a very, very, very mean house

Using the motion capture animation technology that was developed for POLAR EXPRESS, producers Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg team up to bring us a tale of a house. This is no ordinary house though. Most children growing up are faced with a house in their neighborhood that is off limits. Does a mean and scary man live there? Is it deserted and dangerous? Haunted? In the case of MONSTER HOUSE, the answer to all of those questions is “yes”, but this particular house also seems to have a life of its own. On the days approaching Halloween, it comes to life and literally eats everyone that comes knocking. Three children (DJ, Chowder and Jenny) take it on themselves to do something about this “monster” and develop a plan to stop its reign of terror.
MONSTER HOUSE reminded me of an animated combination of THE GOONIES and THE BURBS. I know that might seem like an interesting combination, but this is an interesting film. The story is clever and original enough to keep anyone interested to see what will happen next and the use of the children and their banter along with the adventure that they face is just plain fun.
The look of MONSTER HOUSE is far better than that of POLAR EXPRESS. It does not have the creepy look to all of the humans that POLAR did. On the contrary, the characters look animated for sure, but also possess a unique quality from the motion capture. The camera is more free than in a “regular” film and the director (Gil Kenan) takes full advantage of it, sucking us into his world of the neighborhood from the opening shot. MONSTER HOUSE is well plotted and paced, creating a good adventure that most kids will eat up and most adults will enjoy.
Like many other animated features that come along, this one is filled with familiar voices throughout. The voice talent include Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Lee, John Heder and several others. What I really liked is that none of the three leads were recognizable. Why I liked this is because they were simply the characters to me, nothing more or less. One of the mistakes of most animation is casting “names” because it does nothing but distract while we watch the film. MONSTER HOUSE does not suffer from that.
MONSTER HOUSE is a really fun movie, but not a great one. It does not possess the magic or the wit of the Pixar films, but it stands above most other animated films of recent years. Because of the technology and the quality of the film, look for this one to grab the Oscar at next March.