Oh yeah, we're going there. Monster Blood 4 is quite the trainwreck to end for the series. The Monster Blood series was always not very good, being bogged down in characters being annoying/unlikable and stories that often contradict themselves. But then comes 4, which has all the same flaws but the idea is not even connected to Monster Blood. The idea of these slugs that multiple and get angrier is a fun one but so much drags it down. The thing is, the easiest fix is to get rid of the Monster Blood stuff and apply this idea to an original story and different characters. It feels like it started that way, frankly. That doen't make for an interesting re-write though.
So you'd think it's just dead on arrival as it is. The problems with this saga are baked in, and the chances were not high that they would be ditched here. However, I like a good challenge. I wanted to see if you can keep the setting as it is but actually make it work. Keep the blue slugs and keep Evan and co, but make it good. Is that possible? Well, I'm not sure if my idea is perfect by any means, it has dumb stuff idea, but I think I have a way to make it work better.
So we'll start with the kids gathered Kermit's house as it does. But instead of spider antics or whatever, we'll get more into out ideas quickly. Evan brings Trigger over and Andy notices how chummy Evan is with him, as well as Kermit and Dogface. She confesses that she doesn't have a pet of her own and is starting to get jealous of the two, especially Evan. Evan gets along well pretty with Trigger, with him being the only creature that seems to like him. She admits she doesn't have the kind of companionship, how having much as far as real friends aside from Evan, and even then their friendship has been fairly toxic, with Andy being kind of to blame for a lot of that.
We can get deeper with that here but the main point is that she wants a pet, maybe having one will soften her up a bit, and give her some extra companionship. They agree to this and want to hit up Andy's uncle and aunt to ask if they can get one. But first, they bump into Conan. He just got a new dog that is big and scary, and now Trigger and Dogface have some bullies too, and Conan is just too powerful. There's a kerfuffle with that, and now Andy wants something that can deal with that. She now wants a big tough dog that can compete with Conan's dog.
The book had this weird thing with her dad working at a lab, and we can work with that. Here, her uncle works at a science lab and does all kinds of weird experiments. Sometime before, they handed off the Monster Blood to him to see if he can do something with it, possibly even deactivate it. So they figure now's a good time to get a status update there, on top of their other goal. They visit him and he says a pet is something he'll consider, but uh...insert excuse here for why they aren't for sure saying yes that, just something to bum Andy out a bit.
In other news, he's been working with the Monster Blood along with his partner, and says he managed to deactivate it. However, he's cryptic about it and doesn't offer a ton of details, and says he's thrown it away now that it's useless. The kids find this odd and at first are willing to not question, it means it's all over. But on their way out, they get curious and want to make sure it's truly deactivated. Evan won't want to do this but as usual Andy will rope him into it. They find a seemingly dead can of monster blood, but find another can as well.
This is where the slug come in. They take it home, and as in the book, it starts out as just blue gunk but than grows into a blue slug. Now, the first one will nice and cute, but it will stay that way. See, the idea is already taken from Gremlins, so let's go all the way and make a Gizmo. Andy loves the little guy and at first adopts it as a pet, liking having a pet of her own. The others are more weary given the odd origins of the creature, and she'll still wish she had a tougher pet, given this thing is the opposite of that.
Somehow it gets wet and a bunch of spawn. Here we'll just take further from Gremlins and have it be that them eating makes them monsters, the others are just more mischievous at first. I just need an excuse for the cute one to stay that way but there to be a way to turn him evil later, spoilers. The other slugs eat and become monsters. They make work of Conan and his dog, which Andy loves but soon they get out of control. From here it can play out kina the same, just with some of the little dumb moments being cleaned up.
It escalates to the point where there are many more and this is going on in public. Eventually this scientist guy will appear and brag about how his plan worked, then Andy's uncle will appear to explain everything. He worked on the monster blood with his partner, but the partner had different plans. He fascinated by what the blood could, especially knowing it can became this big green blob that attacks. Turns out he's more than a little evil, and planed to use the blood as as a weapon, and created the blue slugs to do so. A bit of a jump but roll with me here.
Uncle stopped him before they can be activated, threw it away, and had evil guy fired. You can fill in the names, I'm lazy. The garbage was gonna be picked up that day, that's why he didn't worry about anyone finding it but whoops. Evil Guy brags about how this is going well, but the slugs tear him up big time, leaving him running. A bit weak of a defeat but I need room for my epic resolution.
Like in the book, eventually the slugs start attacking themselves and eventually most start to die. Things seem to have taken a good turn, but now there's one left it and it has enough strength to not die. It is banged up though, and they think just one battle with a slug can take him down. They don't know what to do, as no person can stop them, except for other evil slugs. Then they remember the cute one Andy has grown to like during all this. The slug gestures in a way that shows it wants to take the lost evil slug head in. Andy doesn't want that, because while fighting it will likely exert the last bit of fighting energy it has, it will totally kill her cute friend.
The slug is persistent though. And after a tearful goodbye, Andy learns that when you love something, you have to be willing to set it free. It fights the evil slug, and this is enough to wear it out, and it dies. But of course, cute slug gets banged up and it dies. Bittersweet times all around. Everyone goes home and tries to get over all this. This all made Andy want to open a bit more so we get the premise she'll be better in the future, and uncle is like "fine we'll get a pet that isn't a blue slug"
Then we can have the twist from the book, where Conan eats a little bit of the slug can and starts to go through evil clone stuff. I like the twist somewhat so sure, keep it. Alternate idea for the climax, blue slug accidentally eats and becomes a monster that is able to stop the last evil one, but now they got another one. Andy does a "i know you're in there somewhere" thing and actually gets it to calm down despite their new form. That idea can work too, either way you get a bit emotional thing to conclude with.
And that's my idea. I know it's rough, I jumped through hoops to make the blue slugs come from the monster blood in a way, with Andy's scientist uncle and all that. I know it fits with the silly-ness of all this at least, so it kinda works. Honestly, a better idea would be to bring Sarabeth back to bring it full circle but I thought of that after all this so...sorry. I mostly just want the idea of Andy bonding with the cute slug, to give her extra development she really needed.
Perhaps we can put the third person focus on here this time, to allow for more of her thoughts. That could work well. The important thing is we end the saga on something that develops at least one of the characters further, but in a way that can still be silly fun. I can get deeper with Andy but it may be too much for for a 118 page book that is mostly meant to be fun. So I think I had a fine balance.
Either way, it's still better than what we got, even with some sloppy stuff. It's a rough outline but I think there's some better ideas here. Feel free to submit with your own ideas though, I know someone can come up with a way to put Sarabeth in there somewhere.
That about does it for this one. No idea what the next one is, I'll just see what I can come up with. I have ideas in my head, we'll see what comes of them. Until then, see ya.