Monster House (2006)

Directed by Gil Kenan. Starring (voices) Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, Spencer Locke, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Steve Buscemi, Kevin James, Jason Lee, Nick Cannon, Jon Heder. [PG]

What if Boo Radley really went, “Boo!”? What if that one creepy, rundown house you can find in most suburban neighborhoods (you know, the one that never looked properly maintained, and vacuumed up all the kids’ lost balls and frisbees) was a sentient colossus capable of unfurling a carpet tongue and devouring children? That’s the premise for this occasionally imaginative, occasionally over-the-top animated story, which mixes in a lot of familiar coming-of-age tropes (unpopular kid with an even more socially-awkward best friend, and a girl he has a bit of a crush on, and parents who just don’t understand, and a sardonic and uncaring babysitter, and…) with family-friendly frights and elaborate “special effects”. (They probably don’t count as special effects when everything is drawn by computers, but you know what I mean.) Not bad for youngsters—not too young, though, since the littlest ones are likely to find it too intense and thematically mature—and okay for adults, too, although disbelief must be suspended constantly. What prevents it from ever becoming a potential candidate for perennial viewing is the animation style, which offers some dazzling shots of the house in action, inside and out, but the motion-capture movement/expression style applied to such cartoonishly-designed characters is downright unappealing. Executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis. Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, and Kathleen Turner lend their voices in small roles.

59/100