''Mona the Vampire'' is an

animated children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

that is based on a children's book of the same name written and illustrated by Sonia Holleyman, as well as a series of novels illustrated by Holleyman and written by Hiawyn Oram. The series is co-produced by the CINAR Corporation and

Alphanim Gaumont Animation (formerly known as Alphanim) is a French animation studio. It was acquired by Gaumont Film Company in 2008 as a return to television production, and an entry into English-language productions, after Gaumont Television was sold ...

, with Animation Services (in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

) for Season 3, produced in association with YTV in co-production with

France 3 France 3 () is a French free-to-air public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5 and France Info. It is made up of a network of regional television services provi ...

, Canal J (Seasons 1-2) and Tiji (Seasons 3-4), with the participation of the Independent Production Fund, the Shaw Children's Programming Initiative, and

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in ...

. It originally premiered in Canada on YTV on September 13, 1999, and later in France on France 3 on October 30, 2000.

Synopsis

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 Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

foe, or solving a supernatural mystery, in every episode, but there are always rational explanations for what they see.

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.

Cast

Main

* Mona Parker ("Mona the Vampire") (voiced by Emma Taylor-Isherwood) - A ten-year-old girl with a vivid imagination and a naive personality who imagines herself as a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

hero coming out to save the day. She believes the town she lives in is overrun with supernatural monsters, and she plans to stop them all and save the town on a daily basis. Although Mona's

imagination Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one's mind, which can be re-creations ...

can cause trouble at times, her imagination has more often than not proven to be helpful. * Fang - Mona's pet cat, he is a feline sidekick who always follows Mona everywhere. Fang is her accomplice in the nether realms of her imagination. When going with Mona while in her vampire costume, he has fake wings tied to his back. * Charles "Charley" Bones ("Zapman") (voiced by

Justin Bradley Justin Bradley is a Canadian former actor. Early life He started his career at the age of six, modelling on various department store advertisements. Bradley also appeared in commercials for McDonald's, Danone and Canadian Tire as a child. C ...

in Seasons 1-3; Evan Smirnow in Season 4) - One of Mona's best friends, he is an intelligent but also timid bespectacled boy in real life. His alter ego is Zapman, who wears a green costume and is armed with a Zapp-A-Rama gun, which really is a water pistol, though he can be seen holding another kind of toy gun. Charley's nemesis is the local school bully George. * Lily Duncan ("Princess Giant") (voiced by Carrie Finlay) - One of Mona's best friends. She has a timid and slightly paranoid personality at times, but she is still helpful to the team. Her alter ego is Princess Giant, who wears a long blond wig topped with a crown and holds a kind of cat plushie. * Mr. and Mrs. Parker (voiced by Marcel Jeannin and Carole Jeghers) - Mona's parents. Mrs. Parker is shown to be the stricter of the two, while Mr. Parker is more light-hearted and somewhat clumsy, as he is more likely to believe what Mona thinks in her imagination. * Angela Smith (voiced by Tia Caroleo) - Mona's snobbish rival, she is a filthy rich girl who frequently flaunts her wealth to her classmates. She also regularly enlists George in her schemes to cause problems for Mona. Her parents won the lottery, explaining her sheer wealth and her resulting spoiledness.

Recurring

* Madeleine Gotto (voiced by Jennifer Seguin) - Mona's teacher. She is very stern, yet also has a habit of falling in love easily. She is often exasperated by Mona's strange ideas and arguments for supernatural occurrences which are ordinary events. * Principal Ivan Shawbly (voiced by Rick Miller in Seasons 1-3; Stephen Spreekmeester in Season 4) - The strict principal of Mona's school, St. Faith's Elementary. He easily grows tired of Mona's behavior and is quick to discipline her. * Lawrence (voiced by

Michael Yarmush Michael Lawrence Yarmush (born June 19, 1982) is an American actor. He is known for providing the original voice of Arthur Read in the PBS children's animated television series '' Arthur''. Early life Yarmush was born in Miami, Florida, the so ...

) - Friend of Mona and the gang, and student at St. Faith's Elementary. * Officer Halcroft (voiced by Gary Jewell in Seasons 1-4; Richard Dumont in Season 4) - The chief of local police. He's become used to Mona's antics, and is quick to offer a more rational explanation to Mona's stories which, ironically, Mona finds rather outlandish and unbelievable. * George Jamell (voiced by Oliver Grainger in Seasons 1-3; James Harbour in Season 4) - A school bully, he is a mean boy who picks on other kids at school, especially Charley. He is friends with Angela, and often does the job for her schemes, essentially serving as her right hand man. * Mayor Rosenbaum (voiced by John Stocker) - The town's mayor. * Mrs. Bryerson (voiced by Sonja Ball) - Mona's elderly neighbor. She has a poodle named Blitzy. * Reverend Gregory (voiced by

Louis Negin Louis Negin (20 October 1929 – 2 December 2022) was a British-born Canadian actor, best known for his roles in the films of Guy Maddin."Enchantment". ''In Toronto'', September 2011. Career Born in London, England, and raised in Toronto, Ontari ...

) - The local

reverend The Reverend is an honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. ''The Reverend'' is correctly ...

Production

Book basis

Mona the Vampire is based on a children's book of the same name that was published in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

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 obsessed with her vampire superhero persona. Four novels would be published from the mid-to-late 1990s, and would serve as the basis for the television series.

Television adaptation

The series began 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. The series entered development in 1997, and it would soon be greenlit for 26 half-hour episodes in early 1998. Production would officially begin in June 1998. Before Mona the Vampire, CINAR and Alphanim, two of the series' main production companies, had partnered in several other television series, including

Are You Afraid of the Dark? ''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' is a horror anthology television series. The original series aired on Nickelodeon from 1992 to 1996; the pilot episode aired respectively on YTV and Nickelodeon in 1990 and 1991. It led to two revival series, wi ...

Lassie Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog and is featured in a short story by Eric Knight that was later expanded to a full-length novel called '' Lassie Come-Home''. Knight's portrayal of Lassie bears some features in common with another ...

, and

Animal Crackers An animal cracker is a particular type of cracker, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at a zoo or a circus, such as a lion, a tiger, a bear, or an elephant. The most common variety is light-colored and slightly sweet, bu ...

. In a press release in PR Newswire from June 9, 1998, the leaders of both of these companies predicted that Mona the Vampire would be a great success, and hoped to further the relationship between the two companies with this production. The theme song score was composed by Judy Henderson, who had also helped compose the theme for

Arthur Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more wi ...

, another CINAR production. The lyrics were written by Judy Rothman, though for unknown reasons, she was not credited. The theme was performed by

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

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. The series was renewed for a 2nd season containing 13 half-hour episodes in early 2000. Due to the events of the

CINAR scandal The CINAR scandal was a major accounting scandal in Canada that came to light in March 2000 at CINAR, renamed to Cookie Jar Group, one of the world's most successful children's television production companies at the time. It was exposed when investi ...

and the

Canadian Television Fund The Canadian Television Fund (CTF, french: Fonds canadien de télévision - FCT) supported the production and broadcast of Canadian television programs. A non-profit corporation operating as a public-private partnership, the CTF was financed by c ...

had suspended business with CINAR. This would affect funding for the 2nd season, although Peter Moss, then the President of CINAR, stated that the funding was "not a very high percentage of the budget." A 3rd season, containing an additional 13 half-hour episodes, was greenlit in 2001. After production of the 3rd season wrapped up in spring 2002, production on the series went on a hiatus, before the series was eventually renewed for a 4th season, once again containing 13 half-hour episodes, in fall 2002. Production wrapped up in early 2004.

Reception

Critical response

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."

Broadcast and streaming

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 CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...

, and later on

Pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ( ...

for a brief period. Despite its success in other territories, the series was not broadcast in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

during its original run, though attempts were made in the early 2000s. 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. The streaming service has since been discontinued. It would not be until 2011 when the series would finally make its U.S. broadcast premiere on

This TV This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally f ...

, 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. Currently, the first season is available to stream for free on

Tubi Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...

. The entire series in full is also available on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

Vudu Vudu is an American digital video store and streaming service owned by Fandango Media, a joint-venture between NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. The company offers transactional video on demand rentals and digital purchases of fi ...

, and

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Other media

Home media releases

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 A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person young ...

voice actor Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talen ...

s. 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 Horseland was an online community and browser game where members took care of, bred, trained and showed horses and dogs. Begun in 1994 in the United States, Horseland had grown to have more than 8 million users who played from all over the worl ...

'', '' Wimzie's House'', '' Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings'', ''Happy Castle'' and '' The Wombles''.

Website

In 2000,

, Tiji, and CINAR created a

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all ...

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Flash ...

-based

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...

under the

domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

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 Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is computer software for viewing multimedia contents, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on ...

at the end of 2020, archived versions of the website may be inaccessible.

References

External links