| Genre: | |
| Runtime: | 24 minutes (two 12 minute segments per episode) |
| Developer: |
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| Director: | Louis Piché |
| Starring: | Emma Taylor-Isherwood Justin Bradley (S1-3) Carrie Finlay Tia Caroleo Marcel Jeannin Carole Jeghers Evan Smirnow (S4) |
| Executive Producer: |
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| Editor: | Natalie Rossin |
| Country: | Canada France Hong Kong (S3) |
| Company: | Alphanim CINAR Corporation Animation Services (S3) Farnham Film Company |
| Network: | YTV (Canada) France 3 (France, S1-2) Canal J (France, S1) Tiji (France, S3-4) |
| Theme Music Composer: | Judy Henderson & Judy Rothman |
| Opentheme: | "Mona the Vampire" (performed by Lulu Hughes) |
| Endtheme: | "Mona the Vampire" (instrumental) |
| Composer: | Mark Giannetti |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 4 |
| Num Episodes: | 65 (130 segments) |
| List Episodes: | List of Mona the Vampire episodes |
Mona the Vampire is an animated children's television series based on the children's book of the same name written and illustrated by Sonia Holleyman (itself adapted to the novel series, itself illustrated by Holleyman and written by Hiawyn Oram). The series aired in Canada on YTV from September 13, 1999, to February 22, 2006; in France, it first aired on France 3 on October 30, 2000.
Mona the Vampire was co-produced by the CINAR Corporation, Alphanim, Animation Services (in Hong Kong; season 3) and YTV in co-production with France 3 (seasons 1 and 2), Canal J (seasons 1) and Tiji (seasons 3 and 4), with the participation of the Independent Production Fund, the Shaw Children's Programming Initiative and Telefilm Canada.
The series follows the adventures of Mona Parker, who refers to herself as "Mona the Vampire", as well as her two best friends, Lily Duncan ("Princess Giant") and Charley Bones ("Zapman"), and her pet cat, Fang, as they imagine themselves confronting a new supernatural foe, or solving a supernatural mystery, in every episode. There are always rational explanations for what they see.
See main article: List of Mona the Vampire episodes.
There are a total of 65 full episodes of Mona the Vampire. Each episode is approximately 22 minutes long, and each full episode contains two 11-minute episodes. Four seasons of Mona the Vampire were produced. The first season contains 26 full episodes, while seasons 2, 3, and 4 each contains 13 full episodes.
Mona the Vampire is based on a children's book of the same name that was published in the United Kingdom by Orchard Books in 1990 and was written and illustrated by Sonia Holleyman. The book was the first in a Mona children's book series. Holleyman's original idea of Mona, as represented in the original Mona books, led more towards a girl with a great imagination who, like many children, likes to experiment with multiple different obsessions.
The concept would be retooled in 1995 with the release of a series of Mona the Vampire novels, this time written by Hiawyn Oram, with Holleyman still illustrating. In these books, Mona is now solely infatuated with her vampire superheroine persona. Four novels would be published from the mid-to-late 1990s, and would serve as the basis for the television series.
The series started development in the mid-1990s. It was originally pitched around to various British networks, but after no success, Ian Lewis, along with his production company, The Farnham Film Company, took the project to Canada, where it was picked up by the CINAR corporation.[3] The series entered development in 1997, and it would soon be greenlit for 26 half-hour episodes in early 1998. Production would officially begin that June; it was the second series to be co-produced by CINAR and Alphanim, following Animal Crackers.[4] [5] [6] [7]
The theme song score was composed by Judy Henderson, who had also helped compose the theme for Arthur, another CINAR production. The lyrics were written by Judy Rothman, though for unknown reasons, she was uncredited. The theme was performed by Quebecoise singer Lulu Hughes. Like Rothman, she was not credited in the actual show, but on the show's official website, she was credited as Loulou Hughes. Her contribution was confirmed by Henderson in 2022.[8]
The series was renewed for a second season containing 13 half-hour episodes in early 2000. Due to the then-ongoing CINAR scandal, Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund had suspended business with the company. This affected funding for the second season, although Peter Moss, then-president of CINAR, stated that the funding was "not a very high percentage of the budget."[9] [10]
A third season, containing an additional 13 half-hour episodes, was greenlit in 2001. After production of the third season wrapped up in spring 2002,[11] production on the series went on a hiatus, before the series was eventually renewed for a fourth season, once again containing 13 half-hour episodes, that fall.[12] Production wrapped up in early 2004.
In a retrospective review from The Arcade, Luka Costello was positive about the show, stating that despite the young demographic, "the show was never too preachy. It had witty dialogue and the simple animation is still admirable. It was definitely the humble origins of my love for the supernatural and that theme song was catchy as hell."[13]
The series was originally premiered in Canada on YTV on September 13, 1999, and later in France on France 3 on October 30, 2000. For Seasons 3 and 4, the series moved to Tiji. In the United Kingdom, the series aired on CBBC, and later on Pop for a brief period.
Despite its success in other territories, the series was never broadcast in the U.S. during its original run, though attempts were made in the early 2000s.[14] In 2009, Cookie Jar launched Jaroo, a streaming service that housed a majority of their animated properties, including the DIC library, which they had acquired the previous year. Mona was available to stream on Jaroo, being advertised as having its U.S premiere on the platform.[15] The streaming service has since been discontinued.
It wouldn't be until 2011 when the series would finally make its U.S. broadcast premiere on This TV, as part of the Cookie Jar Toons children's programming block. The series would premiere on September 26, 2011, and would run until October 27, 2013. The block was discontinued four days later.[16] [17]
Currently, the first season is available to stream for free on Tubi. The entire series in full is also available on iTunes, Vudu, and Google Play.
During and after the show's run, several DVDs containing select episodes of the series were released, especially by Cookie Jar Entertainment. These DVDs sometimes included extra features, such as episode and language selection settings and voiced character descriptions by child voice actors. The complete first season was later released in North America by Mill Creek Entertainment, which featured select episodes from various Cookie Jar shows, including episodes from Busytown Mysteries, Horseland, Wimzie's House, Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings, Happy Castle and The Wombles.
In the UK, VHS and DVD releases were handled by Abbey Home Media and Direct Source Products.[18]
In 2000, Alphanim, Tiji, and CINAR created a bilingual Adobe Flash-based website under the domain name monathevampire.com. This website featured several games and activities that included characters and settings from the series. The domain had been deactivated by 2016, but archived versions of the site still exist. Due to the discontinuation of the Adobe Flash Player at the end of 2020, archived versions of the website may be inaccessible.