I was very excited to see "Monster House" when it came out in theatres a few months ago. After all, it combined the best of both worlds for me… animation… and a haunted house. Add to that a couple of executive producers named Spielberg and Zemeckis and how could it possibly go wrong? My wife and I dragged our son to go see it a couple of weeks before it opened (at one of those pesky screeners) and prepared ourselves for a good laugh. What we weren't prepared for was to get a little… scared. The story starts off with two young boys who are totally convinced that the house across the street is haunted. You know the ones, every town has them. Kind of run down, the only inhabitant is usually an elderly person who is deemed to be a witch. This is the case with the house here, its only inhabitant being the extremely mean and crotchety Old Man Nebbercracker. But what the boys soon learn is that the house isn’t just haunted… it's far worse. The house… is alive.

As is the case when things like this happen, the boys try to tell everyone they know that the house is dangerous but no one will believe them. They are soon joined on their quest to reveal the house's secret by a neighbor girl, who at first doesn’t believe them either. However, when the boys save her from being eaten by the house, she has no choice but to help. Throughout the course of the film, several people fall prey to the house's seemingly ravenous appetite, until our trio bravely enters to try and stop it once and for all.

We absolutely loved the film and found it to be quite funny. But to tell the truth, some of the film's story elements were a little harsh (such as the old man's heart attack) and a lot of the imagery was nightmarishly scary. While "Monster House" is totally appropriate for audiences 9-10 years old and up, I wouldn't let any younger kids see it. In many ways it was almost more frightening than most of the supposed horror films that have been released over the last year. Even when we received the DVD a couple of weeks ago, there was no way I was going to let our 3-year old see it. She loves movies, but I have no doubt that some of the images would give her bad dreams.

Speaking of the DVD, Sony / Columbia Tristar recently released "Monster House" and even though we had to wait until our daughter went to bed, we couldn't wait to see it again. Technically speaking the movie looks terrific. The computer animation on the film was of a surreal style where everything looks 3-dimensional, but not so detailed as to look completely real. This added quite a bit to the making some of the sequences so scary. Add to that some great voiceover work by Steve Buscemi, Jason Lee, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Katherine Turner, Kevin James and Nick Cannon and you get a pretty entertaining film.

The DVD case features and "Interactive Animation Wheel", which is PR speak for a round piece of cardboard with different images on it. You can turn it and view the different pictures through a strategically placed die cut on the cover. As you turn it, you can see the kids standing in front of the house, then running away and finally being snatched up by the house's 'tongue.' The front cover also flaps open and there are more 'animated' images of the house morphing into its monstrous façade.

There are also several special features on the DVD, including a fairly well thought out commentary by Gil Kenan, who seems totally thrilled about the aspect of having to direct this movie. There are also a lot of comments by some of the other filmmakers involved (recorded separately), but they never identify who they are. I'm guessing one of them might have been Zemeckis, but I'm not really sure. There are also seven featurettes focusing on how the film was created, and most of these are quite fascinating, especially to anyone interested in the arduous process of making an animated film. You'll also find a multi angle feature for one of the sequences, showing it in storyboard format through finished product, and a photo gallery of some of the production art for the film.

"Monster House" is a great little movie to watch on Halloween, and to be honest I don’t think it received the attention it should have when it was first released. But where some critics at the time were saying that it was a great film for kids of all ages… I think they were asleep during the viewing. It is a great film, but not for all ages. Again, I'd shoot for the 9-10 years old and up crowd.

Directed by: Gil Kenan
Starring (the voices of): Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Jason Lee, Catherine O'Hara, Kathleen Turner, Fred Willard
Extras: Filmmaker Commentary, 7 Featurettes (Imaginary Heroes, Beginner's Luck, The Best of Friends, Lots of Dots, Black Box Theatre, Making it Real, Did You Hear That?), Evolution of a Scene - Eliza vs. Nebbercracker, The Art of Monster House - Photo Gallery
Specifications: Widescreen (2.40:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Sony / Columbia Tristar
Release Date: 10/24/2006
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG (For Scary Images and Sequences, Thematic Elements, Some Crude Humor, and Brief Language)
Website

We'll give Monster House a B+.