Ever After High REVIEW

[Music] ever after high the sister series that aired alongside mattel's more well-known monster high was a fun little web series to help sell their new line of toys now before that premise scares you off let me go into a little bit more detail mattel came out with a new doll line this time around with the gimmick based around fairy tales the concept for ever after high is that the old fairy tale characters we know and love have children of their own and now those kids are attending high school together all with their own unique quirks and i love this concept i love it whenever classic fairy tales get reimagined into something different and ever after high is a pretty unique take on this concept now i'm sure there's a couple of hang ups some of you might have with this premise most notably i'm sure a lot of you might want to brush this aside as just a girl's show well i'll let you know i'm very pleased to say it's not while our main cast is predominantly made of female characters there's still plenty of male characters who play major roles in the story way more than monster high ever actually offered there's daring dexter hunter hopper sparrow and that's just the ones off the top of my head on top of that the female cast isn't written to be a vapid bland stereotype of a teenage girl our girls have depths and strengths and weaknesses and are generally well-developed characters there are a couple of eye-rolling elements here and there ashland's obsession with the shoes being the most prominent example i can think of however nowadays it's not even that uncommon to have large female-centered casts and cartoons the owl house steven universe my little pony and she-ra just to name a few now if my review so far seems pretty glowing that's because it is i saw ever after high dolls in my local target and checked out the website on a board whim i did not expect the product to be as engaging and well made as it actually is i'm sure the other biggest hang up with the concept for the show is that it'll probably be lesser quality since it just exists to help sell toys wrong the series of ever after high has some really impressive writing and character development each episode is only about five to six minutes long on average and yet they expand our casts and have them grow and develop in interesting and meaningful ways it blows me away on top of the writing the animation is just stunning the characters look great the world is bright and lively the thing i'm most impressed with is how expressive and well animated their faces are usually cartoons that use this style of modeling and animation don't play around with the squash and stretch of their characters as faces too much yet ever after high goes above and beyond with this i could sit here and continue to sing the show its praises but it'll probably be better if we just dive into the show itself and watch the story unfold so come along with me and let's take a look at season one of ever after high [Music] we start our story with two narrators bickering over how the story should be told as we get introduced to two of our main characters raven the daughter of the evil queen like the one from snow white and maddie the daughter of the mad hatter from alice in wonderland and she is hands down the best character if you don't would you two stop fighting peas and crackers she is super adorable and really sweet and she gets like the best lines and you may vanish into oblivion that's a thing you know and it's gotta hurt anyways raven is a little pissed off because everyone's acting weird around her because they assume she's evil just like her mom was it's not fair in ever after high everyone's destined to follow the same story their parents were in that means raven's destiny is to be an evil queen so everyone's scared around her however raven doesn't really enjoy being the most hated person in school just because of what her mom was later she's moping alone at lunch when dexter charming one of the sons of prince charming comes to say hi and fails to hide his obvious crush on her hey raven uh you look gort i mean great i i don't even know what gordon is ever after high is surprisingly funny like i know comedy is super subjective and you might disagree with me but i always get a laugh out of it suddenly the two are interrupted by daring charming dexter's older brother and apple the daughter of snow white and raven's storybook counterpart though it seems like they're all already friends with each other it's pretty odd knowing raven is friends with the girl she's supposed to poison with an apple later on in her life huh i definitely remember these billy goats being pigs what a weird thing to change anyways raven returns to her dorm room surprised to see that apple has asked to be raven's roommate to better inspire a raven since she's such an important part of my story raven is less than thrilled with being roommates with a slightly too perky and conceited apple but decides to go along with it anyways the next day we see the rehearsals for their legacy day ceremony essentially it's like their graduation where they pledge to follow their storybook's specific destinies here we get to meet some other characters hunter huntsman the son of the huntsman i'm assuming the one from red riding hood but they're never really specific about that and cedar the daughter of pinocchio who is a precious cinnamon roll and must be protected well i mean not the next pinocchio huh i mean actually i can only tell the truth while i'm in school raven steps up but shows some big reservations about her destiny and i really can't blame her the destiny she's stuck with isn't exactly that great however her headmaster grim warns her if she doesn't follow through with her destiny her story might cease to exist still conflicted on the matter raven runs away uncertain of what she should do suddenly the narrators chime in again and reset the story to the beginning again so we can watch the events unfold but this time from apple's perspective quick note the narrators are woefully underrated as characters their duality in the story and who each one thinks is in the right is charming and funny raven queen had other plans that would change the world for the better or the worse this also shows us something about ever after high that's really important the fact that there's two sides to every story the events that take place on legacy day don't just affect raven it'll also affect apple what either character wants or does has rippling side effects that'll change more than just their own lies so often in stories it's painted to be black and white good and bad here with ever after high we're shown that both sides of the story have valid points they might view each other as their own personal antagonists but they're ultimately not an evil person for wanting their destinies to play out differently from each other pretty smart for a kids show to sell toys huh so this time we get to see apple arrive at school with her best friend briar the daughter of sleeping beauty briar might be my least favorite character and it's not that she's poorly written or anything i just find her character quirks bland she's a total party girl because she wants to live her life to the fullest before she has to sleep for a hundred years i get it but it just means a lot of briar's dialogue tends to boil down to let's do this thing because it might be fun i think it's important to point out that some lists i've seen actually say apple's side of the story should be told first and i can see how that could work however raven is more definitively our main protagonist apple's our main character too but raven's struggle is the one we spend the majority of our time on and it makes sense to introduce her first that and apple's side of the story feels a lot more bland to me for the majority of it she doesn't really do much except for chat with blondie the daughter of goldilocks and ashlynn the daughter of cinderella at least raven was struggling with inner conflict when she was hanging out at school later in her dorm room apple is sprucing up raven's side of the room to look more evil to surprise her because she's such an important part of my story i need her so apple's line here does come across as awfully selfish and i won't lie she is but she's not entirely wrong either apple has had her whole destiny planned out and sounds great she gets a great husband she lives happily ever after but the only thing she needs is for raven to poison her with an apple first apple's been handed everything she wants on a silver platter but her biggest mistake is her line that she keeps repeating my story apple doesn't seem to realize it's not just her story raven has to live with it too and raven's getting the short end of the stick it's important to realize that while apple's insistence on raven trying to be the evil person she's supposed to be isn't just her being a brat she's trying to be nice to raven here and just give her what she thinks she wants apple's just not bothering to see things from raven's point of view once again we see the rehearsals for legacy day ceremony and once raven voices her reservations about carrying out her side of the story apple finally starts to realize that happily ever after she was promised might not come true finally caught up on both sides of the conflict we get to continue the story to the day of the actual legacy day ceremony raven is still conflicted on what she's supposed to do i don't feel like i can sign the storybook of legends but i don't want to let everyone down either this right here is the biggest difference between apple's perspective and raven's perspective and really the difference between the royals and rebels is whole side of this argument raven is being asked to put her own life aside to make apples happy and she doesn't want to hurt apple after all she is still her friend but she doesn't want to give up her entire happiness either apple just isn't understanding what all raven will have to give up in order for apple to get her happy ending on top of all that raven's still scared she might disappear if she doesn't sign the book like how had master groom warned her to help her out maddie takes raven down to the other grim brother giles who lives under the school get it it's the brother's grandmothers and friends together hello he's speaking giles assures raven that she won't disappear since there seems to be something wrong with the book more relieved than worried by this fact we finally get to the true legacy day ceremony apple pledges her destiny seeing everything she has ahead of her as the next snow white and finally it's raven's turn raven sees what her future has in store for her and it's pretty bleak getting outcast arrested winding up hopeless and finally in chains raven finally decides enough is enough my happily ever after starts now between the rebels rejoicing and the royals getting upset raven freezes them all so she can have a one-on-one with apple about their destinies i'm not the only one who gets to choose their own destiny now we all do but i don't want to choose a new destiny i liked what i had i think it's important to realize that while i think raven made the right decision her actions isn't without consequences apple's whole life is turned upside down now there's no right or wrong in the scenario and that's pretty mature for a concept for a kid's show to tackle neither side can fully get what they want someone has to compromise one way or another i'm glad mattel didn't go the easy way out and just make apple an unredeemable brat there's no villain to this story both girls have merit to what they want it just so happens that what each of them want goes against what the other one wants we finish off legacy day with raven eager to start writing her own destiny yet we see the headmaster looking awfully ominous in front of a rainy window wait when did it start raining that's the end of what i generally consider to be episode 1 though i've seen it split into three separate parts the rest of the season tackles how the students of ever after high move forward with this new concept of splitting off from what their original story had in store for them the kids who want their destinies to stay the same are called royals and the students who want to change their destinies are called rebels the season is only 11 episodes long and each episode after legacy day is its own episodic one-off story the episodes feature a variety of different characters and sometimes we don't even see apple or raven throughout the whole episode i like this it helps round out our ensemble cast and give the other characters some better depth no one episode is nearly as deep or thought-provoking as legacy day was usually it's more around a certain gag oh cedar was gonna tell her story but no one can understand her because she had peanuts in her mouth but i still enjoy the slightly silly antics our characters find themselves in there are some highlights from the season i want to give extra attention to however briar's study party which proves to me that briar might have a slight case of narcolepsy here comes cupid cupid originally a character from monster high transfers to ever after high and meets hopper the son of the frog prince when hopper is a frog he's super debonair and poetic however once it becomes human hey there you're cupid i think they should call you cute pig and then when hopper gets nervous or tongue-tied he turns back into a frog now i mentioned how much i love maddie and how adorable cedar is but hopper is definitely my favorite character i think it's like a law of nature i have to love every single character voiced by cam clark catching raven is a fun little episode about dexter being a train wreck over his crush on raven it also just hammers home how dexter is definitely the funniest character hey briar i said something like you want to go out with me would you oh man and the cat who cried wolf shows us cerises parents red riding hood and the big bad wolf already went against their destinies and got married so cerise has wolf ears that she has to hide with her hood to keep her family secret unfortunately kitty the daughter of the cheshire cat finds out and starts tormenting cerise over it get it cause it's a cat and a dog so there's not much else to say about ever after high except i really love it i love the concept from the very beginning and the impressive display of character depth and writing won me over instantly i actually highly recommend this to everyone whether you're a kid or not i'm sure you can enjoy the series though your mileage may vary depending on whether or not the jokes actually land for you the animation's super impressive and the soundtrack is like really really good the theme song is great i won't play it for you because you know copyright but go ahead and look it up for yourself it's on youtube but even the score is good like listen to this moreover the message this show is trying to tell is something i think everyone needs to hear growing up that you shouldn't let anyone else tell you what your life can be yeah we always hear people say you can be anything you want when you grow up but there's still those who would try to shut you down for one reason or another telling someone they can't be something because of their gender age height weight race or any number of different things it shouldn't matter what others say it's your life do what makes you happy not just for your future career but how you are today right now it's your life make it the one you want to live ever after high inspires me in a lot of different ways but it's that message raven says that really sticks with me my happily ever after starts now now i've only covered the first season of ever after high there's actually a ton more to the show three more seasons a ton of new characters a handful of feature length specials it's a lot to cover well i guess we'll have to see how the story continues next time thank you all so much for watching this video i hope you enjoyed it shout out to my 10 patrons you're all amazing james dodds chamomile valhalla knight michael naco cool duck ramiel andrew in the comments i'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions do you like every after high which one did you see first ever after high or monster high and which one do you prefer i personally like ever after high a little more but monster high is still fun maybe one day i'll get to it uh yeah if you want to see me continue to review ever after high and seasons and its specials and stuff let me know in the comments who's your favorite character from ever after high any more thoughts and opinions leave them in the comments below and i'll see you in the next one bye

Channel: The Judgmental Critter

Views: 107,720

Keywords: ever after high, eah, ever, after, high, review, funny, maddie hatter, raven queen, mattel, monster high, apple white, royals, rebels, briar, charming, red riding hood, cerise, sinoalice, rwby, judgmental critter, judgemenal, critter

Id: N6fUZ3LOGTU

Length: 16min 1sec (961 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 18 2020