Be warned that this is not just a cartoon, it’s something visually profound thanks to a new generation of visual hocus-pocus.
Performance Capture is a new kind of CGI, the latest generation of Motion Capture.
Actors don suits covered with reflective dots. Cameras record the positioning of the dots, and convert them to 3-D motion data, input into digital image generators, character-by-character, and object by object.
The result is a 360-degree view, creating a natural and realistic animation. Real time Performance Capture allows characters to interact and editors can fix minute details like eye contact and reaction. The look is freaky-real, not quite real, but almost.
If that isn’t scary enough, there is always the story. A neighborhood full of kids is afraid of the horrible man who lives in a dilapidated house that dominates the otherwise, picture perfect, middle class street.
Kids’ toys that land on the scary lawn (yes – scary lawn) disappear forever.
And it’s rumored that he killed his wife. Boo!
A wonderful voice cast is assembled - Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, Jon Heder, Catherine O’Hara (doing her ‘Home Alone’ thing) Fred Willard, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James and Jason Lee.
Kudos to the leading children DJ and Chowder played by Mitchel Musso and Sam Lerner whose energy and enthusiasm drive the story.
It opens as gorgeously colored autumn leaves fall to the ground, reminiscent of ‘Far From Heaven’ and its Douglas Sirk predecessors, hinting at that comfortable suburban world untouched by ugliness. Of course, it’s not what it looks like instead, outward order is a sham. Underneath lies madness, terror, sadism and treachery and bad boyfriends.
But, hey! Enjoy yourselves, kids!
No, but really, a pair of best friends and a new girl on the block are determined to retrieve Chowder’s basketball from the house. After all, he paid $28 for it, which meant asking his mother for a dollar 28 times!
As always, the horrible Mr. Nebbercracker’s scary lawn stole it. Earlier in the day, Nebbercracker stole a little girl’s bike and broke it in two! She had the effrontery to actually roll the tires onto the lawn.
The boys demand satisfaction...and the ball. They run up to the house where Nebbercracker confronts them warning them to stay away or he will hurt them. The house echoes his sentiments, by releasing negative energy and ominous threats.
The boys call the police, but the house quiets down on their arrival. Calling the boys ‘tater tots hopped up on Pixie Stix’, the police leave with a warning to leave the house and Nebbercracker alone.
Oh, what to do?
The babysitter has abandoned them to be with her brutal beau, Bones and there is nothing to do but –fight back, even if it means a trip to hell.
‘Monster House’ was made without any film or people for that matter, in a revolutionary process that will surely shape future entertainment. It is a dare – will audiences buy CGI characters if the story does not require them and will they be able to find rooms in their hearts and feel some kind of warmth for these weirdly real things on the screen?
Sony spent a lot of money and took a dare with Zemeckis in hopes that they will.
Just leave the kids at home!
Editors note: being shown in some locations in 3D
Opens wide USA, July 21st . MPAA rated PG for scary images and sequences, thematic elements, some crude humor and brief language.
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