Movie of the Week: Monster House

Finally, a real movie for kids...

Don't get me wrong. It's not like Cars or Over The Hedge weren't for children. They were. But like I mentioned in my review for Cars, I feel like there are way too many attempts to satiate the adults who are either going to see it with their children or by themselves by filling the script with pop culture or historical references that would fly over the head of your average 16 and under kid.

Let's call it "The Animainiacs Effect".

Animaniacs was the first cartoon, in my opinion, that was trying to hit every demographic. And then, many years later, Shrek came along and made a shitload of money because of the kids and the adults who went to see it a gazillion times because there was something for everyone. And now every computer animated feature gets more and more adult to the point that they should be PG. It is as if "animation" is enough to get the kids in the seats, and the script is what gets the parents back for repeat viewing.

That's cool but I noticed that little children are getting more and more restless during these films because they can't really follow the story. They are just looking at the screen at the fast actions and laughing at the juvenile flatulence jokes (then only ones they really laugh at because). If you hear laughter in these movies, it's usually the 17+ crowd.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Monster House.

I didn't feel like this AT ALL during Monster House. It was as if the movie occurs in an alternate reality where nothing that happened in the real world doesn't exist. No obscure pop culture references. No dialogue too smart for the demographic the movie should be aiming for. Everyone laughed. Everyone enjoyed it.

The whole plastic hair thing kinda weirded me out for awhile but I got used to it.

I hate to have a plot quibble with a kids movie but you are telling that no one but these three kids could see this HUGE house turning into a monster on Halloween? C'mon!

But it is a kid movie. I can live with it.