23rd November 2009

Okay, I'm not the biggest animated childrens film fan ever, and I only expected Monsters Vs. Aliens (2009) to be an average watch. I can't say it was anything special, but I know that heaps of little kids will love it. While watching this, I realized that stories about monsters seem to be most successful in animated films, probably because they can be a bit over the top. And young kids like over the top characters. One of the problems I had with this film was that there was a lack of story, but the visual effects were amazing. I'd imagine that it would be a great experience watching it in 3-D. The story is thin, but enough to keep a kid aged between 3 and 11 years old entertained for an hour and a half. Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) is about to get married to Derek (Paul Rudd), but she is hit by a meteorite. Everything seems fine until...she turns into a giant and scares everyone away. She is taken away by the police, and confined in a cell where several other monsters live. There she meets B.O.B (Seth Rogen), a lovable blue blob with no brain; Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a once smart doctor who was turned into an insect by a machine; and The Missing Link (Will Arnett), a fish who works day and night to get a great body. These monsters return to Earth and realize that the aliens are after them, but all Susan wants is to go home and be human with Derek. The title pretty much says it all, but I felt like there was not enough understanding on why the monsters and aliens were at war. Anyway, a good watch for when you have to entertain the kiddies; and maybe the older ones will enjoy it too.
7/10