I�ve grown really tired of the endless stream of below-par CGI animated movies that do nothing more than show how good Pixar really are. What made this one stand out for me is that fact that Steven Speilberg and Robert Zemeckis served as Executive Producers for Gil Kenan�s Directorial debut, 91 minutes later I was a satisfied man.
Monster House is quite a dark and surreal tale of three kids discovering the neighbours house is actually a living, breathing monster that eats anything or anyone that comes near it. You can tell from the basic synopsis that this is one strange tale, and to be honest this is one of the hardest reviews I�ve ever had to write because it is such an unusual movie. It is quite dark at times, especially for a kid�s movie, and the story seems to unfold almost as though it was an improvisational piece. That said, the movie is a work of genius, it hits all the right places with its humour, scares and action. The characters are well thought out and likeable, although some border on the stereotypical. The script is extremely witty and the art direction is sublime with its Tim Burtonesque style of animation, at times I thought I was watching stop-motion animation.
Gil Kenan really has outdone himself, but it�s the supporting cast and crew that needs to be thanked, the movie has some Speilberg tricks sprinkled throughout, and the voice cast is exceptional, with a huge amount of real starpower including Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jason Lee backing up the three young leads. One can only hope now that traditional animation movies are a thing of the past, that the quality of CGI movies can step up instead of relying on its technical capabilities. |
