Tag Archives: Coraline

Reel Girl’s Halloween List of Monster Movies For Kids Starring Females

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My 8 year old daughter is home sick today, and we were looking for a Halloween movie to watch starring a girl. This depressing task reminded me that once again it’s time to post the annual Reel Girl’s Halloween List of Monster Movies Starring Females. I started creating this list in my head when in 2012 no less than 3 Halloween movies came out– “Hotel Transylvania,” “ParaNorman,” and “Frankenweenie”— each with males front and center.

This afternoon, my daughter and I opted for “Hocus Pocus” which was on Reel Girl’s list, but I hadn’t seen it yet. The good news is “Hocus Pocus” has more females than males. The witches are played by Kathy Najimy, Bette Midler, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Penny Marshall is in the movie too, which was a nice surprise for me. Vinessa Shaw plays a smart, brave girl and Thora Birch is the 8 year old little sister who gets into trouble. (My daughter really liked seeing a movie with a kid the same age as she is.)

The not-so-good is that the 3 witches are obsessed with being young and beautiful. I am so over this cliche. Recently, I saw it in “Tangled” and “Snow White and the Huntsman,” both stories obviously recycled fairy tales with this tired theme (not to mention any women’s magazine you open, full of ads for potions, spells of eternal youth.) What these women are after is not beauty but power, which is what beauty has represented and signified for women in narratives for thousands of years. I wish writers today could be a little more creative in depicting stories where women are seeking power without relying on the dull and done youth and beauty cliche.

Another thing that annoyed me about “Hocus Pocus” is that in order for a spell to work, a candle had to be lit by a virgin. While I appreciated that the virgin was a boy, the word came up again and again with my daughter wanting to know its meaning. I told her it’s another word for child, but I was irritated the movie put me in that position for no important reason as far as the plot is concerned.

Finally, while there are many girls and women in this movie, the protagonist is a boy. He’s just moved to Salem from LA, and he doesn’t believe in witches. Vinessa Shaw plays his girlfriend and Thora Birch plays his little sister. It is this guy that goes through the transition of coming to believe. Still, he is a Minority Feisty of sorts, and I can’t actually recall another movie where I have seen a gender flip where the male plays this role.

Reel Girl’s list of Monster Movies Starring Females is short. It is almost the same as last year’s list, except I’ve added the wonderful “Maleficent.” My list is so pathetically short that I have included movies just recommended to me, that I have not seen myself. Those are “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “Series of Unfortunate Events” (which I may watch today with my daughter….) We complain, rightly so, about how sexist Halloween costumes are for girl. It would sure help things out if there were more scary stories starring cool or evil powerful females. Of course, we’d still have the problem of Hermione morphing into the sexy school girl. But I digress. As I asked you in 2013, if you have any monster movies for little kids starring females, to add to my list. please let me know. Here’s the list of 10 movies. Please try to watch girl-centered films with your daughters and sons.

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Michonne of ‘Walking Dead’ joins our female action figure collection!

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I made a few attempts to watch ‘Walking Dead’ with my husband but I couldn’t take the violence. (I had the same reaction to ‘Game of Thrones’ along with the rape scenes. ‘Mad Men,’ I had to give up as well,  because while I understand the show is about sexism, not sexist, I couldn’t handle Don Draper’s serial cheating. All those shows, I liked– the acting and the storylines– they’re just not for me at this time in my life.) But my husband held strong with ‘Walking Dead’ and became a true fan. He loves that show. So today, while picking up a prescription at Walgreens when I spotted Michonne grimacing at me from the toy aisle, I couldn’t resist buying her as a present.

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You probably know how rare it is to find a female action figure, not to mention a non-white female action figure, without her breasts popping out of her shirt, wearing pants even, just sitting there on a shelf in a store and not hiding out on some obscure internet site. Let’s just say she’s far rarer than the unicorn in fantasy figure world.

Here are some figures I’ve found for my kids to play with. This is my youngest daughter with Catwoman, Serafina Pekkala, Buffy, and Coraline. Coraline is my absolute favorite. I love her blue hair and droll expression. My kids are all fans of the book and movie, though I know some kids get scared of the movie.

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Here are Batgirl, Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman in her invisible plane, another Catwoman on a motorcycle, and team of soccer players.

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Here’s Katniss, Merida, Rue, and Coraline again.

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Though, in theory, I’d rather my kids play with Michonne than Barbie, I wasn’t sure if I planned on letting them near her, when she comes with exotic weapons and also a couple severed heads. But when my daughter heard my husband’s joyful cry after he saw the package, I thought all was lost.

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My concern turned out to be unfounded. Not only did he tell her he’s not sharing, but he’s not even taking her out of the package. He’s worse than the evil dad in “The Lego Movie,” pre-epiphany.

(If you’re looking for any of these toys, I found quite a few on the website Toward the Stars.)

Any monster movies that star females?

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After I posted about the dismal representation of females in a trio of new Halloween movies, I got this comment from MonsterLibrarian.com:

Margot,

What do you recommend as far as monster movies intended for kids, then? As the editor for MonsterLibrarian.com and the mother of a monster-loving boy with a sister willing to go along for the ride I’d be interested in what you DO think are good choices. We held Monster Movie Month in July, which, while mostly at choices for adults, was inspired by my son’s love of the classic movies, and the three of us picked some movie choices parents could share with their kids, but I’d love to know what you think. Halloween is our busiest month of the year and our children’s section is one of the most popular parts of our site and that’s something I would love to share there.

I do think there are a lot of interesting influences on girls that come from both media and unwitting family members. My daughter, after watching Scooby Doo with my enthusiastic son, said she wanted to be a ballerina zombie for his Halloween birthday party, but on her own she wanted to be a princess, for the third year running.

I told MonsterLibrarian that I do not know of many monster movies starring females, and that I would put the question out to the Reel Girl community. When I think of monster movies, I think of screaming girl victims. I do like Scooby Doo and my three daughters ages 3 – 9 also like it. There are often monsters in Scooby Doo and sometimes those are female. The problem is, obviously, the star of the series is male as is his best friend Shaggy. There are two females to three males in the crew, which is not a bad ratio. Though, super annoying is that Velma is the “smart” one with glasses and Daphne is the “pretty” one who always wants to shop and do her hair.

I loved “Coraline,” the book and the movie. I think that would qualify as a monster movie. The Other Mother is a monster. That movie is my only real suggestion so far. Please write in yours! I will add suggestions to this post.

Suggestions for monster movies starring females:

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Synposis from Melissa Wardy of Pigtail Pals:

It takes place in the early 1900’s, so you have to put women’s place in history at that time into perspective. But we love it. It is about being true to yourself and good to the people you love. It is a love story, but nothing like Disney. The music and art is incredible. It is kind of dark and creepy (Tim Burton,hello!) but my kids love it.

Story: Victor is set to marry Victoria, but neither feels ready to wed. During rehearsal Victor gets nervous and messes everything up, and gets booted out of the church. He is out in the woods practicing his vows, and unbeknownst to him he is in the presence of a dead woman who rises from the grave and assumes they are married. There are a a bunch of twists and turns as Victor tries to figure out his fate, and the Corpse Bride tries to figure out where fate led her. Victoria has a smaller role. In the end, the Corpse Bride is the shero of the day, and sets everything the way it should be. In the end, the truth inside everyone’s heart is honored.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Monsters and Aliens I just thought of this one. It stars Reese Witherspoon. I saw it pre-Reel Girl and think I had some issues with it, but I also liked it. I’ll watch it again.

Hocus Pocus stars three witches, and a gang of kids who try to stop them. The kids are two girls and a boy.

Kiki’s Delivery Service About a witch, I’ve seen this and agree, its GREAT

My Neighbor Totoro Also seen, monster is male but stars two sisters, also really great

Fun Size tells the story of a teenage girl who gets saddled with the responsibility of taking her younger brother trick-or-treating before attending a Halloween party. She goes to the party and loses her brother, and (presumably) hilarity ensues as she attempts to find him.

Wizard of Oz

Journey to the Center of the Earth not technically a monster movie, has a great female character who pretty much rolls her eyes and walks away when the hero (Brendan Fraser) states his intention to go back into the crazy falling apart underworld to find his teenage nephew. She coincidentally ends up rescuing them both, but only when they’ve actually made it back to where she left him.