“Monster House” (Sony Pictures)
Fun and Chills For Adults and Kids
Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg are two of the producers of the new animated film “Monster House” and the movie has some of that “Back To the Future”/”E.T.” magic. This is a movie about a haunted house and it entertains adults as well as kids with its subtle humor and chilling look.
DJ (voiced by Mitchell Musso) lives across the street from a house owned by a crabby old man named Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi). The old man is constantly shooing kids away from his home and seems to get crazier and crazier the closer it gets to Halloween.
One day DJ’s parents go off on a trip and leave him in the care of a babysitter named Zee (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Zee has her own amusement priorities and DJ isn’t one of them. DJ invites his friend Chowder (Sam Lerner) over and the two of them investigate the house from his room with a telescope.
Eventually Mr. Nebbercracker is involved in an accident leaving the house unattended. A girl named Jenny (Spencer Locke) approaches the house trying to sell candy for a school program. The two boys try to warn her about the house being haunted and evil but she ignores them. Chaos ensues and soon Jenny is on the boys’ side as to their opinion of the house.
The animation in this film is the same as that used in “The Polar Express” whereby the actors actually do all the physical actions and their movements are captured by specialized cameras. The film is then converted to animation and this process makes the animated figures appear more lifelike. It is amazing to see and enjoyable to watch.
“Monster House” has a lot of subtle humor too. The dialogue is often hilarious and the characters such as Zee and Mr. Nebbercracker are zanily amusing. DJ, Chowder and Jenny come across as real kids and their conversations are prefect and perfectly entertaining. All of the voice actors are well cast for their roles and they add to the entertainment value of the movie.
The film is rated PG for comic violence. It all might be a little much for children 6 and under but all others should have a great time with the chills, thrills and humor.
There have been a lot of animated movies this summer, so many that audiences have tired of some of them. “Monster House” should be the exception. It is a fun film for adults and kids alike and it has enough humor and horror to keep them coming back for repeated viewings until Halloween rolls around.
I scored “Monster House” a haunted 7 out of 10.
