Monster House

Genre: Family

Director: Gil Kenan

Screenplay: Dan Harmon, Ron Shrab, and Pamela Pettler

Starring: Steve Buscemi, Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard, Jason Lee, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mitchell Musso, and Sam Lerner.

DJ is noticing something very strange about the house across the street. The house seems to have evil intentions, and people are disappearing after they go near it. Along with his friend, Chowder, DJ decides to confront the house before anyone else falls victim. He’s just not sure if he’s going to make it out of the house, either.

There are a couple of reasons why I give this movie a big outstanding. The first one is the animation itself. This is one of the first films I’ve seen where the cinematography of an animated film has taken a step further to really replicate that of a live action film. The lack of this doesn’t make an animated film necessarily bad. I am assuming that focus on this type of cinematography adds more frames to the budget, and computer generated animation is not cheap. For example, there is a scene where DJ is playing basketball. The detail and care that is added to the scene is fantastic. There was many a time where I wondered if the film was originally planned as a live action film, but maybe it would have more expensive to make the house animation seem real.

The second reason is the story. The characters were so well rounded that it would always make me laugh. I kept comparing this movie to The Goonies as I watched, which is one of the best family movies ever. The same care and detail that was put into the animation was also put in the story. It is a great family movie, but I should mention that the story is a little more mature than for younger audiences. I do not mean that it is mean or inappropriate, a little more developed and may not hold interest for children.

I give this film 4 Buttery Kernals.

Coming Soon: The Craft