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Yet another film to add to 2006's already excessive crop of animated movies, Monster House has been receiving some decent reviews, making it stand out from the crowd a little. This factor, along with the novelty of the film being 3D, enticed me to see it. I enjoyed it quite a lot; it's well executed and feels a bit more personal than just another mass-produced family flick. The script is also surprisingly witty, with an appealingly adult sense of humour (a lot of the jokes will go completely over young children's heads). The look of the film, while not stunning in a Pixar way, is quite effective. It sometimes looks like a stop-motion picture, which is no bad thing. The main negative for me was that the plot seemed a little thin for a feature film. Also, the setting is rather intimate and small-scale, meaning that the film does lack some variety. The third act is very entertaining though and helps revive the sagging narrative somewhat. With the huge number of CGI films being released these days, Monster House probably doesn't quite have enough going for it. A few entertaining characters helped a lot (especially the rookie cop) and the 3D was also a nice touch, although the effect was not hugely noticeable much of the time.
The summary
Monster House is entertaining and witty enough to appeal to adults as well as kids. However, the story seemed quite stretched and got slightly repetitive, but the excellent ending did make up for that somewhat.
