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A paradise that's full of freaks!

M-M-M-Monster Beach!
We're just fun-loving creeps!
Monster Beach!
Come hang ten with us freaks
Monster Beach!
We're like totally bleached!
Monster Be-ea-ea-ea-eachhh!!!''
TV Series Theme Song

Monster Beach is a 2014 Australian animated Made-for-TV Movie produced by BES Animation for Cartoon Network's Asia-Pacific feed. The brainchild of Patrick Crawley, as well as Bruce Kane and Maurice Argiro (also known for Kitty Is Not a Cat), it is the second Australian-produced animated original made for Cartoon Network, following 2012's Exchange Student Zero (which was created by the same people and also produced at BES Animation).

The movie follows siblings Jan and Dean, two young surfers spending their summer vacation on isolated Iki-Iki Island in the South Pacific, where their weird Uncle Woody lives. As they discover however, Woody is the only human inhabitant of Iki-Iki Island for a reason — the place is populated by monsters. Fortunately, these gruesome ghouls are actually a very pleasant (if quirky) lot and good friends of Uncle Woody. You see, Woody inherited the island's splendid beach from his late friend, a great king who gave him a magical necklace that doubles as the deed to the beach. However, the king's greedy, self-centered son, the western-educated lawyer and Witch Doctor Dr. Knutt, believed the beach to be rightfully his and cursed it in retaliation, transforming Woody's surfing buddies into monsters who now spend their days enjoying an endless summer beach party (with Woody himself protected from the curse by the king's necklace). While Jan and Dean try to make the most of their strange, new situation, trouble is afoot. Not only is Dr. Knutt (who was also transformed into a monster by the curse) still plotting to take over Monster Beach, but surfing resort tycoon Frances G. Butterfield III (and his beleaguered accountant Hodad) is on the lookout for new beachside hotel turf and believes he could make millions off Iki-Iki Island's monster gimmick. Can Jan and Dean make themselves at home among the lovably creepy inhabitants of Monster Beach and stop both Knutt and Butterfield from taking away this twisted little tropical paradise?

The movie made its debut in 2014 as a Halloween Special. In 2017 however, it was announced that CN Asia-Pacific had greenlit a full-blown animated TV series based on the film. Said production made its debut in 2020, featuring much of the same cast as the TV movie and still under the production of BES Animation. However, the show does make some updates to its visuals, completely changing the artstyle and redesigning Jan and Dean (although everybody else is more or less the same). It's also important to note the series is an Alternate Continuity to the movie, with many of the movie's events and key traits of the characters being altered or contradicted by the TV show, on top of also adopting a much wackier, more heavily gag-focused tone. Said series proceeded to run for 48 eleven-minute episodes.


Monster Beach contains examples of:

    Tropes applying to the movie 
  • Aloof Big Sister: Jan often acts like this to Dean. She tends to maintain a more "cool" persona, being a far better surfer than her brother and tending not to show much excitement for Monster Beach. Wnd while she can be kinda bossy to Dean, she never truly crosses over into Big Sister Bully territory and is shown to care for him.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Dean sometimes acts like this to Jan, at least from her perspective. While Dean is definitely a bundle of energy and does tease his sister sometimes, he's really just a fun-loving kid at the end of the day.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: Poor Hodad gets pushed around constantly by Butterfield.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: The movie has two antagonists, those being Butterfield and Dr. Knutt, both of whom want the deed to Monster Beach, albeit for different reasons.
  • Bizarre Taste in Food: Being monsters, the ghouls of the titular beach have some pretty gross appetites. Courtesy of Mad Madge and her diner, of course.
  • Chekhov's Skill: In Uncle Woody's exposition on the backstory of Monster Beach, he explains Dr. Knutt achieved a doctorate in law after his father sent him to be educated overseas. At the end of the movie, Dean reveals that Dr. Knutt was the judge presiding over Butterfield's trial and successfully convicted him as guilty for not having a permit to build his resort on Iki-Iki Island.
  • Cool Uncle: Uncle Woody. What else do you call an old Surfer Dude who hangs out with surfing monsters?
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Frances G. Butterfield III. Owner of the popular surfing resort chain Butterfield's Surf City, he's all too happy to take over Iki-Iki Island
  • Cute Monster Girl: Some of the female monsters qualify, such as Amphibia and Widget
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The inhabitants of Monster Beach are a creepy, freaky, and monstrous lot, but they're all rather nice and prefer to spend their days surfing and having fun under the sun.
  • The Ditz: Brainfreeze, as his name suggests, doesn't exactly have his mind pumping on all cylinders all the time.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: Lost Patrol, a military robot who works as Monster Beach's lifeguard, behaves like this. A photo of him when he was human seen in Uncle Woody’s shack reveals he even used to serve in the US army.
  • Eyes Out of Sight: Brainfreeze's eyes are permanently covered up by hair. He even lampshades this, remarking he can barely see past his own hair.
  • Fish out of Water: A major element of the story is Jan and Dean trying to fit in with the rest of Monster Beach, with Jan initially disliking the place and not believing it to be for her, while Dean really wants to be a true surfer like the monsters.
  • Fish People: Amphibia is a Creature from the Black Lagoon-based Cute Monster Girl surfer with a Jamaican accent and an octopus in place of hair.
  • Frankenstein's Monster: Widget is a Cute Monster Girl surfer version, a bikini-clad beach girl of stitched-together body parts that she often takes apart to accomplish tasks. Her eyes are of different colors as well to emphasize her assemblage (a photo of her as a human shows she formerly had blue eyes).
  • Gentle Giant: Teddles is a hulking reptilian horror who runs the local trailer park where the monsters all live, but he's also a very friendly and childlike simpleton who just simply loves having fun as much as the other monsters do (even if he can be a bit exasperating). Averted by Maurice though, who is the monster equivalent of an Angry Chef.
  • Greasy Spoon: Run by Mad Madge and Maurice. The food's pretty revolting, but the monsters usually don't mind - which is a good thing, because the owners don't take lightly to criticism.
  • "I Want" Song:
    • Jan gets "I Hate This Place", where she gets to sing about how much she wants to leave Monster Beach and would rather be hanging at a more regular beach.
    • Dean has "Monster Style", which highlights his desire to become a surfer on par with the denizens of Monster Beach and efforts to embrace their "monster style" philosophy.
  • The Klutz: Dean. He dreams of being a great surfer, but his clumsiness often gets the better of him. Jan often calls him "goofyfoot" because of this.
  • Lava Surfing: In the climax of the movie, Dean performs this using a chunk of rock as a surfboard. The TV series revisits the trope in "I Lava to Surf", but this time, it's Jan and Dean having to stop their monster friends from attempting this when news breaks out of an impending volcanic eruption.
  • Losing Your Head: Two of the monsters, Widget and Maurice, are shown to be able to remove their heads without any problem.
  • Macguffin: Uncle Woody's deed to the beach, a blue talisman given to him by Dr. Knutt's father (who didn't trust his wicked son with it) that also protected him from the curse that made Monster Beach what it is today. Both of the movie's villains seek it in order to gain ownership of Monster Beach, albeit for different reasons.
  • Meaningful Name: Butterfield's Beleaguered Assistant Hodad gets his name from a real-life surfer culture slang term for disruptive and obnoxious non-surfers who frequent surfing beaches and pretend to be actual surfers. Pretty appropriate for a guy working for a surfing resort company that seeks to exploit Monster Beach despite its owners not actually knowing how to surf.
  • Minion with an F in Evil: Hodad is a perfectly affable and likeable guy when compared to his Mean Boss Butterfield.
  • Monster Mash: The basic premise of the movie is of two kids befriending an oddball gang of surfer monsters, many of whom fill in classic monster archetypes, such as werewolves, vampires, Frankenstein's Monster, killer robots, and Fish People.
  • Mooks: Dr. Knutt's Tikis, a small army of diminutive anthropomorphic tiki masks who speak in gibberish.
  • Pop-Star Composer: Australian comedy music trio Tripod perform the theme song and compose most of the movie's songs. They also provide the voices of Dr. Knutt's Tikis.

  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The excitable, enthusiastic, and fun-loving Dean is the Red Oni to his aloof, reluctant, and sister Jan's Blue Oni.

  • Shout-Out: Widget is named after the title character of the 1959 surfing movie Gidget.
  • Shrunken Head: Maurice is a massive purple monster whose head is one, complete with stitches sewing his lips shut.
  • Surfer Dude: Being a movie about surfing, many of the characters qualify, although Uncle Woody and Brainfreeze definitely fit the closest with the classic surfer stereotype.
  • Technicolor Fire: Unlike his Tiki Mooks, Dr. Knutt possesses an ever-burning pillar of green fire behind his mask that also functions as his eyes, emphasizing his supernatural qualities and status as a villain. In the TV series, it's actually temporarily extinguished a few times, causing him to lifelessly fall over until it reignites a few seconds later, which raises the possibility it might be his soul (Jan was even able to vacuum it up in "Boo Plate Special", and it remained alive and able to speak). On a more comedic note, Knutt is also prone to accidentally burning things with his flames.
  • Tentacle Hair: Amphibia has a full octopus sitting on top her head as her hair. A photo of her when she was human reveals the octopus was formerly her dreadlocks.
  • Terrifying Tiki: Dr. Knutt and his Tikis are anthropomorphic tiki masks and the movie's secondary antagonists. Whereas Dr. Knutt is more humanoid and has green fire burning behind his mask, his minions are simply just walking tiki masks with limbs.
  • Tiny-Headed Behemoth: Maurice is a huge purple monster with a shrunken head, resulting in his body being disproportionately massive compared to his head.
  • Token Human: Uncle Woody was the only human living on Monster Beach until his niece and nephew showed up, mostly due to the fact he was unaffected by Dr. Knutt's curse.
  • The Unintelligible:
    • Dr. Knutt's Tikis speak entirely in gibberish. Doesn't stop them from getting a musical number though.
    • Due to the fact his mouth is stitched up, Maurice is only able to speak in deep, angry rumbling noises.
  • Valley Girl: Widget talks like one.
  • Villain Song:
    • "Daddy" is sung by Dr. Knutt, explaining his character and motivations.
    • "Wouldn't Change a Thing" is sung by Butterfield about his plans for Monster Beach.
  • Villain Teamup: Butterfield and Dr. Knutt form an alliance to get the deed to Monster Beach. It ultimately proves short-lived, as Butterfield ends up betraying Dr. Knutt. The trope is revisited in the TV series with the episode "Butterknutt Squash", where the two villains go through this again, leading to both backstabbing each other in increasingly over-the-top manners.
  • Volcano Lair: Dr. Knutt resides in the caldera of Iki-Iki Island's volcano. It notably gets a redesign in the TV series to make it more of a classic villain lair.
  • Wacky Racing: The monsters of Monster Beach love to do this whenever they're not surfing, especially The Mutt, who runs the local garage in his non-surfing time.
  • Was Once a Man: The inhabitants of Monster Beach used to be humans until Dr. Knutt transformed them into monsters with his magic.note  Dr. Knutt was also transformed by this spell, however, causing him to go into self-imposed exile. Uncle Woody escaped though, thanks to the protection of the magic amulet Dr. Knutt's father gave him. Hodad gets transformed into a monster as well at the end of the movie, being rechristened Stress Leave by the others.
  • Welcoming Song: "Monster Beach", which also serves as the movie's theme tune.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: One of Dr. Knutt's main motivations for seizing Monster Beach (the other simply being power). He believes the beach rightfully belongs to him and that Uncle Woody turned his father against him. This forms the basis for his Villain Song.
  • Witch Doctor: Dr. Knutt, as his title and tiki motif suggest. He was the wicked and ungrateful son of Iki-Iki Island's native chieftain, and transformed the local surfers into monsters in retaliation for the beach being given to Uncle Woody. Ironically however, he actually holds a doctorate in law, meaning he's also a doctor in the more traditional sense of the term.
  • Wonderful Werewolf: The Mutt is a slightly crazy but lovable werewolf surfer and mechanic.
  • Wrench Wench: Jan. According to Dean, she used to be really into cars, but thanks to The Mutt and Brainfreeze, she rediscovers her love for vehicles and gains a newfound appreciation for Monster Beach as a result.

    Tropes applying to the series 
  • Adaptation Backstory Change: In the movie, The Mutt is seen being transformed from a human as a result of Dr. Knutt's curse in Uncle Woody's flashback explaining the origins of Monster Beach (and a brief cameo in Woody's home from a photo of the Monster Beach denizens pre-transformation), making it evident he, like the other residents of the beach, Was Once a Man. In the series, The Mutt is instead the transformed pet dog of Brainfreeze.
  • Adaptation Deviation: In the movie, Maurice was a hunchbacked Tiny-Headed Behemoth able to remove his head at will, but in the TV series, he's changed to a headless monster named Headache who instead wears his shrunken head as a necklace.
  • Adaptation Name Change: Maurice is renamed Headache in the TV series.
  • Adaptation Personality Change: The series versions of Jan and Dean are very different from their movie counterparts not just in appearance. In the movie, Jan was depicted as the aloof if bossy Cool Big Sis, whereas Dean was the clumsy but enthusiastic Annoying Younger Sibling with dreams of becoming a great surfer. In the series, Jan is instead depicted as a chirpy Genki Girl while Dean is a Gadgeteer Genius computer nerd with absolutely no interest in surfing.
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
    • Both of the villains possess different dynamics with the eponymous beach and its inhabitants from the movie. In the movie, Butterfield and Dr. Knutt both desired to take over Monster Beach, the former seeking simply to profit off the monsters and the latter believing the beach to be rightfully theirs. In the series, Butterfield already owns the northern half of Iki-Iki Island, with his surfing resort acting as the more "normal" but snobbier counterpart to Monster Beach, while Dr. Knutt is more interested in simply antagonizing Jan and Dean on a more day-to-day basis and otherwise freely comes down to Monster Beach whenever he's not in the mood for villainy.
    • Jan and Dean have a different overall relationship dynamic with the rest of Monster Beach's denizens. In the movie, Uncle Woody and the monsters acted as guides and mentors to the kids, being able to explain Iki-Iki Island to them and providing them with wisdom for their respective struggles (Jan's desire to ditch Monster Beach for a more normal place and Dean's dream of becoming a great surfer). In the TV series however, Jan and Dean instead play the role of Only Sane Man to Woody and the monsters, frequently having to watch over their wacky antics and help them solve their problems instead.
  • Adaptational Modesty: In the movie, Jan's swimsuit consisted of a tank top and bikini shorts, but in the series, she instead wears a surfing wetsuit.
  • Adaptational Nationality: The unnamed vampire from the movie, renamed Stress Leave in the TV series (see Composite Character below), is given a Japanese accent in the TV series.
  • Adapted Out: The deed to the beach that Uncle Woody carried with him around in the movie is wholly absent in the series. In fact, in the TV series, Butterfield already owns a part of Iki-Iki Island, while Dr. Knutt comes down whenever he feels like it, meaning the need for it to appear in the series is largely pointless.
  • Adults Are Useless: Due to being Demoted to Extra, Uncle Woody is hit pretty bad by this. Whereas his movie counterpart was generally doing his best to look out for Jan and Dean and regularly delivered wisdom to them, he spends most of his time in the TV show either wholly absent from the kids' adventures and is usually seen slacking around. As a result, it's Jan and Dean themselves who have to play the role of the most intelligent and responsible people on the beach for their quirky monster pals.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Jan often calls her brother Dean, "Deanosaur".
  • Alternate Continuity: The series appears to be one in relation to the movie.
  • Amateur Filmmaking Plot: The episode "Frights! Camera! Action" sees Dean try to make his own horror film after realizing the one that scared him as a kid isn't scary at all (in fact, the monsters think it's hilarious). Naturally, he brings on Monster Beach's residents as the stars of his flick, but their incompetence and clashing personalities don't make things easy.
  • Art Evolution: Compared to Exchange Student Zero, the previous movie-turned-series BES Animation produced for Cartoon Network, Monster Beach goes through a radical shift in visual style between the Made-for-TV Movie and the TV series. While both were animated in Adobe Flash, the movie employed a lineless artstyle similar to the one that would later be incorporated into BES Animation's third cartoon Kitty Is Not a Cat (although some viewers may be reminded of fellow surfing-themed cartoon Stōked), but the TV series drops this entirely in favor of a more conventional Thick-Line Animation style incorporating visible outlines, a different color palette, more visible shapes in the character designs, and more detailed backgrounds.
  • Art Shift: Flashbacks and imaginations sequences in the show switch out the thick-line style of the show for a blocky, monochrome cutout style identical to that seen in the series intro.
  • Bad Boss: Dr. Knutt wasn't exactly pleasant to his Tikis in the movie, but he's even worse in the series. This forms the plot of the episode "Striking Bad", where the Tikis finally get fed up with his mistreatment and abandon him to hang with the inhabitants of Monster Beach.
  • Balloon Belly: Happens to Uncle Woody in "Dr. BFF" as a result of Jan and Dean testing all of Madge's dishes on him to see which one is the antidote for Dr. Knutt's mind control potion (long story).
  • Band Episode: The episode "Euro So Talented" sees Widget, The Mutt, Brainfreeze, and Dr. Knutt form a band called Monster Metal Doom Party when they accidentally end up auditioning for Eurovision, erm, Euro So Talented. Jan and Dean tag along as their band managers, but quickly find managing the gang to be pretty challenging.
  • Behavioral Conditioning: In "Knutty and Nice", Dr. Knutt decides to try being good as a change of pace, and recruits Jan and Dean's help in teaching him. The kids draw upon their own experience training their dog not to pee on the carpet by spraying Knutt with a water gun every time he does something bad.
  • Bottle Episode: Most of the episode "High Seas High Jinx" involves The Mutt and Lost Patrol stranded together in the middle of the ocean on a surfboard.
  • Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: Whereas their movie counterparts are Fish out of Water who must be guided through life on Monster Beach by Uncle Woody and the local ghouls, the TV series versions of Jan and Dean are the Only Sane Man to their ditzy uncle and the wacky monsters, frequently having to solve the conflicts and problems that arise from their bumbling shenanigans.
  • Companion Cube: Teddles is very attached to his teddy bear, as seen in the episode "Teddles' Teddy", where he recruits Jan and Dean to help him get it back after accidentally giving it away at a swap meet.
  • Composite Character: In the movie, Stress Leave was the name the monsters gave Hodad after he was transformed into a monster by Dr. Knutt's magic staff. In the series, Hodad is still human, and the name of his monster alter ego is instead given to the unnamed vampire who appeared in the movie as a minor character.
  • Cone of Shame: In the episode "It Cone from Outer Space", The Mutt is put in one for not resisting the urge to bite his wounded leg, much to his chagrin. The cone intensifies his canine hearing, making him able to read the radio signals of alien invaders... which is actually just an advertisement for a sci-fi convention.
  • Cranium Chase: Inverted. In the episode "Widget Loses Her Head", she wakes up without the rest of the body and recruits the others to help her find it as it goes on a wild ride with a group of bachelorettes preparing to get married.
  • Demoted to Extra:
    • Uncle Woody. In the movie, he's the parental figure for Jan and Dean, playing a major role in helping them get used to the setting and thwarting Butterfield and Dr. Knutt. In the TV series, he rarely gets more than quick non-speaking cameos.
    • Butterfield goes from being the Big Bad to just being the owner of the surf resort located on the northern edge of Iki-Iki Island, with the location appearing far more often than he does (whenever the plot calls for the characters to interact with humans other than Jan, Dean, and Uncle Woody). Hodad is similarly demoted, rarely getting more than brief cameos alongside his boss.
  • Denser and Wackier: While the movie itself is pretty light-hearted, the series goes much more heavily into the focus on comedy and gags.
  • Fly in the Soup: A variation of the classic gag occurs in "Talk to the Hand". Widget's autonomous hand falls into Dr. Knutt's soup, and when he complains of this to Madge, she tells him to keep quiet or else the rest of the customers will want one too.
  • For Halloween Im Going As Myself: In "Euro So Talented", Widget, The Mutt, Brainfreeze, and Dr. Knutt form a band and go to Europe to perform. However, they don't needed disguises of any sort, as the judges assume them to be in monster costumes.
  • Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Stress Leave, a neurotic workaholic vampire clearly in desperate need of a vacation, is about as far as you can get from being a bloodthirsty dark prince of the night!
  • Gadgeteer Genius: In contrast to his movie counterpart, Dean is characterized as this. He often carries inventions and tech with him and occasionally develops gadgets to help the cast with their problems, such as an artificially intelligent surfboard or an animal speech translator.
  • Gilligan Cut: Occurs twice in "Talk to the Hand". Firstly when Jan and Dean ponder how quickly Widget's rogue, evil hand could take over Iki-Iki Island, viewers immediately get a montage of the island being seized and monsters being imprisoned. Mere moments after, the remaining Monster Beach denizens hatch a plan to rescue their friends and stop Widget's hand, only for the show to Smash Cut to everybody imprisoned after an unsuccessful attack on the Volcano Lair.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: Despite being the overall villain of the series, Dr. Knutt is often seen hanging out with the denizens of Monster Beach, sometimes even joining in on their shenanigans with non-villainous motivations.
  • Granola Girl: Amphibia. She's often engaging in meditation and is a proud environmentalist and animal lover.
  • Grossup Closeup: Appears from time to time, usually of the monsters.
  • Harmless Villain: Dr. Knutt is very proud of how evil he is and pretty mean towards his minions, but his actual evildoing and schemes against the inhabitants of Monster Beach are typically petty and ineffectual, not to mention his own incompetence frequently gets the better of him. If anything. he's mostly just obnoxious.
  • Helping Hands: Widget is usually capable of Pulling Themselves Together, but in the episode "Talk to the Hand", her hand goes rogue and starts causing trouble around Monster Beach, thanks to a spell from Dr. Knutt. Things go especially bad when said hand sneaks into Dr. Knutt's lair and steals his magic staff before using it to enslave all of Iki-Iki Island.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Brainfreeze and The Mutt are best of friends and frequently hang together, with their friendship being the focus of several episodes. Heck, it's established that before they were transformed into monsters, The Mutt was Brainfreeze's pet dog!
  • Left the Background Music On: When Jan and Dean first uncover the eponymous haunted car of "Ghoul Vibrations", the ominous drumming of bongos is heard as they stare at it in awe. They quickly turn around to see The Mutt playing the bongos, and the werewolf quickly knocks it off.
  • Making a Splash: Amphibia is shown to have this ability, causing tsunamis and waterspouts when she gets mad.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: One of the show's darker Running Gags. Dr. Knutt's Tikis are frequently killed and maimed for quick Black Comedy gags. The audience is very frequently treated to shots of unfortunate Tikis falling into the lava around his Volcano Lair, complete with a view of them going "sploosh" as they land into the molten rock below. Knutt himself is indifferent to the loss of his Mooks.
  • Mistaken for Aliens: In "It Cone from Outer Space", The Mutt picks up advertising for a sci-fi convention in his new Cone of Shame, leading him to believe aliens are coming to invade Monster Beach. The other monsters end up believing him too when they see Jan and Dean in cosplays leaving for the convention, and when the kids return, the monsters attack them. Even Jan and Dean removing their costumes to convince them fails when they instead decide the kids are in fact clones sent by the aliens.
  • Mook Carryover: When Widget's hand takes over Dr. Knutt's lair in "Talk to the Hand", the Tikis immediately defect to its side.
  • Mummy: An unnamed individual appears from time to time. Unlike all the other monsters seen at Monster Beach, he's original to the TV series and did not have a movie counterpart.
  • Nerd: In contrast to his movie counterpart, who is a young aspiring Surfer Dude, the series version of Dean is characterized as a highly intelligent young boy obsessed with computers and technology, carrying around a tablet at all times and having a tendency to be pedantic while also showing zero interest in surfing.
  • Only Sane Man: Jan and Dean are easily the most rational and normal of the inhabitants of Monster Beach, often having to mind the wacky antics of the monsters.
  • Our Genies Are Different: In the episode "Gone Wishing", a genie comes to Monster Beach in search of a schmuck he can grant wishes to. He lives in an Arabian oil lamp like a classic genie, but he's instead characterized as a slick 50s door-to-door salesman. Unfortunately for him, the inhabitants of Monster Beach are way too relaxed and content with their life to wish for anything big and fancy like the kinds of people who prefers granting wishes for.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: The episode "Boo Plate Special" features some haunting Madge's Diner. They're depicted as Bedsheet Ghosts, but are invisible except in their own plane of existence, where they are able to interact with the physical realm without being seen. Fortunately, Jan and Dean are able to dispatch them with a simple vacuum cleaner when they end up in the ghost world and use the ghosts' poltergeist shenanigans against them.
  • Our Ogres Are Hungrier: While what kind of monster he is isn't identified in the movie, the episode "Doommates" implies Brainfreeze to be an ogre. In this case, he's a large, red-skinned humanoid with very large feet and eyes that are permanently concealed behind his hair; some of his official art even depicts him holding a big wooden club much like a classic ogre. Not particularly bright, but very chill and a nice dude all around.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: A few episodes explore the nature of The Mutt's lycanthropy. As we learn in "Doommates", he's actually the transformed pet dog of Brainfreeze (in contrast to how the other monsters were formerly humans). "Where Wolf" takes it a step further, revealing that due to his unique origins among the monsters, he's actually a reverse werewolf, as in he transforms into a human during a full moon.
  • The Pigpen: The Mutt smells as pleasantly as one might expect a werewolf who spends all his time under the sun and around water to smell, but in the episode "Next to Dogliness", he's possessed by the ghost of the world's smelliest dog, causing him to smell even fouler than usual.
  • Pirate: In the episode "Bored Games", Jan, Dean, and Amphibia meet one named Captain Kelp, a seaweed monster living on a sunken pirate ship with the classic pirate getup and a pet crab. He's not that bad of a guy though; desperately lonely, but otherwise harmless.
  • Race Lift: Jan and Dean were Caucasian in the original movie, but in the TV series, they are brown-skinned. Unusually, Uncle Woody remains Caucasian despite this.
  • Right-Hand Cat: Parodied in "Talk to the Hand". When Widget's hand goes rogue, it adopts a cat that it uses to stroke like a classic supervillain.
  • Roommate Drama: The plot of "Doommates". Brainfreeze accidentally wrecks The Mutt's garage, so he invites his friend to stay over at his surf shack to make up for it. However, The Mutt soon ends up driving Brainfreeze crazy with his constant mechanic work leaving oil and car parts everywhere, not to mention the mutant flea he brings along to crash alongside him as an unexpected extra guest.
  • Salaryman: Stress Leave the vampire seems to be one, an overworked accountant and paper pusher who speaks with a strong Japanese accent.
  • Scooby-Dooby Doors: "Swampy Thing" sees the kids, Widget, Amphibia, and Dr. Knutt go through this when running from a monster from the movie they were watching. The five of them manage to run through so many doors with such frequency that they end up making the monster dizzy enough to sneak off into the basement safely.
  • Sentient Vehicle: "Ghoul Vibrations" introduces the eponymous vehicle, created by Dr. Knutt for Monster Beach's regular car races by placing the soul of a famous racecar driver in his vehicle. Naturally, Ghoul Vibrations had it out for him, and he was forced to get rid of it. Jan, Dean, and The Mutt end up rediscovering it however, unaware of its true nature.
  • Slumber Party: In "Swampy Thing", Jan invites Widget and Amphibia over for one (with Dean and Dr. Knutt tagging along as unwelcome guests), where they watch a horror movie. Things quickly go south however when the monster from their movie shows up at their doorstep and attacks them except it turns out to just be Uncle Woody covered in mud from an accident.
  • Speaks Fluent Animal: Amphibia is apparently able to communicate with animals, but in "Lagoon Goons", Dean invents a device that allows them to translate the thoughts of animals, which they use to expose a pair of sleazy sea lions taking advantage of their friend.
  • Sugar Causes Hyperactivity: Even teeniest bit of sugar causes The Mutt to go completely wild (where moreso than he usually is).
  • Termite Trouble: In the episode "Termite Nation", Dr. Knutt accidentally creates an army of mutant termites when attempting to exterminate them (since as a wooden tiki, he was afraid they'd eat him). The termites' queen ends up trying to marry him as part of a plot to eat him.
  • Treasure Hunt Episode: The episode "Treasure Hunt" sees Brainfreeze and Widget discover a strange map that they believe takes them to buried treasure, and they soon end up getting all of Monster Beach involved in their adventure. Turns out the map was actually The Mutt's; he was using it to keep track of where he buried his bone.
  • Villains Out Shopping: In contrast to the movie, where Dr. Knutt's motivation was to take ownership of Monster Beach from Uncle Woody, the TV show often has him coming down casually to Monster Beach to hang out with the rest of the monsters whenever he's not engaging in villainous schemes.
  • You and What Army?: Lost Patrol says this to Dr. Knutt in "Tiki'd Off" during their fight. Knutt quickly points to his Mooks, the Tikis... who are busy fooling around on the beach instead of standing menacingly and ready for battle.
  • You Are Number 6: The episode "3 Monsters and a Tiki" reveals that Dr. Knutt's Tikis all go by numbers, with the particular one of the episode adopted by Brainfreeze, The Mutt, and Lost Patrol being 7.

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