| Product: |
Monster House (DVD) |
| Date: |
31/07/08 (57 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: great comedy movie for all the family
Disadvantages: none
Director: Gil Kenan
Producers: Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey
Writers: Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab and Pamela Pettler
Stars: Mitchel Musso, Spencer Locke, Sam Lerner, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Steve Buscemi and Kathleen Turner.
Released in the summer of 2006 this computer animated masterpiece of a comical thriller cleverly follows the life in a small suburban street.
**MAIN CHARACTERS**
*Douglas J. "DJ" Walters: (voiced by Owen Draper) is a preteen boy who is always using his telescope to spy on his neighbour 'Nebbercracker', who lives directly opposite. Although he is young he can sometimes come across as quite mature and is trusted by his parents to a great extent.
Most of his school friends find him slightly strange, apart from his best friend 'Chowder'.
*Charles "Chowder": (Voiced by David Levi) is another preteen and is DJ's best friend, he comes across as a bit stupid and slightly immature. He is a 'latchkey' child as his father works at a pharmacy and his mother is always out at night with her personnel trainer.
*Jenny Bennet: (voiced by Allie DiMeco) is the smart girl who both preteen boys develop a crush on as they see her selling cookies in their street. She attends an all girl school and is very well educated for her age.
*Mr Nebblecracker: (voiced by Steve Buscemi) is the ratty old man who lives in the house opposite DJ. He is a very private man who confiscates everything that lands on his lawn to the point where kids fear going anywhere near his house.
*DJ's parents: (voiced by Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard) are both busy career people, both being in the dental trade. Mrs Walters still likes to treat DJ as a baby and pampers him much to the annoyance of Mr Walters, who believes DJ should be treated like a young adult.
They are not in the movie for long as they head off to a dental conference leaving DJ in the capable hands of the babysitter "Zee".
*Elizabeth "Zee": (voiced by Maggie Gyllenhaal) is DJ's babysitter for the week as his parents have gone away to a dental conference. She initially comes across as a very pleasant girl but her true self is quickly revealed when her boyfriend 'Bones' turns-up.
*Bones: (voiced by Jason Lee) is the weird looking boyfriend of "Zee", who turns up at the Walters to spend some time with her. He enjoys teasing DJ and sometimes goes as far as hurting the young boy. He also has a fear of the Nebbercracker house due to a frightening experience he had as a youngster.
*Reginald "Skull" Skulinski: (voiced by Jon Heder) is another weird teenager who is constantly attached to the arcade games by his fingers and thumbs. He is looked up to by the younger kids and is seen as a bit of a hero when he played a video game for 4 days solid, with the help of a gallon of choco milk and a large diaper. DJ seeks his help with his problems about evil goings on in his neighbourhood.
*Officers Landers and Lester: (voiced by Kevin James and Nick Cannon) are the two useless policemen who are more interested in penalising the kids than investigating their claims of an evil house trying to kill everyone. The two men are total opposite, Landers is the laid back officer who is wet nursing the rookie Lester, with his over zealous attempts at being a good officer.
*Constance the Giantess: (voiced by Kathleen Turner) is seen toward the end of the movie so I can't say too much more about her as it would spoil the movie itself.
**BRIEF PLOT**
When DJ's parent go away on a business trip he is left in the hands of a baby sitter, "Zee", she has only one rule... she will leave him alone if he leaves her alone..
DJ has been watching a house opposite him for quite some time, the Nebbercrackers house, believing that Mr Nebbercracker is an evil man who terrorises children for his own pleasure.
However, when events involving DJ, Chowder and Mr Nebbercracker happen and Mr Nebbercracker has a heart attack it is not long before DJ realises that the horrors around the house may be more sinister than he initially thought...
So he and Chowder begin to constantly watch the Nebbercrackers house to try and find out what really is happening.
Their horrors are confirmed when they are watching the house via DJ's telescope and have to come to the rescue of a cookie selling young girl, Jenny, who is about to knock on the Nebbercrackers door.
With the three children now being the only people to have seen the houses true abilities they then set about trying to stop the house from 'getting' any more children before Halloween night approaches and there are dozens of kids knocking at the door
**IN CONCLUSION**
I was persuaded to hire this by my 9 year old daughter from a well established hire shop on my high street.
The cover looked as though the movie was going to be very similar to a 'Scooby doo meets a ghost in a spooky old house' sort of thing.....
But how wrong I was....
What a great family movie, although there are some a scenes which may be a little frightening for some younger viewers.
The opening scenes giving the viewer an idea of what is to come as Nebbercracker begins his reign of fear as a little girl accidentally rides her tricycle onto his lawn...
But, as you continue to watch you soon realise there is more to this mans terror than first thought..
The story line is well written with a few twists and turns, keeping everyone watching from start to finish just to find out how DJ and Chowder can deal with their very strange problem, (and also their love triangle involving Jenny).
With it being animated it was easily possible to do what the creators did, (if they tried to achieve this with stunt men then there would be many law suits flying around).
The comedy in the movie is brilliant, especially when the two police officers arrive to investigate the complaints from the kids. The very funny, over zealous officer Lester, with his wide eyes and big attitude, making some fantastic one liners and giving some great comical effects.
There is so much constant entertainment that the movie never becomes boring to watch.
The animation is done to perfection, the characters being almost lifelike indeed, giving the movie a very pleasurable effect
Would I recommend this..?
Yes I certainly would.
In fact I have ordered a copy from Amazon for less than £5 as I think it is a movie that you will watch over and over again, (I know my kids will and so will I really).
It is an easy story to follow so takes no real brain power as you sit back and enjoy laughing with your family at the antic on screen.
Summary: Trick or treating will never be the same.....????
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