Online gaming headliners Katsuma and Poppet star in their first big-screen adventure. Their searing DayGlo odyssey around Monstro City – and beyond! – begins when documentarian (and, according to the opening credits, Extra Special Guest Star) Roary Scrawl arrives in town, buzzing camera-hybrid critter in tow. Boastful Katsuma imagines he’ll be the focus of Scrawl’s film.
Unhappily, his ambitions are quickly eclipsed by grander concerns. Somewhere out there, the diabolical Dr Strangeglove and his glam-rocking accomplice Sweet Tooth are plotting to capture smaller, cute monsters and turn them into a less-cute, marauding CLONC Army.
Can Katsuma and Poppet, aided and abettedby Moshi regulars Zommer and Diavlo, save Monstro City from certain doom? Does an ancient Moshi egg, lately discovered by a top Moshlingologist, hold the key to Moshi salvation? Will the final credits ever roll?
British company Mind Candy unleashed Moshi Monsters (think Tamagotchi rewired for the interactive and online) in 2007. The virtual monster home aimed at 8- to 14-year-olds quickly attained pop phenomenon status, with 80 million registered users and an expansive cast of creatures, stretching from the pointedly icky, zombified, boy-friendly Zommer to the candy-coloured, problem-solving, girl-friendly Poppet.
It was only a matter of time before some clever clogs decided to pimp these pixellated pets in a picture house setting. But six years is a long time in show business and a geological age for internet celebrity. Are the Moshi monsters still – for want of a better word – street enough to pull a crowd?
Possibly not. Devotees should be pleased to note that the film-makers, in keeping with digital precedent, have opted for simple lines, many shades of pink and a resolutely 2D presentation. (A cheap-as-chips 3D version would have been too ghastly for words).But even die-hards may struggle to get through the bungled musical numbers and non-sequiturs.
The tone and content are aimed squarely at the youngest end of the Moshi spectrum: there’s little or nothing here for the tween army who use the stationary and schoolbags. Indeed, older viewers should expect ocular fatigue and the stench of defeat.
Can Moshi Monsters’ 80 million website users possibly be wrong? Erm.
