
The voice acting is actually not too shabby and Kristi Reed and Maria Estrada did a pretty good job as dialogue directors. Isabella Croventti does a solid job as Vampirina, making her sound chipper and lively. Jordan Alexis Davis was alright as Poppy, giving her strong chemistry with Vampirina. Lauren Graham and James Van Der Beek put on some really convincing Eastern European accents to play Oxana and Boris. Mitchell Whitefield was pretty good as Demi, making him sound fun and anxious. ViviAnn Yee did a solid job voicing Bridget as did Benji Risley as Edgar. The veteran voice actors though were the real standouts thought. Wanda Sykes brought on her sassy voice to Gargoria, Cree Summer made Edna sound very mothery, and Dee Bradley Baker does excellent work voicing Wolfie and Mr. Gore. The other actors aren't bad, but the material they're given leaves a lot to be desired.
Visually, the animation is alright, but not too great in my opinion. Irish animation studio, Brown Bag Films (also responsible for Doc McStuffins, The Octonauts, and Peter Rabbit on Nick Jr.) provided the animation for this show and they did a pretty good job. The character designs are very appealing and distinct with the kids having round heads and the adults having more square shaped heads. They also have complimentary close, differing body types and unique hair styles. I really like Vampirina's pigtales looking like bat wings and her and her parents having blue skin sets them apart from most vampires who have pale skin. The problem with the character designs though is the lack of mass on them. Like, I know for a fact that Gargoria should feel a lot heavier considering she's made of stone. The backgrounds are well crafted and have nice anesthetics. Vampirina's house is the most visually interesting with it's Gothic atmosphere and Halloween like interior. The rest of suburbia looks like, well, suburbia. It's got it's streets, it's other houses, it's school, it's just a generic looking town. Not much else to say about it.
Vampirina doesn't suck blood in this show, but it does suck interest. Vampirina is a boring cartoon with generic writing, dull characters, sluggish pacing and forgettable songs. Sure the acting and animation is pretty decent, but nothin else about this show is worth recommending it. If you're looking for a better version of Vampirina, watch the Hotel Transylvania movies. Yeah, I know they're not everyone's cup of tea, but I guarantee you you'll find much more interesting things there than you will here -.-
*Side note: Man this is an awful surname! Out of the 45,000 English surname, they're last name just had to be Peepleson?! This makes me feel sorry for these people, and not in a good way. Whoever one of their relatives that came up with it was nothing short of a lazy idiot!