| Genre: | Comedy horror Adventure |
| Composer: | Drew Neumann |
| Runtime: | 22–24 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Network: | Nickelodeon |
| First Aired: | [1] |
| Last Aired: | [2] |
| Num Seasons: | 4 |
| Num Episodes: | 52 (102 segments) |
| List Episodes: | List of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters episodes |
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is an American animated television series developed by Klasky Csupo for Nickelodeon,[3] and the fifth Nicktoon after Doug, Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, and Rocko's Modern Life. The show focuses on three young monsters—Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm—who attend a school for monsters under a city dump and learn to frighten humans. Many of the episodes revolve around their zany hijinks after making it to the surface in order to perform "scares" as class assignments.[4]
The series premiered on October 29, 1994, on Nickelodeon.
The episodes follow the adventures of Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm, three young monster friends attending a monster school whose headmaster is The Gromble.
The show is set in New York City, demonstrated throughout the series by the presences of the Empire State Building and the IND Subway System, and in the episode "Monster Make-Over" when Ickis refers to himself as "the ugliest, slimiest, razor fanged, sharp clawed, monster menace this side of Newark!" The dump the monsters inhabit is implied to be Fresh Kills Landfill, but never explicitly named in the series. The monster community includes a working economic system using toenails as currency.
See main article: List of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters episodes.
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters was created by Gábor Csupó and Peter Gaffney,[6] and was the third animated series produced by Csupó's company Klasky Csupo, which also created the animated shows Rugrats and Duckman on USA Network.[7] [8] Before the final title was chosen, which took over five years, the series had the working titles Monsters and Real Monsters.[9] [10] [11] The show was conceived after Csupó and his wife and creative partner Arlene Klasky were approached by the network Nickelodeon to create a follow-up series to Rugrats. Csupó was inspired to write a show about monsters because his own young children loved them.[12] He also said he knew Nickelodeon would not want a series about human characters because everybody else was pitching shows about animals. Csupó drew some sketches of possible monsters on a piece of paper and successfully pitched the idea to the network: "I wanted them silly and not too skillful – and the idea worked."[13]
Nickelodeon programming director Herb Scannell said the character design in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters was partially inspired by Yellow Submarine, a 1968 animated film that was, in turn, inspired by The Beatles.[14] [15] The character Gromble, in particular, bears a close resemblance to the Blue Meanie characters from that film.[16] Director of the series Igor Kovalyov said the style was inspired by his earlier Soviet film Investigation Held by Kolobki which he and Gábor Csupó showed to the producers who then gave Kovalyov's team a lot of creative freedom with the art direction and storyboarding.[17] Csupó said some elements of the show have a look similar to the film noir genre, and called the city dump where the monster characters reside reminiscent of the visual style from the films Blade Runner (1982) and Brazil (1985). The characters guest-starred in the 1999 Rugrats episode "Ghost Story". Before that, David Eccles, the voice of Krumm, provided the monster voice coming from under Chuckie's bed.
Reviews for Aaahh!!! Real Monsters were very positive. Josef Adalian of The Washington Times praised the show's animation and sense of humor, although it was not as "hip and witty" as The Ren & Stimpy Show or The Simpsons. Although he felt the show would appeal to children over nine as well as adults, he said it may not appeal to those who "react negatively to semi-scary sights and gags about body odor, physical punishment or abusive older siblings".[18] USA Today writer Matt Roush called it "garish and blissfully silly" and praised the show's "outrageous characters have just enough Ren & Stimpy grodiness, but tempered with exceptional sweetness". Ginny Holbert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it a "cute and clever" series with "wit and inventive creatures", and compared the animation to the work of artist Peter Max.[19] Gannett News Service writer Mike Hughes called it a "terrific cartoon series",[20] and said the show's "wildly perverse humor" had a "distinctly European style" that reflected Gábor Csupó's Hungarian background.[21]
The Plain Dealer writer Tom Feran called the show "good fun" and favorably compared the series' premise to that of the animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas. Boston Herald writer Frances Katz wrote, "If there was ever a great title for a cartoon, it has to be Nickelodeon's Aaahh!!! Real Monsters."[22] Not all reviews were positive. The November 1994 issue of Parenting magazine listed Aaahh!!! Real Monsters as #1 in its top ten list of the worst new shows of the television season, describing it as "Graphic and scatological; it's just plain gross."[23] Some media outlets pointed out similarities between Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and The Brothers Grunt, an MTV animated television series created by Danny Antonucci about a group of grotesque humanoid characters. Gábor Csupó rejected these comparisons and claims his show was more story- and character-driven with a different visual style, while Antonucci's show was idea-driven. Csupó did not want Aaahh!!! Real Monsters to be lumped together with The Brothers Grunt, especially since that show received low ratings and negative reviews, lasting for 8 months, and that Danny Antonucci called it "MTV's dirty little secret".
The pilot episode of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters won first prize for film animation producer for television at both the Houston Film Festival and Ottawa Film Festival. The series was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation in 1995 alongside Rugrats, Animaniacs, Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? and 2 Stupid Dogs.[24] The award ultimately went to Rugrats.[25]
Mattel produced a series of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters action figures in 1995. They each stand approximately 4 inches (10 cm) tall and include an action feature. Other products based on the cartoon include Fleer trading cards, books, plush toys, pens, hats, backpacks, notepads, cups, gum, and videos. At one point, General Mills also included small promotional flip books of Ickis, Krumm, Oblina, and The Gromble in its Cinnamon Toast Crunch breakfast cereal.[26]
In 1995, selected episodes of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters were released on VHS by Sony Wonder. Paramount Home Video re-released the tapes in 1997. The complete first and second seasons were released for PlayStation Network for viewing on the PlayStation 3 and PSP (PlayStation Portable) systems.
Nickelodeon and Amazon.com teamed up to release Aaahh!!! Real Monsters and other Nickelodeon shows on manufactured-on-demand DVD-R discs available exclusively through Amazon.com's CreateSpace arm.
| CreateSpace releases | Release date | Discs | Episodes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | August 10, 2010 | 3 | 13 | |
| Season 2 | December 1, 2010 | 3 | 13 | |
| Season 3 | December 1, 2010 | 3 | 13 | |
| Season 4 | December 1, 2010 | 3 | 13 |
On March 22, 2011, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the home video rights to the series from Nickelodeon.[27] They have subsequently released the first three seasons on DVD. The fourth and final season was released on June 10, 2014, as a Shout! Select title.
On October 8, 2013, Shout! Factory released the complete series set in Region 1.
| Shout Factory releases | Release date | Discs | Episodes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | October 5, 2011 | 2 | 13 | |
| Season 2 | May 15, 2012 | 2 | 13 | |
| Season 3 | September 11, 2012 | 2 | 13 | |
| Season 4 | June 10, 2014[28] | 2 | 13 | |
| The Complete Series | October 8, 2013 | 8 | 52 |
In the United Kingdom, four volumes are available as exclusive releases in Poundland stores. Volume 1 contains the first nine episodes (five half-hours) from season 1. Volume 2 contains the first eight episodes (four half-hours) from season 2, while the remaining two volumes make up the first 16 episodes from season 3.
See main article: Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (video game). A video game based on the TV series was released for the Super NES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The game was developed by Realtime Associates and published by Viacom New Media in 1995. Ickis also appears in Nicktoons Racing for the PlayStation, PC, and Game Boy Advance yet is missing from the Game Boy Color version. Oblina has a cameo in all versions of Nicktoons Racing except the Game Boy Color version.
The characters are also created in full 3D for Microsoft's Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker.
Krumm appears as a Master Model in the Wii, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance versions of while The Gromble is a Master Model in the Nintendo DS version.
Oblina and Krumm make a cameo appearance in the video game Nicktoons MLB.
Oblina is a playable character in the 2021 fighting video game Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and the 2022 kart racing game , voiced by Alex Cazares.