Hey folks, Harry here with a report on the first screening of MONSTER HOUSE... The report is short on details on the film, and is more concerned with the physical quality of the animation and general feeling about the story as it compares to films like GOONIES, MONSTER SQUAD and LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. Hopefully we'll get a more detailed report on the film, but I've got a very good feeling about this film... I love the look and style of it as we've seen thus far. Here ya go...
Hey Harry, etc.,
Last night my Sister and I attended what we were told was the first ever test screening of the new Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg produced, computer animated film MONSTER HOUSE and I must say I was quite impressed. It's been a long time since I've seen a truly good family horror film but this flick definitely fits the bill.
While I was impressed in part with the technology behind THE POLAR EXPRESS I don't mind admitting I felt it still had it's issues the biggest of which being that it was REAL thin on plot. Not only is MONSTER HOUSE leaps and bounds ahead in story and plot but the animation is also way above what they accomplished in THE POLAR EXPRESS.
All in all I would recommend this movie to pretty much everyone but really little kids because they might find some parts of the fill really intense. If I had to compare this flick to anything I'd say this very much along the lines of MONSTER SQUAD or the great Disney short THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW with maybe a little bit of THE GOONIES thrown in for good measure. I'm really hoping that they don't change anything because this film was pretty much flawless as it was. While there was about 25% of the movie that still needed to be finished what was done looked great and played really great to pretty much the entire audience. If the studio releasing this plays their cards right they should have a pretty substantial hit on their hands and I'm already reserving a spot for this sucker on my DVD shelf so really what higher praise can you pay a film.
As a little aside before I sign off I lucked up and ended up sitting right next to the head animator of the film during the screening and I was actually able to talk to him for a couple of minutes. When I complemented him on their work with this and THE POLAR EXPRESS (Since he had his hands in both of them) he told me that while MONSTER HOUSE is leaps and bounds above what they did in THE POLAR EXPRESS it's NOTHING compared to what they're doing in BEOWOLF. If this film is any indication of how high they're trying to set the bar then BEOWOLF should be absolutely mind blowing... not that I really expected anything less.
If you use this call me anything you want... just don't call me Shirley.
