April 2009
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Monsters vs. Aliens (PG)
Printed 1st April 2009

With probably the most simple/enticing/schlocky title since the Fifties B- movie monster craze (It Came From Outer Space, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman), Monsters vs. Aliens mutates/enters our atmosphere courtesy of DreamWorks Animation to again challenge Pixar’s domination of the ever lucrative ‘toon market.

Straight from the Superman-aping opening, its clear MvA is going to be a lot of fun. Then when leading lady Susan (voiced by Reese “gremlin-faced” Witherspoon) is hit by a falling meteor on her wedding day, you realise just how much fun. Metamorphosed into giant-lady Ginormica, Susan is swiftly whisked away by the US military to a top secret compound where she is locked away indefinitely and introduced to her new monstrous family: gelatinous blob B.O.B (Seth “current King of Comedy” Rogen), mad scientist Dr. Cockroach Ph.D (America’s darling doc Hugh Laurie), The Missing Link (Will “Gob” Arnett) and the skyscraper-sized Insectosaurus.

But when a UFO lands in America (“The only country UFOs ever seem to land in”) and its alien operator Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson, the US Office’s version of Mackenzie Crook) threatens the Earth with destruction, the monsters are unleashed under the command of General W.R. Monger (a voice-modulated Jack Bauer) as humanity last hope. Can they pull together as a team in time to save us all from total annihilation?

Sure to play to both kiddie-winks and proper grown-ups equally, MvA provides nostalgic pop culture nods (Close Encounters, Axel F, Mission: Impossible, The Fly, Dr. Strangelove and as many B-monster movies as each can individually recall) and wink-wink, nudge-nudge adult humour as well as pratfalls, exciting action set-pieces and the obligatory but not preachy “be happy with who you are” message.

Following on from 2006’s superb Over the Hedge and last year’s kick-ass Kung-Fu Panda (ignoring the turdish Shrek the Third and the cash-in shite-quel that was Madagascar 2), MvA has its priorities right and therefore its formula right: strong characterisation, interesting plot, lots of laughs, exhilarating action sequences (that match Cloverfield or ID4 or X-Men: The Last Stand – it’s a Golden Gate bridge thing – beat for beat) and amazing ante-upping animation. In that order of (Pixar influenced) importance.

Of course it’s now almost redundant to comment that the standard of anime on show once again improves exponentially (but just for the record, it does). 3D is a requisite though, the infinitely-added amount of depth and the pokey things coming out of the screen at you doubling the entertainment value of the film. It’s another thoroughly convincing demonstration of how the resurrected and vastly improved eye-popping extra sensory experience is the future of animation (after Disney’s Bolt).

The voice cast is also perfectly... well cast, each one bringing real verve to their character and obviously relishing getting to bring such outlandish characters/creatures to life. Picking one out from the ensemble almost seems redundant, especially considering the sterling efforts of Laurie and Daily Show/Colbert Report stalwart Stephen Colbert as clueless President Bush Hathaway in particular. But if there was one verbose gob to emphasize above all others, it probably comes as no surprise that that one belongs to Seth Rogen and his signature snigger. What’s so impressive is that his moments are almost exclusively throwaway moments that, ultimately, end up being the most memorable (and instantly quotable) parts of this thoroughly entertaining and funny bone tickling flick.

So with no pretensions of being anything grander than an entertaining, homaging, comedy action adventure for all kids big and small, Monsters vs. Aliens emerges from the ooze/space to do just that. Which should be fine by anyone’s standards? And you know what, if DreamWorks can start evening out their overall output, make more movies like Hedge, Panda and MvA and stop being so reliant on transient pop culture references (yes, that means you Shrek) they might just have industry top dog’s Pixar looking over their shoulders pretty soon...

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