The show focuses on three monsters in particular (Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm) who attend a school for monsters under a city dump and learn to frighten humans. Many of the episodes revolve around the monsters making it to the surface in order to perform "scares" as class assignments. The show takes place in a landfill near New York City, in Newark, New Jersey. This was referenced twice in the episode 'Monstrous Makeover'.
History
Before the final title was chosen, the series had the tentative title Monsters.[1]
The characters guest-starred in the 1999 Rugrats episode #106 Ghost Story.
Currently, the show airs on comcast'sFEARnet.
Characters
Ickis
He is short and magenta, with long ears and feet that look like jester shoes. Because of File:Aahrealmonsters.jpgThe Main Characters of the show, from left to right: Krumm, Ickis and Oblinathis, his scares often fail when he is mistaken for a rabbit. Ickis has the ability called "looming," which allows him to inflate himself to an enormous size, though he has some difficulty accomplishing this feat consistently. Ickis is a student at the Monster Academy, a boarding school for young monsters learning to scare. Ickis initially wore glasses in the episode "Monsters, Get Real," but this character trait was soon dropped.
Krumm
Like the rest of his family, Krumm's eyeballs are not attached to his body. Thus, he is usually seen carrying them in his hands, though if he requires the use of both hands, he can carry his eyes delicately in his mouth. His most valuable tool in scaring is his overwhelming armpit stench. He tends to be more gluttonous than his companions, and he has acrophobia, the fear of heights.
Oblina
Oblina comes from a wealthy monster family, and is considered to be The Gromble's best student. She is shaped like a black and white candy cane. One of her favorite methods of scaring humans is reaching within herself and pulling out her internal organs, and she also has considerable talent for shapeshifting into far more terrifying forms than her default. She also has the ability to induce nightmares in humans, by sticking her finger in their ear and tickling them while they sleep. Christine Cavanaugh does the voice of Oblina; she also voiced the character of Chucky in another Nickelodeon show Rugrats.
The Gromble
The Gromble is the intimidating headmaster of the monster school, who demonstrates his tough love by belittling his students for poor scares. He is a tall, green-gray monster with two tufts of head hair, a beard and a tail, who wears a belt and a red pump on each of his four feet which makes him look like a scary clown. In a controversial move in the first episode, The Gromble can be seen eating one of his students in one bite (although he spits him out after chewing him up). The Gromble's voice and appearance resemble those of the Chief of the Blue Meanies in The Beatles movie Yellow Submarine.
The Snorch
The Snorch is a large and seemingly unintelligible monster who performs punishments on students who break the rules. Some of the punishments that The Snorch has handed out are square dancing and listening to human music. It is later revealed that he is actually quite intelligent when he is given an artificial voice box. It breaks quickly, leaving him unable to speak properly once again.
Zimbo
Zimbo is a monster who resembles a bee with one mammalian leg and a humanoid face with green hair. Because of his small size and flying ability, he works as a spy for The Gromble, reporting any unruly behavior by the other monsters. Also, he's the only one who understands the Snorch's speech.
Simon
Simon is an egotistical monster hunter who has dedicated his life to capturing monsters, particularly Ickis, and proving their existence to the world. His character is similar to that of Mr. Crocker from The Fairly Odd Parents, and Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants with some differences: Mr. Crocker is employed as a teacher, Plankton works at an "empty" restaurant and Simon does not appear to have a job of any kind. Despite his state of unemployment, Simon is actually quite wealthy. He is shown to have a stash of money, which he once used to hire other hunters to do his work for him.
Slickis
Slickis is Ickis' famous dad. He is featured mainly in the episode Chip off the Old Beast. We find out some of the reasons he is famous in the "History of the Monster World." Ickis is always under stress to live up to his accomplishments, until he showed him that even he had a rough time in school.
Horvak
Horvak is Krumm's father and thus, not only looks like Krumm but also carries his eyes in his hands. He lost one eye, literally, at the Battle of Lexington, when a minuteman mistook it for a bullet and used to fire the first shot of the American Revolution. As such, he wears a black glove on that hand (instead of having a black patch over an eye). He began working as a mold-farmer after flunking out of Monster Academy, although Krumm believes he dropped out willingly. Carrier of a family curse called "The Curse of the Krumm" which causes those affected to lose their horrendous stench.
Mama Gromble
Mama Gromble is the Gromble's embarrassingly overprotective mother. Although she means well, she insists on treating her son like a child.
Sublima
Sublima is Oblina's mother. Oblina calls her "mumsy" but Sublima usually makes Oblina call her "mumsy dearest", a pop culture reference to American actress Joan Crawford. Sublima does not like scaring and wants Oblina to leave the academy to learn how to take care of the family fortune.
Skeetch
Skeetch is Oblina's father. He is skinny just like her and is the nicer one of her parents. He is proud of Oblina, whom he calls "Stripes". While Ickis and Krumm's fathers look identical to them, Oblina takes traits from both her parents (Her mother's black and white strips coloration, eyes and lips, and her father's stick-like body). This may be a hint as to how each monster has his or her own unique look.
Bradley
Bradley is a ten year old boy and friend of Ickis which makes him the monsters' only human friend. Bradley first met the monsters formally when he made a deal with Simon to help capture them after Ickis scared him one night. Ickis gave Bradley a change of heart from his cage by reminding him what would happen if Simon exposed the monsters' existence. It would cause wide spread hunting of their species which would eventually lead to their down fall. Bradley then agreed to release the monsters and has been their friend ever since.
From October 1994 to around 2000, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters was on Nickelodeon. Then in 2002 it started airing on Nicktoons TV. In 2006 it was taken off Nicktoons Network (formerly known as Nicktoons TV) and was shown occasionally on Sundays on Nickelodeon's "Nick Rewind."
It often appears on Nick.com's Turbonick, an online programming broadcast.
As of January 2008, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters still airs on Nicktoons daily at 9:30pm in the UK.
In Germany it airs from Monday to Friday at 11:45pm on the regular "Nick" channel
Two episodes, 1-04 (Monstrous Makeover / A Wing and a Scare) and 4-06 (Nuclear and Present Danger / Loch Ness Mess), are now banned from being shown on US TV and were missed during Nicktoon TV's looped reruns. Reasons for the episodes banning could be related to the September 11 attacks as one of the episodes contained a plane crash. However, both these episodes used to air on the British version of Nicktoons TV (2002-2008).
Video releases and merchandising
From 1995 to 1997, select episodes of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters were released on VHS. There is yet to be an official DVD release of the series.
The complete first season is now available on iTunes.
Mattel produced a series of Aaahh!!! Real Monstersaction figures in 1995. They each stand approximately 4" tall and include an action feature. Other products based on the cartoon include Fleertrading cards, books, plush toys, pens, hats, backpacks, notepads, cups, and videos. At one point, General Mills also included small, promotional flip books of Ickis, Krumm, Oblina, and the Gromble in its Cinnamon Toast Crunchcereal.
After the success of The Rugrats Movie Nick had plans to do a film of Aaah! Real Monsters!. However, production of the movie was shut down due to the story being "Too Dark" for children. During this time, Ren And Stimpy were also to get a film but however Nick refused John K to write the script.
United States
