Common Sense Media Review
By Ashley Moulton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Preschool-friendly fairytales cleverly, colorfully retold.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 3+?
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Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Super Monsters: Once Upon a Rhyme
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In Once Upon a Rhyme, the kids in the older Super Monsters classroom get to share their favorite fairytales and nursery rhymes with the younger class. As the characters tell the stories, viewers see fully animated versions of these familiar stories but with Super Monsters playing the starring roles. Spike and Sami are Hansel and Gretel, and they meet a friendly witch who wants to bake them a blueberry pie. Lobo is Little Red Riding Wolf, who meets his actual friendly grandmother wolf in bed (not a scary wolf pretending to be a grandmother). Frankie is an extra-destructive Goldilocks who doesn't know his own strength. Zoe is Rapunzel, who lets down her long hair so Cleo can climb up for a playdate. In between the fairytale stories, other characters recite nursery rhymes like "Hey Diddle Diddle" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." The Super Monsters delight in acting out these stories, and they intersperse energetic songs throughout.
Is It Any Good?
This fairytale-themed special is a delightful episode of Super Monsters; grown-ups will appreciate the clever retelling of classic tales, and kids will enjoy seeing their Super Monster pals getting to appear as different characters. The music is fun and upbeat, and in typical Super Monsters style, the visuals are wonderfully detailed and colorful. This special is less effective at imparting social-emotional lessons than other Super Monster episodes and mostly plays the "moral of the story" concept for laughs. Overall though, it's a lot of fun and a great way to introduce young kids to fairytales without all the scary bits.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how the characters talk about "the moral of the story." Do you know what that means? Do you think any of these stories had lessons, or were they just silly?
Have you ever heard any of these stories before? How was the Super Monsters version the same? How was it different?
TV Details
- Premiere date : June 1, 2021
- Cast : Erin Matthews , Asia Mattu , Elyse Maloway , Diana Kaarina , Vincent Tong , Gigi Saul Guerrero , Rukiya Bernard , Alessandro Juliani
- Network : Netflix
- Genre : Kids' Animation
- Topics : Adventures , Fantasy ( Fairy Tales , Magic ) , Friendship
- TV rating :
- Last updated : December 10, 2025
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