| Monster House | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Gil Kenan |
| Screenplay by | |
| Story by |
|
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Xavier Perez Grobet |
| Edited by |
|
| Music by | Douglas Pipes |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 91 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $75 million[3] |
| Box office | $141.9 million[3] |
Monster House is a 2006 American animatedsupernaturalhorror comedy film[4] directed byGil Kenan in hisdirectorial debut, from a screenplay written byPamela Pettler and the writing team ofDan Harmon andRob Schrab based on a story written by Harmon and Schrab. The plot revolves around a neighborhood being terrorized by a sentienthaunted house duringHalloween. The film features the voice talents ofMitchel Musso,Sam Lerner,Spencer Locke,Steve Buscemi,Maggie Gyllenhaal,Kevin James,Nick Cannon,Jason Lee,Fred Willard,Jon Heder,Catherine O'Hara, andKathleen Turner.
Produced byColumbia Pictures,Relativity Media, and executive producersRobert Zemeckis'ImageMovers andSteven Spielberg'sAmblin Entertainment, the human characters were animated usingmotion-capture animation, which was previously utilized in Zemeckis' previous film,The Polar Express (2004). It was also Sony's first computer-animated film produced bySony Pictures Imageworks and Relativity's first animated film.[5]
Monster House was released theatrically bySony Pictures Releasing on July 21, 2006. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $142 million worldwide against a $75 million budget. It received nominations for theAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature and theGolden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, but lost toHappy Feet andCars, respectively.
On the eve ofHalloween, young Dustin James "D.J." Walters spies on his elderly neighbor, Horace Nebbercracker, who is known for frightening children off his property and stealing their belongings. D.J.'s parents leave town for aconvention, placing him in the care of his teenage babysitter Elizabeth, or Zee. Later, D.J.'s best friend Charles "Chowder" Peterson loses hisbasketball on Nebbercracker's front yard and D.J. attempts to retrieve it. Nebbercracker angrily confronts D.J., but faints from overexerting himself and is taken away by paramedics, leading the boys to believe he has died.
When Zee's boyfriend Bones visits, he recalls Nebbercracker's theft of his kite and relates rumors of himcannibalizing his late wife. After Zee kicks Bones out, he sees his kite in the front door of Nebbercracker's house and tries to reclaim it, only to be sucked inside. D.J. and Chowder later investigate and discover that the house is possessed by a ghost, which they assume is Nebbercracker's vengeful spirit.
The next morning, the duo save aGirl Scout named Jennifer "Jenny" Bennett from the house as she sells candy. Jenny calls police officers Landers and Lister, but the house cunningly stays inactive when the officers arrive and they dismiss the report. The kids consult local supernatural expert Reginald "Skull" Skulinski, who speculates that the house can only be vanquished when its heart is struck. Deducing that itsfurnace is the heart, the kids construct a dummy filled withcold medicine and offer it to the house to eat, hoping to put it to sleep.
However, Landers and Lister disrupt the plan, and the house devours them all. The children explore the now-asleep house and discover ashrine to Nebbercracker's wife, Constance, whose skeletal remains are entombed incement. The house awakens, but Jenny grabs itschandelier-likeuvula and forces the house tovomit them back outside.
Nebbercracker returns from the hospital alive and reveals that Constance is the house. He explains that when they first met, Constance was an unwilling participant in a circusfreak show. Nebbercracker helped her escape, married her, and began constructing a house for them. On Halloween, children began harassing Constance, causing her to fall into the basement, where she was suffocated by aconcrete mixer inadvertently activated in the chaos. Upon the house's completion, Constance's spirit merged with it, forcing her husband to feign aggression towards children for their own safety.
D.J. tells Nebbercracker that they must put Constance to rest. Overhearing this, Constance uses a pair of trees to lift the house from its foundation and pursues her husband and the kids. They lure Constance to a nearbyconstruction site, where Chowder fights her with afront end loader. D.J. tossesdynamite into the chimney, destroying the house. Constance's spirit reunites with Nebbercracker before finally ascending to theafterlife. Nebbercracker and the children return everything the former stole to their rightful owners, Jenny returns home, and D.J. and Chowder go trick-or-treating, which D.J. previously felt they were too old for. During the credits, all of the house's victims emerge from the basement unscathed.
Monster House was initially set up atDreamWorks Animation SKG, based on apitch by newcomerGil Kenan.[6] Having just finished film school recently, Kenan had been having meetings with film producers for a while, but hadn't found any success, with a screenplay based on thePac-Man video game series going unproduced. After Kenan receivedDan Harmon's andRob Schrab's screenplay forImageMovers, Kenan had a meeting with head of story Bennett Schneir, where he was able to pitch his vision for the film. Schneir worked forRobert Zemeckis as the head of development at ImageMovers, and Kenan had a meeting with Zemeckis quickly thereafter, apparently due to the filmmakers wanting to get a director for the project as fast as they could. Upon impressing Zemeckis with his pitch, Kenan then had a meeting withSteven Spielberg, where he pitched the film to Spielberg in a presentation with some sketches and drawings he had drawn before meeting Zemeckis.[7] By 2004, the studio put the film inturnaround, after whichSony Pictures Entertainment picked up the project and began production on August 23 of that year, with Zemeckis and Spielberg serving as executive producers.[6]
The original screenplay ofMonster House was, in Kenan's words, "absolutely brilliant and laugh-out-loud funny". Due to his experience as a storyteller, Kenan decided to preserve all the characters and the tone from Harmon's and Schrab's story, but added the idea that the titular house was possessed by a soul, leading to the creation of Constance Nebbercracker and the house's backstory. To help him revise the script and introduce Constance and Horace Nebbercracker into the plot, Kenan broughtPamela Pettler after reading her script forCorpse Bride (2005). They worked on the script at her house, and to meet the established deadline, they finished a draft quickly and sent it toAmy Pascal at Sony'sColumbia Pictures. As work on the screenplay was underway, in a few months of preparation, Kenan had assembled a team of storyboard artists led by Simeon Wilkins inStudio City, Los Angeles to put up rudimentary boards with scratch dialogue and temporal score, with Khang Lee andChris Appelhans collaborating on paintings for the film.[7]
The film was shot usingmotion-capture, in which the actors performed the characters' movement and lines while linked to sensors, a process pioneered by Zemeckis for his 2004 filmThe Polar Express (2004).[8] Zemeckis was in the process of starting filming onThe Polar Express when he met Kenan, who visited the set to see how that film was filmed and discussed with Kenan how they would exactly shootMonster House, deciding that they should prioritize the story before the filming technology, though Kenan always felt that the story should use animation to create a world with a living house, as he opined that making the house a viable threat and character would better work in an animated setting.[7]
The casting forMonster House was a laborious process, especially for the lead trio, who were portrayed byMitchel Musso,Sam Lerner andSpencer Locke. Kenan agreed with head of animation Troy Saliba that actors were needed to portray the roles in a believable way. Many of the film's artists interpreted the roles on set and enhanced the lead actors through posed animation that drove the exaggerations of their performances to make them feel subtle and real.[7]
Ed Verreaux served as the production designer ofMonster House. To design the neighbourhood where the story takes place, Verreaux realized that the film's setting needed to resemble that of 1980s films, likeE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). During his discussions with Harmon and Schrab, Kenan was told that the film's setting was inspired by that ofWisconsin andMinneapolis. Verreaux and Kenan went together on a scouting trip to design the film's locations, which involved a visit toUniversal Studios' backlot, during which they were granted access to the suburban street ofThe 'Burbs (1989), the neighborhood of the showDesperate Housewives and the house ofPsycho (1960).[7]
Monster House was the first animated feature film using theArnold rendering software (co-developed atSony Pictures Imageworks), and the first feature film entirely rendered with unbiased, brute-forcepath tracing.[9][10]
Years after the film was released, Harmon received a letter from a woman whose 7-year-old daughter was having nightmares due to the film. Harmon wrote back, explaining that the story went the way it did because he had not finished the script when the studio took it, and hired other writers to change it in ways he did not approve of before stating that Kenan was a hack and called Spielberg a moron (although he later clarified he was just venting, and did not really mean the latter).[11]
As withThe Polar Express, astereoscopic3D version of the film was created and had a limited special release in digital 3D stereo along with the "flat" version. WhileThe Polar Express was produced for the 3DIMAX 70mm giant film format,Monster House was released in approximately 200 theaters equipped for newREAL D Cinema digital 3D stereoscopic projection. The process was not based on film, but was purely digital. Since the original source material was "built" in virtual 3D, it created a very rich stereoscopic environment. For the film's release, the studio nicknamed itImageworks 3D.[12]
The film was released in theaters in North America on July 21, 2006.
Review aggregation siteRotten Tomatoes gives the film a 74% approval rating, based on 160 reviews with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Monster House welcomes kids and adults alike into a household full of smart, monstrous fun."[13] OnMetacritic the film has a score of 68 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[14] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[15]
Roger Ebert gave the film his highest ranking of four stars calling it "one of the most original and exciting animated movies I've seen in a long time" and compared it to the works ofTim Burton.[16]Ian Freer ofEmpire gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, stating "A kind ofGoonies for the Noughties,Monster House is a visually dazzling thrill ride that scales greater heights through its winning characters and poignantly etched emotions. A scary, sharp, funny movie, this is the best kids' flick of the year so far."[17] Jane Boursaw ofCommon Sense Media also gave it 4 stars out of 5, saying "This is one of those movies where all the planets align: a top-notch crew (director Gil Kenan; executive producers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis), memorable voices that fit the characters perfectly; and a great story, ingenious backstory, and twisty-turny ending."[18] Roger Moore of theOrlando Sentinel also gave the film four stars out of five, saying "ThisMonster House is a real fun house. It's a 3-D animated kids' film built on classic gothic horror lines, a jokey, spookyGoonies for the new millennium."[19] Scott Bowles ofUSA Today gave the film a positive review, saying that "The movie treats children with respect.Monster's pre-teens are sarcastic, think they're smarter than their parents and are going crazy over the opposite sex".[20] Amy Biancolli of theHouston Chronicle wrote, "It's engineered to scare your pants off, split your sides and squeeze your tear ducts into submission."[21]Michael Medved called it "ingenious" and "slick, clever [and] funny" while also cautioning parents about letting small children see it due to its scary and intense nature, adding that a "PG-13 rating would have been more appropriate than its PG rating."[22]A. O. Scott ofThe New York Times commented, "One of the spooky archetypes of childhood imagination—the dark, mysterious house across the street—is literally brought to life in "Monster House", a marvelously creepy animated feature directed by Gil Kenan."[23]
However, the film was not without its detractors.Frank Lovece ofFilm Journal International praised director Gil Kenan as "a talent to watch" but berated the "internal logic [that] keeps changing.... D.J.'s parents are away, and the house doesn't turn monstrous in front of his teenage babysitter, Zee. But it does turn monstrous in front of her boyfriend, Bones. It doesn't turn monstrous in front of the town's two cops until, in another scene, it does."[24] In a dismissive review,Todd McCarthy ofVariety wrote: "Alert 'Harry Potter' fans will notice the script shamelessly lifts the prime personality traits ofJ. K. Rowling's three most important young characters for its lead trio: Tall, dark-haired, serious-minded DJ isHarry, semi-dufus Chowder isRon and their new cohort, smarty-pants prep school redhead Jenny (Spencer Locke), isHermione.... it is a theme-park ride, with shocks and jolts provided with reliable regularity. Across 90 minutes, however, the experience is desensitizing and dispiriting and far too insistent."[25]
Monster House opened theatrically on July 21, 2006, alongsideClerks II,Lady in the Water andMy Super Ex-Girlfriend, and grossed $22.2 million in its opening weekend, ranking number two at the North American box office behindPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The film ended its theatrical run on October 22, 2006, having grossed $73.7 million in North America and $68.2 million overseas for a worldwide total of $141.9 million against a production budget of $75 million.[3]
| Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Award[26] | Best Animated Feature | Gil Kenan | Nominated |
| Annie Award[27] | Best Animated Feature | Monster House | Nominated |
| Directing in an Animated Feature Production | Gil Kenan | Nominated | |
| Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production | Maggie Gyllenhaal | Nominated | |
| Sam Lerner | Nominated | ||
| Spencer Locke | Nominated | ||
| Writing in an Animated Feature Production | Dan Harmon,Rob Schrab andPamela Pettler | Nominated | |
| Golden Globe Awards[28] | Best Animated Feature Film | Gil Kenan | Nominated |
| Saturn Award[29] | Best Animated Film | Monster House | Nominated |
| Best Young Actor/Actress | Mitchel Musso | Nominated | |
| Best Score | Douglas Pipes | Nominated | |
| Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards | Best Animated Film | Gil Kenan | Nominated |
| Critics' Choice Awards | Best Animated Feature | Gil Kenan | Nominated |
| Online Film Critics Society Awards | Best Animated Film | Monster House | Nominated |
| Producers Guild of America Awards | Best Animated Motion Picture | Jack Rapke andSteve Starkey | Nominated |
| Florida Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Animated Film | Gil Kenan | Won |
In 2008, theAmerican Film Institute nominated this film for itsTop 10 Animation Films list.[30]
A video game based on the film was released byTHQ on July 18, 2006, for thePlayStation 2,Nintendo GameCube,Game Boy Advance andNintendo DS.[31]
A companion comic book was released on June 14, 2006, with the titleMonster House. One of the stories was written by Joshua Dysart with a second story written and illustrated by Simeon Wilkins. The comic was focused on the lives of the characters of Bones and Skull.[32] On June 23, 2006, a novelization of the film was released entitledMonster House: There Goes the Neighborhood. It was written by Tom Hughes.[33]
On March 25, 2024, while promotingGhostbusters: Frozen Empire, director Gil Kenan addressed the possibility of a sequel or a spin-off movie.[34]
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