Monster House

[elpablo]

Also:

I enjoyed how some of the characters slightly resembled their voice talent. And I was impressed at how well they took advantage of the freedom of animation. The camerawork was a lot of fun. I especially like the shot of Mr Nebacracker driving off with Constance's cage hitched to his truck.

[Ravi]

Is it worth the extra $1.50 they're charging here for the 3D?

[MacGuffin]

Okay, I'll be the killjoy here.

I just couldn't get into it. I thought the best parts were in the trailers. And I thought the animation was no better than an episode of Jimmy Newtron.


I should have seen Clerks II instead of this.

[Ghostboy]

Is it worth the extra $1.50 they're charging here for the 3D?

Yeah. Absolutely. As long as the option is available, I wouldn't want to see it any other way.

[RegularKarate]

Okay, I'll be the killjoy here.

I just couldn't get into it. I thought the best parts were in the trailers. And I thought the animation was no better than an episode of Jimmy Newtron.


I should have seen Clerks II instead of this.

Not getting into is understandable, but the animation is WAY better than Jimmy Newtron... while it's certainly no Pixar, the level of detail is pretty incredible and the faces are VERY expressive... instead of cartoonish looks locked in keyframe positions like you find in a lot of the lazier animated films (like I halfway expected to find in this one), the faces really showed the emotion and made it feel quite real.

Clerks II was garbage

[modage]

mac must've not seen it in 3D.   

[MacGuffin]

mac must've not seen it in 3D.   

I don't think that would made a difference. I just felt like I knew what was going to happen ("The leave the keys in these things.") and biding my time until it happened. I kept thinking thoughout, "This is 'Christine' except with a house instead of a car."

[Fernando]

I should have seen Clerks II The New World on the big screen when it was showing instead of this all the films I saw last weekend and the dvd's I buy to only see them once.

[picolas]

Macguffpwn'd

fernandowned?

[MacGuffin]

Gil Kenan developing THE CITY OF EMBER
Source: Cinescape

Gil Kenan (Monster House) talked to Sci Fi Wire about his upcoming project THE CITY OF EMBER.

THE CITY OF EMBER takes place in a future when Earth's surface has been ruined by toxic pollutants and humans live in cities under the surface. Two 12-year-olds, Doon Harrow and Lina Mayfleet, decide they are going to the surface when their only source of light underground begins to flicker out. No one has ever ventured beyond the safety of Ember, but the city's life supply is running out, and someone has to do something about it.

THE CITY OF EMBER is based on a book by Jeanne DuPrau and will be a live-action science fiction film.

"It's a post-apocalyptic children's film,," said Kenan. "It's going to be closely based on the novel."

Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman bought the rights years back and will serve as producers via their production company.

[Ravi]

I loved this film too.  Like GT said, the story was simple but imaginative and well-done.  The eyes on the people don't look quite right, but they look much better than what I saw in the trailer for Polar Express.  The writing wasn't overly clever or hip.  The characters were relatable without that veil of cleverness that often shows up in animated films.

Plus, its not a talking animal movie with celebrity voices and a lot of pop culture references.

The 3D effect wasn't gimmicky, with stuff constantly flying at you, nor was it fatiguing on the eyes.  It enhanced the presentation, and I hope more films use it.

[last days of gerry the elephant]

I didn't watch it in 3D... 

But it was good all the same. From what I'm hearing about Clerks 2 & Lady In The Water, I'm happy about seeing this instead.

[Gold Trumpet]

I'm slightly reconsidering my position. The film is technically admirable but I see what MacGuffin is saying. I enjoyed watching the movie but I didn't want to see it a second time. On afterthought I don't think I connected to any of the characters or even the story. I saw Over the Hedge 3 times and even Clerks II twice. Every good summer and Pixar movie are easy to watch many times. The selling point of Monster House is how well it was made and how it inhabited the influence of some really good films. It just needed a better story.

So, Over the Hedge is still #1 for the summer.

[MacGuffin]

'Monster' attacks again in 3-D

Sony Pictures is high on 3-D. The company will re-release its summer animated film "Monster House" for a two-week 3-D engagement before Halloween. Set to bow Oct. 6, the film, from exec producers Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, will have a two-week 3-D engagement on Real D screens nationwide. Sony plans to release the film on more than 100 screens in advance of its DVD release, set for Oct. 24. "Monster" will come off the limited screens before Buena Vista unveils "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" on Oct. 20. "Now we get the opportunity to see 'Monster' in 3-D in the theater to remind people what a good movie it is before the DVD comes out," Sony's president of distribution Rory Bruer said. "It's hard to ignore the summer when the weekdays are always so good. The potential to bring it back prior to the DVD release was always there. Now we have another shot at it."

"Monster" has grossed $67.8 million after five weeks in release.

[RegularKarate]

I personally liked Monster House and saw it twice, but I found this pretty interesting:

From a blog

This is a story about the nicest thing a non-relative has taken the time to do for one of my children without getting paid for it.

When Salinger was 7 she became plagued with nightmares about the film 'Monster House'. Strangely, through a friend, I knew the screenwriter Dan Harmon (@danharmon, Creator of 'Community' on NBC).
So one day, in early 2008, I wrote to him:
_______________________________________________________________________________________


Dear Dan,
Salinger has watched Monster House twice now.
Both times she has been plagued by nightmares for at least a week following the viewings.
She only watched it the second time because she was struck by the fact that 4 year old Henry was completely unfazed by it and figured it couldn't have been so scary.

Me- What is the part that scares you so badly?
Her- That the woman is so evil that even after she's dead and none of the kids care about teasing her anymore...she turns into a house and chases them. She's too crazy, that's pure evil.
Me- Is it the animation that's creepy?
Her- No, it's scary that someone is so mean that they could come back from the dead, become something that should not be alive and then try to kill people.
Me- yeah.
Henry- I think it's AWESOME

It's been 3 nights of her waking up crying and I totally blame you.
You should come over and rationalize the entire thing to her.
Okay, maybe you could just write her a note because she doesn't believe I know the creator of her nightmares.

Kelly
____________________________________________________________________________________

Here was his immediate and amazing response.......
____________________________________________________________________________________


Dear Salinger:

Your Mom told me about Monster House scaring you. It sounds like one of the things that upset you is the fact that the house kept wanting to hurt people even after nobody wanted to hurt it anymore.

I will tell you a secret that sounds so silly, you might not believe it, but this is true: I never finished writing Monster House before my bosses turned it into a movie. And then different writers, people I don't even know, changed the story in lots of ways, and the movie that you saw was not the story I wanted to tell you.

I think a good story, even if it is sad or scary while you're watching it, should always make you a little less scared after you've seen it. Because even a scary story, if it's a good scary story, takes us into strange, dark places that don't make sense at first, and helps us see that they do make sense, and are therefore not so scary.

And that didn't happen in Monster House. The kids go inside the house, and everything's scary in there, but nothing starts making more sense. I don't know about you, but when I go inside a giant scary monster, I expect to be rewarded for my bravery. There should always be something inside a monster that helps you understand it, and makes you less scared of it, and able to make the monster go away. Not just a bunch of stuff that makes you more confused and scared.

And why, after they escaped the house, did that old man tell them another scary story about a mean fat lady that didn't make very much sense either? I'll tell you why. Because Gil Kenan is a hack and Steven Spielberg is a moron. But hey, I shouldn't be dumping this stuff on you.

Let's just say, Salinger, that I have a lot of questions about that movie, too. And because I saw them making it, I know it's not real, so it doesn't scare me, but it makes me mad that it scared you, because I tried to tell them they were making a bad movie that was going to confuse and frighten smart children, instead of making children more brave, and they acted like I was stupid for being afraid that would happen.

I guess you and I are just smarter than other people, and I guess part of being smart is being scared of things that don't scare other people. Henry's a little younger than us and he just thinks the movie looks cool, which it does. And we won't take that away from him. But you and I are looking at the movie through smart, sensitive, older eyes, and we can see how confusing it is.

The good news is, although our smart, sensitive, older eyes will probably always see more reasons to be afraid than other people's eyes, we also have smart, sensitive older brains that can make sense of scary things, and make them less scary, not only for us, but for everyone else. Who knows what kind of amazing things you will be doing as you live your life. Maybe you will tell stories, or paint pictures, or sing songs, or climb mountains, or clean streets, or study insects or rescue elephants. But we know one thing for sure: you are going to be very special while you're doing it, and you're going to remove a lot of fear from other people's lives, because you're smart enough to see it, which means you're smart enough to conquer it.

I hope one day I can finish writing a movie that they don't change so much, and if you see it, I hope it makes you happy. Until then, I heard that Wall-E is very good, you should go see that. And next time Monster House is on, just remember that the guy that wrote it told you it was dumb.

Dan