Review: Breathtaking animation brings 'Monster House' to life

In some cases – “Amityville Horror,” “Poltergeist,” “The Haunting” – the story revolves around the house itself. In other films, the spooky house is merely a small, but integral, subplot adding richness to the main story. Think of Boo Radley’s place in the classic “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

However it’s utilized, the scary domicile is effective. It’s something with which nearly every viewer can identify. We all have memories from childhood of a less than inviting house which was surrounded by not only weeds but tales of ghosts, murders and horrors barely imaginable.

Director Gil Kenan, under the auspices of executive producers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, uses the haunted house premise and breathtaking state-of-the-art animation to bring to life a delightfully scary tale that offers much to audiences young and old.

“Monster House” brings to mind the kids film “The Goonies,” which was co-written by Spielberg, but it’s able to go even more over the top. Audiences – even kids – will accept a greater number of implausibilities in an animated feature than a live action one. There are many scenes in “Monster House” fitting that scenario. But they add to rather than diminish the overall entertainment value of the film, which is the first of a trio of animated movies due this summer. “Ant Bully” and Steve Oedekerk’s “Barnyard” are the other two.

The main humanoid characters in “Monster House” are children stuck in the awkward time between being a little kid and a young adult. DJ (voiced by Mitchell Musso) notices his voice is changing and shows other signs of impending puberty. This is addressed later in the film.

DJ’s parents are off on an overnight trip and leave him in the somewhat dubious care of Elizabeth, a Goth-teen babysitter. His pal, Chowder (Sam Lerner), comes over to shoot some hoops with his new ball and make plans for the next day’s trick-or-treating. Plans go awry when Chowder’s basketball lands in the yard of Mr. Nebbercracker’s spooky house across the street from DJ’s place. DJ has spent a lot of time documenting the meanness unleashed by Nebbercracker on any poor kid who sets as little as one toe on his lawn. The old man confiscates toys, tricycles, bicycles ... even dogs.

When DJ tries to rescue Chowder’s ball, Nebbercracker nabs him but suffers a heart attack post haste. He’s taken off in an ambulance and the boys wonder if DJ is now a murderer. “It was an accident. They call that manslaughter,” Chowder reassures his friend.

After a strange middle of the night phone call, DJ begins watching the house and comes to the conclusion that it is indeed a living, malevolent being.

DJ and Chowder set out to get to the bottom of the house’s mystery.

Joining them is a rather smart and rather pretty girl from another neighborhood. Jenny (Spencer Locke) was selling cookies for her school when she, too, had a run-in with the house.

It’s mandatory in a coming-of-age type of film that a love interest, and preferably a first-kiss scene, be incorporated. “Monster House” doesn’t disappoint, and the romance angle is played sweetly and true to life. In fact, all of the characters here, despite the supernatural situation they find themselves in, behave just as real preteens would. This is due to the work of screenwriters Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab and Pamela Pettler, who also didn’t write down to the audience.

Some unexpected twists occur along the way as DJ and the others discover the history and secrets of the house that truly is haunted in every sense of the word.

This is director Gil Kenan’s first feature but his choices are on par with seasoned professionals. The casting – down to Fred Willard and Catherine O’Hara in cameo roles as DJ’s parents – is first-rate, and the animation is truly wondrous.

Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. served as the animation production company on the film, and as in the Zemeckis-produced “Polar Express,” the animation is achieved using digitally captured movements of live actors, not merely computer-generated algorithms. While they aren’t going for sheer realism, there is a more organic quality to the overall look and feel. The film is being presented in 3-D in a limited number of theaters, and one can only image how stunning that must be.

The film is rated PG and some of the scenes may indeed be too intense for the youngest of viewers. Like all great animated motion pictures – from “Fantasia” to “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle” to “Toy Story” – “Monster House” gives the kids much in which to delight while providing plenty of humor better understood by the older folks.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]