Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)

Directed by Conrad Vernon & Rob Letterman. Starring (voices) Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd, Julie White, Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Poehler. [PG]

Susan Murphy is having a bad wedding day. No, she wasn’t stood up at the altar, nothing like that…she merely absorbs the radiation from a meteorite, grows to fifty feet in height, and gets carted off to a top-secret government facility where she (now called “Ginormica”) shares a huge cell with other so-called monsters: a blob named B.O.B., a human-cockroach hybrid scientist, and a thawed-out prehistoric missing link creature. She’s not trapped there for long, however—the same government who imprisoned them calls on Ginormica and her fellow monsters to help defeat an alien invader who wants to conquer Earth. Zippy, jokey, dispensable brand of animated family entertainment. It’s fun in the moment—especially the middle act when it hits its stride—and there’s a nice mix of visual gags and one-liners targeting adults to go along with the innocuous kids’ stuff, but it vanishes from thought pretty quickly. Film buffs such as myself would have liked to have seen more in-joke references to the monster movies of yesteryear it lovingly borrows from for inspiration (Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Fly, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, etc.). The alien antagonist (voiced by Rainn Wilson) is a weak character, neither menacing nor fatuous enough to leave an impression, but Keifer Sutherland and Stephen Colbert are perfectly chosen to bring a gung-ho general (aptly named Warren Monger) and the American president to life. Renée Zellweger and John Krasinski make voice cameos as youngsters on an unconventional first date. Later a short-lived TV series on Nickelodeon.

65/100