Monster House is My Favorite Movie of all Time
Published Tuesday, May 29, 2007 by T-Man | E-mail this post
T-Man’s back! And he’s reviewing the best movie he’s ever seen! Monster House is pure glory. Honestly, though, it should have been released closer to Halloween instead of last summer. Of course, I think the DVD was released about that time, so it doesn’t really matter.
Cars has nothing on this!
The visuals of this movie are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Monster House uses the same performance capture (the act of inserting an actor’s movements or facial expressions over an animated character to make the characters look more realistic) animation that The Polar Express used, except made less realistic so that the audience isn’t freaked out by the characters’ looks (I honestly don’t know why The Polar Express freaked them out, though), and it mostly does a good job. It’s very realistic-looking. The only problem is that the hair of some of the characters looks like claymation, but this is a CGI animated Halloween movie, not The Nightmare Before Christmas!
Modern, very modern.
Before I comment, let me tell you the story of the movie: Mr. Nebbercracker is a mean old man who dislikes children. Most of the time, people drop stuff on his lawn and then go on it to get it back, but he scares them away and takes whatever got on his lawn. When DJ’s friend Chowder’s basketball lands on Mr. Nebbercracker’s lawn, DJ goes to get it, but Mr. Nebbercracker comes out and grabs DJ and holds him up and starts interrogating him, only to stop abruptly when he has a heart attack (or stroke) and appears to die, but DJ thinks he killed him. Later, starting with a mysterious phone call that was nothing but groans, DJ begins to think that Mr. Nebbercracker is back from the dead and haunting him, his spirit having possessed his house, which eats anything that comes near. That’s all I can tell without spoiling. Now, for the comments. Watch an old Disney musical, and then watch this. You’ll notice that the humor style is very different.
Here are a few examples:
1) When the children are trying to convince Jenny (the red-haired girl) that the house is a monster when she walks up to it, she says, “Are you guys mentally challenged? If you are, I’m certified to teach you baseball.”
2) When DJ and Chowder are spying on Mr. Nebbercracker’s house and DJ’s babysitter comes in, they talk some and DJ says, “We haven’t left the room all night, not even to go to the bathroom,” during which his babysitter picks up what was once a bottle of Mountain Dew (now a bottle of pee) and he says, “Don’t drink that.”
See? I’ve noticed that many recent CGI movies have this smarter and funnier style.
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T-Man’s Pros and Cons:
Pros:
+ The animation is just great
+ Very original
+ Has the new style of humor
Cons:
- The characters’ hair looks like it is claymated
Watch It/Skip It:
Watch, watch, watch, watch, watch, WATCH!!!! This is a great movie for the whole family to watch together (despite many complaining that it should have been rated PG-13 for a plethora of reasons, but that’s bull)! I also suggest buying the DVD to see the special features.
Rating: Pure Greatness
Cars has nothing on this!
The visuals of this movie are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Monster House uses the same performance capture (the act of inserting an actor’s movements or facial expressions over an animated character to make the characters look more realistic) animation that The Polar Express used, except made less realistic so that the audience isn’t freaked out by the characters’ looks (I honestly don’t know why The Polar Express freaked them out, though), and it mostly does a good job. It’s very realistic-looking. The only problem is that the hair of some of the characters looks like claymation, but this is a CGI animated Halloween movie, not The Nightmare Before Christmas!
Modern, very modern.
Before I comment, let me tell you the story of the movie: Mr. Nebbercracker is a mean old man who dislikes children. Most of the time, people drop stuff on his lawn and then go on it to get it back, but he scares them away and takes whatever got on his lawn. When DJ’s friend Chowder’s basketball lands on Mr. Nebbercracker’s lawn, DJ goes to get it, but Mr. Nebbercracker comes out and grabs DJ and holds him up and starts interrogating him, only to stop abruptly when he has a heart attack (or stroke) and appears to die, but DJ thinks he killed him. Later, starting with a mysterious phone call that was nothing but groans, DJ begins to think that Mr. Nebbercracker is back from the dead and haunting him, his spirit having possessed his house, which eats anything that comes near. That’s all I can tell without spoiling. Now, for the comments. Watch an old Disney musical, and then watch this. You’ll notice that the humor style is very different.
Here are a few examples:
1) When the children are trying to convince Jenny (the red-haired girl) that the house is a monster when she walks up to it, she says, “Are you guys mentally challenged? If you are, I’m certified to teach you baseball.”
2) When DJ and Chowder are spying on Mr. Nebbercracker’s house and DJ’s babysitter comes in, they talk some and DJ says, “We haven’t left the room all night, not even to go to the bathroom,” during which his babysitter picks up what was once a bottle of Mountain Dew (now a bottle of pee) and he says, “Don’t drink that.”
See? I’ve noticed that many recent CGI movies have this smarter and funnier style.
<
T-Man’s Pros and Cons:
Pros:
+ The animation is just great
+ Very original
+ Has the new style of humor
Cons:
- The characters’ hair looks like it is claymated
Watch It/Skip It:
Watch, watch, watch, watch, watch, WATCH!!!! This is a great movie for the whole family to watch together (despite many complaining that it should have been rated PG-13 for a plethora of reasons, but that’s bull)! I also suggest buying the DVD to see the special features.
Rating: Pure Greatness
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