Monsters vs. Aliens
Come on guys, is 3-D really that annoying? I mean yeah, when the filmmakers have stuff coming at the audience with the specific intent of making you go “cool” (like the bouncing ball at the start of this fillm), you kind of have to take pause a bit at the process. But the fact is, the process- as used in Dreamworks’ latest animated comedy- is no more bothersome than it was during “Bolt,” during “Beowulf,” during “My Bloody Valentine,” and during “Coraline.” The $3 extra people are required to pay for it, however, that’s a different story…
But we’re talking about a movie, not money, and Dreamworks’ first 3-D foray with its’ animated film is a comedy winner. True, it isn’t quite as good as “Shrek” or “Kung Fu Panda” in the story department, but it’s a clever, and oddly character-driven, tale anyway, in a way the type of movie Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks!” was trying to be, but actually funny, and with an actual heart.
The premise you know from the commercials- Hell, from the title- but the pleasure in the film is how so much of the humor and heart is driven by the story, which starts out on an seemingly perfect wedding day for Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) and weatherman Derrick (Paul Rudd). But it’s not long before things start to go wrong, whether it’s the change of honeymoon plans from Paris to Fresno (for an anchor interview for Derrick) to a meteorite landing on Susan, which is so radioactive it causes her to grow to 50-foot-woman heights. Suffice it to say, the marriage is off, especially when the government comes and takes Susan away to a secret military location run by Gen. W.R. Monger (Keifer Sutherland) that houses monsters.
But these aren’t your typical movie monsters. Truth be told, they’re kind of cool when you think about it. Ok, Insectosaurus is kind of creepy at first, but get to know him and he’s a real sweetheart. And yeah, Dr. Cockroach Ph.D (“House’s” Hugh Laurie) seems like a mad scientist, but deep down, he does mean well. Same goes for The Missing Link (Will Arnett, who comes very close to stealing the movie), despite his dangerous streak and joy of scaring. But there’s one monster that isn’t a monster at all- B.O.B. (Seth Rogan, who damn near makes the movie worth watching single-handedly), a blob of goo with nary a brain in his head (“turns out, you don’t need one”), but can help out when the going gets tough. And it does get tough, as an alien named Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) comes to Earth searching for the material that caused Susan to grow into a monster, and unleashes Hell on the West Coast, causing President Hathaway (Stephen Colbert, who seems to be the visual model of the character as well as the voice actor- he gets some great material, even though he’s used sparingly) to turn to Monger’s monsters to save Earth…or at least California.
From an animation standpoint, Dreamworks hasn’t really pushed the envelope in the same way their rivals at Pixar do on a regular basis, so instead of trying to compare “MvA” to the likes of “Wall-E” and “Monsters Inc.”- ’cause let’s face it, it can’t- let’s focus on where it stands in the Dreamworks stable of films (sans the Aardmann-produced trifecta of “Chicken Run,” “Flushed Away,” and “Curse of the Were-Rabbit”). In terms of combinations of story and animation artistry, the high-water marks are still the original “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda” (with traditionally-animated early efforts “Prince of Egypt” and “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” still impressing). “Monsters vs. Aliens” would probably rate in the second-tier of their efforts, which would include for me “Over the Hedge” and “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” (and maybe “Shrek 2”), where the stories aren’t quite as theme-driven as “Shrek” or “Panda,” but still care more about character than comedy, although these films do carry a laugh-per-minute ratio higher than many a live-action effort.
And in a lot of ways, it’s laughs that carry “Monsters vs. Aliens” home, whether it’s visual gags involving the characters (like the President wanting a latte and almost setting off a nuclear war, and Gallaxhar in pretty much all of his scenes) or dialogue delivered with gusto by its’ comically-inclined cast (coming from a script by an army of writers that includes early-years “Simpsons” vet Wally Wolodarsky). In a lot of ways, Dreamworks Animation and head-honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg- who is one of the biggest 3-D evangelists out there- still see animation as more of a storytelling process than an art form in and of itself, which is why their efforts continually pale in comparison of Pixar’s. But with efforts like this (which uses 3-D less for sight gags than the added visual depth we’ve started to see it used for- a wise decision) and “Kung Fu Panda,” they do come close to that Pixar ideal, where animation is merely the medium, not the method. Now if we can keep them from continuing to eviscerate the good name of “Shrek” with those never-ending sequels it continues to produce…and stop them from doing the same with “Kung Fu Panda.”
