I'll be honest; I enjoy watching animated movies when I become getting tired of horror movies. I know when I feel depressed, I watch kid movies to hopefully make me happy again. Animated movies somehow make me feel like a kid again and Monster House is another movie that points that out. Have you ever had a haunted house in the neighbourhood that scared all the kids? Have you ever wanted to know if it's really haunted? Well, Monster House is definitely your movie. Although, this is a kid film straight-up, I highly believe teenagers and adults will highly enjoy Monster House. When DJ, his pal Chowder and Jenny, they team up to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the house. Yes, we know it's all true! The house is haunted! But the team of three doesn't know what they have gotten themselves into when the house is literally alive and it's hungry.

The story is pretty cool if you have wished to do or ever done in your childhood. I wish I could have, but definitely not this house! Monster House's story is easily an enjoyable ride. It's thoroughly fun, exciting and down-right enjoyable to watch. The characters in the movie are literally fun in character that you can easily see them being one of your friends when you were in middle school(or whatever grades these three are in). This makes the film more fun because the characters resemble so much of what a kid their age would do in their situation. The voice acting is definitely worth bragging about. Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Jason Lee, Catherine O' Hara, Kathleen Turner and Fred Willard all lend their voices in the movie. Did I hear perhaps Jon Heder as the pizza dude?

I have to give credit to Sony Pictures Imageworks INC. for their excellent job on the visuals. This is the best looking animated film this year. They are superior in visual quality and it's deeply creative. That is about all I can say about it. Oh, and this too: It's pretty! I also might brag about the director Gil Kenan whom did an extraordinary job making Monster House a stylish animated film that just oozes with brilliancy. This has to be the best directing in an animated film for two years!

I know Monster House isn't exactly an all together excellent movie, if you can ignore the minor, but important bad things, you'd definitely see why I still give this movie an highly appreciated score. The script is a problem at times, making things happen that are so unrealistic. For example, wouldn't you think the neighbours would hear a house chasing after kids in the middle of the street in the middle of the night? Apparently, Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab and Pamela Pettler didn't think so. They are the writers of the script and most of the time, they are quite good at what they've presented. I also found that the movie isn't funny through most of the film which is kind of a bummer since this is a children's film. They do throw in some dry humor here and there, but Monster House is mainly a serious yet mildly childish fun.

The problems with Monster House is few and quite minor, but the majority of the film is quite an enjoyable experience. Not only is this film enjoyable the first time, Monster House is such a fun movie that everyone will probably see this again and again. I highly doubt anyone hating this film. Monster House is a good movie for the kiddies to watch on Halloween. But for you "grown-ups", don't be surprised if Monster House lures you in with it's fun.


Monster House Information:
Genre: Animated/kid film
Running Time: 91 minutes
Year: 2006
Rating: PG for Scary Images and Sequences, Thematic Elements, Some Crude Humor and Brief Language

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12