The sequel: If only it wou What should it be planned around?

[Crusader7]

For one moment, let's all forget the series.

Consider it not to be on the list, and think how a sequel would evolve just around the main movie and the short films.
What should the main plot be? Another invasion?
Should more monsters pop up in the team?

Say some ideas

[mvafan]

Honestly, I don't know. I can't think of anything. I know you said to ignore the series but the natural progression of the story would be to create a liaison to aliens to keep peace. I can't see another random alien invasion. There wouldn't be any room for character development. It would just be a rehash of the first film.

[buckmana]

A really wacky idea, but what if Earth filed an environmental injunction lawsuit against those aliens who poured the green goop all over the pumpkin patch?

A more serious idea, how about sending the Monsters into space to fight aliens?
You could do a reverse switch, in that they're percieved as the alien invaders when they're actually coming to neutralize a pending invasion of Earth.

I have this mental image of Ginormica leaping out of the spaceship, standing tall and challenging the aliens to "take their best shot!"
Then much wanton alien stomping as they realize how outclassed they are by one human giantess.

[Crusader7]

Now that sounds nice.
Although I'd say it would actually be a big deal, the fact that they face a powerful giantess, who is also said to be extra resistant to plasma and energy weapons (I assume aliens have only those lol).
Heh, I always was fond of how the aliens could get scared by such a huge sight.
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In my opinion, it would be better if there was an alien union of tribes on the run in this spot. Pretty much like the Covenant from Halo, although that is lately growing old.

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Plus, I was thinking of something like new monsters to add in the team, who have old accounts with an alien.
Those monsters could also turn evil, totally (not just a rampage) before they get captured by the Monsters, and the whole sequel to be evolved around them and their extra weird personalities.

It sure sounds weird, new monsters would just cause a cycle of olds, but Dreamworks proved itself willing to do so, like in Madagascar 3, where they added a whole circus.
Well, I may be affected by a fanfic and stuff, but it's just me

[buckmana]

I'm assuming Susan has a high degree of resistant to blunt trauma as well, seeing as she takes heavy impacts and ignores them.
She appears to be vulnerable to electic shock and piercing injuries though.

Adding new characters is something that has to be done carefully.
1 or 2 you might get away with, but if you start adding too many, the original cast start being overshadowed.


Another wacky idea, what if there was a B list of monsters?
Ones who didn't make the grade to save the world and Team Monster get stuck with them as trainees or sidekicks?
You could also make them obsessive fans just for the extra funny.

Now picturing a scene like this:

Susan is interviewing her trainee, a mousy little woman in glasses.
Susan: So what monster skills do you possess?
Woman: I shrink.
Susan drops her pen in shock.
Cue offscreen screaming from Area 5? soldiers and lots of crashing after a giant pen rolls out the door.
Susan (skeptically): Let me get this straight, I'm 50 feet tall and they want me to team up with someone who's only power is to get smaller? Who's lunatic idea was that?
Woman (holding up presidential letter): President's Hathaway's.
Susan (eyerolling): Of course, it was the President's idea! I'm so glad I didn't vote in this year's election!

And you could probably do all sorts of things like that, pairing off each member of Team Monster with someone completely incompatible.
For example, putting Link with a Sensitive New Age Pacifist or Dr Cockroach with a complete imbecile.

[Crusader7]

That's a great idea, and it could evolve in a smart way.
But adding specifically one opposite type for each monster seems...standarized.
Now, if they were all together, like the same companionship of buds who turned up all together?

I was thinking something more like someone who has gained powers that are absolutely useless and don't help anyway or anyhow.
Pretty much like never aging.
Sure it sounds cool but...how is a 3,000 year-old guy supposed to do well in extreme combat when all he's got is his personal experience, without himself being the finest, not even an average fighter at all?
Say if those guys were, like, four, and tried to prove the Monsters how better they can be without their help at anything, but always proved the opposite.

Okay, I'm too influenced by other factors but I believe it has ways for establishing here and there.

[buckmana]

I was imagining them as a Team Monster fanclub of sorts, people who aspired to be monster world savers, but without the ability or skill to actually do so.
Their leader says, we have monster powers, so let's stop having Fanclub meetings in the garage and actually go fight evil!
In this scenario, I was thinking that they get assigned to Area 5? just to stop them doing more harm then good.
The kind of people who go out to save the day and end up destroying a city block with sheer incompetence.
So they think if they're kept them in Area 5? busy with training etc, they won't actually get to do any more damage.
And the only one who thinks it's a great idea is President Hathaway, who isn't known for his rational thinking.

And it needn't necessarily be opposite powers, they could go for psychological differences, as I cited with Link and Dr Cockroach.
I just picked a physical impossibility for Susan because she'd spend all the time trying to find this tiny shrunken woman and not even knowing if she was in the room!

I'm assuming they could take it to a serious level though.
For example, what if Susan realizes she's unintentionally being a jerk or a harsh taskmaster and causes her trainee to have an emotional breakdown?
Then you could have this big reconciliation scene for the heartwarming moment.

However, the thing they should avoid is having the epic moment, where the trainees become big darn heroes.
That plotline has been done too much, so they should find a different way that the trainees can prove their worth without becoming heroes in their own right.

I'm assuming now that Team Monster is publicly revealed, there's no point keeping them secret.
We see a little hint of this in the Mutant Pumpkins episode where there are 3 kids dressed as Link, Dr Cockroach and Bob.

[Crusader7]

I have to say that it's all about a great idea you got right there, with a seriously nice storyline.
I'm certain it would evolve around in a splendid way, 99%
As for themselves not being real heroes, well it's also nicely thought and pretty much what I was looking into at all.
Like, a good way would be that an alien kidnaps the Monsters and traps them inside a cage made just for Susan (let's say Inzecto isn't in the cage).
A good way for the others to prove their worth would be to rescue the Monsters right out of the cage, then let them do all the important work, like fighting the alien.

Plus, it would be nice if there was a sort of rivalry between the two teams, mostly born by the new ones.
But that's just me.

Now about the powers...thankfully people have tons of imagination, though I'd just stick with all of them having the same ability like huge age, and apart from that be sole humans.
Many new abilities would just cause confusion.

[buckmana]

Yes, but that wouldn't necessarily work for entertainment value if they all had the same power.
Because if they were all identical, then once the problem was solved for one, it would be solved for all and it'd be a very short movie.

By having 4 different problems to solve, it would keep the running time up.

Plus, I'm imagining a scene in the cafteria where the monsters are meeting up after a very long day and are really stressed out:

Susan: I spent half a day dismantling the base air vents because my trainee got sucked into the intake during a tour of the lower levels and we couldn't find her afterwards. So, how did your first day go?
Susan looks at the others, who have expressions ranging from despair to mortal terror.
Dr Cockroach: My trainee tried to add radioactive isotopes to an experimental new fuel I was making, the lab is currently in orbit of the Moon in several tiny pieces. The replacement lab won't be available for a month, so now I'm working out of the janitor's closet.
Link: My trainee swapped my muscle car for a mountain bike and refuses to tell me where he put it. I shoved him inside a monster truck tire and they're still trying to get him out.
Susan: Why did you have a monster truck tyre?
Link: Duh, I was putting the tyre on the truck when he told me about his latest environmentally friendly idea! The worst part was that he kept saying he appreciated my creative way of expressing disapproval and we should try to talk out our differences while they cut him out.
Bob: I had a great day! We had a picnic in the park, discovered a pot of gold, climbed a rainbow and painted General Monger's office fuschia.
Dr Cockroach: Bob, your trainee doesn't arrive until tomorrow.
General Monger (offscreen): What in the name of Uncle Sam happened to my office! Even the computer monitor is pink! BOB!!!!!!

[Crusader7]

....Okay I admit it, I hadn't thought of it that far but it really is better than what I had thought.
It sure would make it a further more and even bigger in length movie it's for sure, plus it would create a small whole lot of matters up.
This is already a fairly good scenario for a startup, I say.

Regarding my idea, however, the way I've thought of it isn't like this, like all of them having the same problem.
I mean, they wouldn't really be having any problem considering their ability (of never aging), I mean who would?
It's not like something new and utter to them which the cannot easily control.
My idea would be like this: Four guys get kidnapped by some sort of alien who wants to experiment with quantonium on humans, so he examins the effects of it on Ginormica.
After all, Susan is a threat that must be neutralised if Earth is to be conquered (as Coverton has claimed anyway).
So, he conducts the experiment upon them, but absolutely nothing happens, apart from an enrage side effect which sends the four flying off the roof and beating each other up.
Say, during the fight they activate the ship's time machine and send the ship nearly 3,000 years in the past, afterwards they smash the time machine AND the quantonium extractor.
The aliens gets stuck in the past and decides to fix the machin,e but is first pissed off by those four, so he kicks them off the spaceship, onto primitive....-er Earth.
After several years, they discover they just don't age and come up with the idea to survive until the present, and at the same time try do good deeds, knowing the istory unfold, but trying not to provoke huge changes that would change the future.

So they go through countless of adventures and are mosty chased by others (details and reason can be referred to there), pretty much a freaky life.
In the end, like on 1912 after the sinking of the Titanic, they decide to go evil, because this world is just too unworthy, in their opinion, for someone to care about it.
So, they keep bullying and robbing until 1955 when they are capture by Captain Monger (his first monsters say) but manage to escape and Monger decides never to mention of it.
So they hide for 50 more years and on year 2011 they return and start destroying Manhattan, because they felt so.
Having built extra technolog weapons(other details here), the police and army can't face them (but warning, they don't kill anyone).
So Monger sends the Monsters to take them down, which they do (thanks to Susan and her resistance to plasma weapons, for the guys only built plasma).
So the four end up as prisoners at Area 5? and eventually have to try get used to their knew status.
Just, about them their problem shouldn't be their powers, but their wicked personalities which of course vary from one another.
How selfish they are and how they will eventually fix that.

But that's jsut me and sorry for long storying around :/

[buckmana]

In general, I'm not a fan of invoking time travel aspects in fiction, because once you establish it as possible, sooner or later, somebody will use it to do a retcon.

I call it the Thunderstone principle, in (dubious) honor of an Australian sci-fi kids show.
To explain what happened, it was a show that spanned two seperate time periods, an ice age that occured shortly after the Thunderstone comet hit earth and a significant period later when the ice age ended.
At the end of the second season, they used their knowledge of time travel to erase both possible timezones and create a new timeline in which the Thunderstone comet never hit the earth at all, but shattered and became an orbital ring of debris instead.
And that pretty much erased everything from the first two seasons in the space of one episode.

So I prefer that stories always happen in the present and time travel is kept out of it, to avoid the temptation to retcon later.

[Crusader7]

I also hate it when a single time travel changes everything you already know, reason why I like Doctor Who, for not changing the past despite his constant travels.

However, about the guys I'm referring to...eh, not really. you see, there can be a good explanation of physics laws here.
like we say, no matter how hard we'd try, the space-time continuus wouldn't be affected by those guys, even if they tried to change how history unfolds, mostly because history has been written and cannot be changed.
Plus, because of the time travel paradox, the moment they got abducted there already would be 4 copies of themselves at present, that would have already been sent to the past.
So everything would have already happened, and they were extremely unnoticed, so no one would know them anyway.

After all, it's not something that matters, the guys' past, but the moment that they'd reach present and from then on, when they'd get let's say into the MvA storyline.
What happens then would be the important part.

Well, the reason I got into this all complicated storyline is the fact that I wanted to make four guys, who are absolutely powerless, no skills and stuff, with their huge age being the only thing that separates them from simple humans.
Well, this places them in a very underestimated and downgrading awkward position, compared to the Monsters who are so effective.
It's the main reason, so I couldn't think of anything else, but I tell you the statement that time travels can change the course of history, is mostly an urban legend

[spectersy3]

I originally planned for an intergalactic tournament but I forget this is a kids film.

So, instead I want to explore the limitless possibilities of the quantonium element. Perhaps give Susan more abilities.

Also, I wanted the sequel to take place in the aliens domain: OUTER SPACE.

Monster team will befriend an alien (showing not all extra terrestrials are evil).

[buckmana]

Intergalactic Foosball championship?
Or something else relatively harmless that still involves competition, without the violence.
You could even have a twist ending where this harmless little character goes psychoihateyoutheworldmustendnow because they're loosing in a kid friendly competition.
As the expression go, the quiet ones are the ones most likely to snap.

Exploring other abilities can be a risky area, I've seen the plotline before where they had one character who turn their superpower into anything the plot demands and as time went on, it just got more and more improbable.
You have to give the main characters limitiations or it just becomes a one person show with the rest of the team relegated to interested onlookers.

Sqweep and Sta'abi are two examples in the series of how aliens can be friendly, even if Sta'abi has obvious temper issues.
Maybe the cause of them going into space could be Sqweep needed to attend the competition on her homeworld (general consensus is that Sqweep is female, even though it's never been clarified) for extracurricular credit and the Monsters and Sta'abi go along for a vacation.
They might even work in an appearance by Sqweep's parents and flesh out their characters somewhat.

And just to add some funny, you could have Coverton coaching some nerdy young members of his species in how to win the contest and get totally carried away with planning his conquest that he forgets it's just a child's game.
You could even use this as a red herring, having Team Monster getting incredibly suspicous about Coverton's obsession to win when for once it's just harmless and there is no sinister motivation in his plans for evil.

[spectersy3]

I still want to make a sequel so bad, and at least present it to Dreamworks. Succeed for fail, at least I tried to do something grand.

Since the tournament idea is a bust, these are some themes I want it to be about: Susan given new abilities via a quantonium mutation, the main adventure taken somewhere in deep space, lots of action and adventure. Plus, the monster team befriending an alien who assists them in fighting the main threat.

Is there anyone out there who could help with a concept with these ideas? And that doesn't involve the tv series.