Movie Title: Monster House
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/10)
Year: 2006
Monster House official site: http://www.monsterhouse-movie.com/
Well.. well, a movie that needs no introduction as the movie title already says it all. Horror movie that resolves around a creepy house that eats anything that falls on it property.
With Steven Spielberg big name in it, who needs big stars voice over. Then again… who says only big stars does the best voice over?
Okay… the movie starts peacefully where it shows a little leave falling and floating in the air like many other movie (eg. Forest Gump). Then there is this little girl riding on her tricycle whistling Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Story’s song. Haha.. yes, talking about hardcore Steven Spielberg branding!
I must say I am surprised they didn’t name any character Steven. Maybe they do, just I didn’t very much bother about the small small and sub sub characters. Oh yeah… let’s continue. Everything was so peaceful when suddenly the tricycle got stuck at Mr. Nebbercracker’s (Steve Buscemi) front lawn. He angrily march out of the house and gives the little girl a scary look while grumbling. He then took the little girl’s tricycle and scares her away.
DJ (Mitchel Musso) who stays opposite of Nebbercracker is always eyeing on him thinking he is a psychotic old man that is suspicious and scary. He always tries to tell his parents about it but at no vail. He kept getting shut down by his parents. Not to even mention his mother treats him like a little boy.
One day, when his parents were out of town and Chowder (Sam Lerner) came over for a visit. While playing around, the basketball that he newly buy falls at Nebbercracker’s lawn. He then begs DJ to help get it back. He refused at first.. but then decided to do it. Just as he is about to reach for the ball, Nebbercracker came out and scream and scared the shit out of DJ. Just as Nebbercracker is about to grab DJ, he was attacked with a stroke. DJ thought he killed Nebbercracker and the spirit is now at the house. Matters turn worst when he receive a phone call from Nebbercracker’s house.
They both starts to be really scared when the witness the Nebbercracker’s house ate the dog. They even suspect their babysitter, Zee’s (Maggie Gyllenhaal) boyfriend, Bones (Jason Lee) is being eaten by the house as well when they saw the beer bottle being sucked down. They then start to watch the house and jot down every little detail about it.
They then saw this cute girl, Jenny (Spencer Locke). Both Chowder an DJ tries to impress the girl after saving her from being eaten by the house. They all try to tell th adults about the house but none of them believe.
Together they figure and finally comes out with a decision to go in to the house. Just as they were inside, they notice that the house is actually very much alive by itself and noticed that the house has this dark secret.
Yes, apparently everyone rumoured that Nebbercracker killed his wife. Yeah, his wife is a giant size woman that is being locked in the circus. Nebbercracker was so in love with her that he decided to save her and live happily with her. They then bought a land and built a house. When they were constructing the house, some small kids was throwing stones at her and teasing her. She was very angry and decided to run after them where she slipped and fall in to the cement of the house and died.
Her angry soul was buried together with the house and it eats and scared any children especially on Halloween’s day. Mr. Nebbercracker was home in the nick of time when DJ, Chowder and Jenny needs him. Yeah, the house was so angry when DJ and friends pull Mr. Nebbercracker to runaway when they know that all this while, Mr. Nebbercracker scares the kids away in order to protect them.
Mr. Nebbercracker was left with no other choice except to blow the house down as it gets out of control. He was then being throw and got hurt and the job was obviously being passed to the trio. The funny part is I never understand why they bother trying to light the dynamite when all they need to do is just throw it in to the chimney.
Obviously the house was being blown in to small pieces. We are talking about watching a children animation movie here. The baddies always die or got jailed up.
Yes, if you ask me… I think this movie is not that suitable for kids as it surely will make them have nightmares. And obviously, there are lots of verbal jokes which I doubt kids would understand.
Overall, the animation still seems a little raw compared to Pixar’s and dreamwork’s stuff. But well… I must say they did a very good job on animating the house.
Don’t really leave the cinema that early as there are some catchy bits at the end. Yeah, Bones, the dog and the policemen that were being eaten by the house in the first place reappeared.. unharmed… unscratched. Hahaha.. yeah, apparently, they will have to do that in order to get the PG (Parental Guidance Suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children. This signifies that the film rated may contain some material parents might not like to expose to their young children – material that will clearly need to be examined or inquired about before children are allowed to attend the film. Explicit sex scenes and scenes of drug use are absent; nudity, if present, is seen only briefly, horror and violence do not exceed moderate levels.) rating.
Oh yeah, please visit their site. I love their loading page. It has this flip animation thing going on while waiting for the page to load and it’s pretty cute.