Dance Monsters

We enjoyed the dancing and the animated characters. But the constant cuts to the audience and judges detracts from the performances. And the judges comments were so vague as to be annoying.

We were amazes by the tech I volved. The characters seemed to real. Other real life dancers would often be behind them and it was seemless. Some characters suffered from faces that weren't as expressive.

It seemed cool that heavier dancers could compete on equal footing with dancers with a more traditional pyshique.

The reveals were great. When you got to see the actual people it was really a surprise. Fun show.

It is very entertaining. But it could be better. It is very similar to the Mask Dancer, just an CGI version. The judges do a good job, even though sometimes their critiques are contradictory. I think what brings down the entertainment level of the show for me is the music selections and the choreography. The music on the show is dated and not conducive to a very good performance. Also, I think some of the choreography is weak. The weak choreography was very evident when 2 people who were up for elimination had to dance against each other and they both did a very good job. Their freestyle/dance battle was 100 times better than their choreography. Which led to a very hard elimination choice. But all in all it is a decent show, I just hope that if it is up for another season that they will work on the music and the choreography given to the contestants.

The motion capture is visibly janky at many points throughout. The monsters are often weird and not even all that cute? The judges say a lot of odd, cringey things. One time a judge said something that was not funny whatsoever, but the crowd laughed really hard which means they're cutting and moving the audio around deceptively. I'm sure reality/competition shows do this all the time, but they could at least be sneaky about it.

Overall, the show has a nice/cute premise but the follow through is underwhelming. I hope a future iteration of the show, with more articulated facial muscles for the mocap, performs better.

I wanted to like this and was looking forward to the first episode. The concept is fun, and I have to admit I don't really know how they pull off the graphics, so creds to the CGI. (It does make me wonder what the audience is actually seeing that we are not seeing on the final rendition.)

However there are several flaws in the show:

1. Unimaginative "large muppet" costumes that are big, heavy, clunky, and don't render the dance moves properly. It's possible to create a monster character that is slim enough and supple enough to actually dance.

2. The choreography is blase and uninspiring.

3. The dancers really aren't that good. Some may have been backup dancers at one time, but their moves now, some 15 to 20 years later, are not the quality we'd expect in this type of show. Again, the clunky 'monsters' make their poor dance routines even more disappointing.

4. Viewers mention getting tired of the cameras spending as much time on the judges as the dancers and I must agree completely. We're here to see the DANCERS, not the judges.

So all in all, this is a cute concept that flops. I stuck through the first two shows but have no desire to waste time to see "if it gets any better".... because I'm pretty sure it won't.

If they had slim, athletic, top-of-their-game dancers and monsters to match, this might have been a lot more fun. But I've seen better dancers on Instagram, the choreography really needs some work, and the monsters needed to be formed in a manner suited for dancing.

Thumbs up for the concept, two thumbs down for the execution. Wait... that's three thumbs. Well, it is a monster competition...

Almost stopped watching several times because the judges so clearly have favorites and made bizarre decisions. I give full credit to the dancers for accepting some truly questionable decisions with class and grace. Given the 250k on the line the judges should be making fair decisions.

Not even bothering to watch the final. If there is another season I won't bother watching unless they get some fair judging. And no, I don't know any of the competitors.

By the way- Who is this Lele? At least I have heard of the other judges. Fake window dressing! Really - cried? Bull. And she really is nothing special as a dancer from what I've seen.