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Monsters Vs. Aliens: Animated Chucklefest for the Whole Family

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Rating: 8 out of 10

Sure, the title of this film betrays a certain type of long fought battle, both in classic films and popular culture, but underneath that is another battle currently raging in theaters all over the world, the battle for animation supremacy! It really stands between two animation giants, Pixar and Dreamworks Animation, with Disney goofily bouncing around on the outskirts trying to nudge its way back into prominence. Pixar has the upper hand right now in sheer quality in the picture-after-picture race, but Dreamworks has brought the smackdown in a big way with its mega-hit Shrek franchise (known in certain circles as the “Ogre who saved Dreamworks”) and its newest cartoon smash, Kung-Fu Panda, which completely swept last years Annie awards (the animation version of the Oscars), beating out the critically acclaimed Wall-E (although, that did go on to win the Oscar). Now Dreamworks is bringing a solid right hook punch with its newest release, Monsters Vs. Aliens, and taking a gander at the $58 million dollar opening weekend, it’s not a knockout blow, but ears are definitely ringing in the halls of Pixar. Does this mean one will eventually destroy the other? Certainly not. In actuality this is a wonderful thing because it forces both companies to work even harder to create better stories and better products for us, the happy and popcorn-covered viewers.

The story of Monsters Vs. Aliens centers around a young woman named Susan who is getting ready to walk down the aisle on the happiest day of her life, but it is drastically altered when an asteroid filled with Quantonium lands directly on top of her, causing her to grow with enormous strength and size. Quickly snatched up by the government she is placed in a secure underground facility where she meets the rest of her monstrous cohorts. Lucky for Susan and her new friends, an alien decides to invade and conquer Earth and this ragtag team of mutants is the only things that stands between Earth and total enslavement by a new squidgy overlord. (I was informed “squidgy” is not a real word and while that may be true, say it out loud, feel it in your spine, and you’ll catch my meaning.)

Drama! Conflict! Explosions! This has it all, but we all really know what we’re in the seats for: laughs! Written by an entire cadre of screenwriters, the script amazingly makes it to screen without feeling like a Jenga tower holding on for dear life. The throughline is tight, the purpose is well-plotted and the jokes are a quickfire barrage of humor both for the adults and the kids. My feeling is a good deal of the humor might be missed by the younger ones, but they’ll still be delighted and tickled by the animated characters themselves. What isn’t funny about a talking pile of blue goo?

The character designs and the excellent choices made in voice casting is where the movie really excels. The credits of this film read off like a who’s who of the comedy world, while also borrowing from some of the most popular shows on television today. Let me just lay them out for you (along with just one highlight of theirs): Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde), Seth Rogen (Knocked Up), Hugh Laurie (House M.D.), Will Arnett (Arrested Development), Kiefer Sutherland (24), Rainn Wilson (The Office), Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report), Paul Rudd (I Love You, Man), Julie White (Grace Under Fire), Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development), Amy Poelher (Baby Mama), Ed Helms (The Office), Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones’s Diary) and finally, John Krasinski (The Office). Seriously, that list is bordering on offensive with how much talent they amassed here. Some of them were only brought in for a few lines here and there, but the main cast of characters was incredibly well-chosen.

Witherspoon plays Susan, who is later renamed Ginormica, and she doesn’t get a lot of the laugh lines, but she drives the heart of the story and her “best friend/girl-next-door” voice helps land that perfectly. Rogen is a genius as the gelatinous nimrod known as B.O.B., who steals cinematic second after second until he finally peaks in a beautiful moment of romantic conquest (you’ll have to see it to figure that one out). Laurie takes on Dr. Cockroach Ph.D., which in itself is sheer typecasting since he really just gives us an old-timey version of Dr. House, who already borders on “mad scientist”. Arnett voices the Missing Link, who gets huge boosts from Arnett’s skill at playing the oblivious, but heartfelt. Sutherland walk easily into the role of General W.R. Monger, which is a personal favorite pun, and lets us listen for a moment what it would be like if Jack Bauer finally gained full control of the military. Wilson won the dubious pleasure of creating the sound of Gallaxhar, the multi-tentacled maniac who wants to take over the planet. I slowly began to wonder if his other character, Dwight on The Office, is hiding any other limbs or alien bits. Lastly, more for the adults in the audience who follow political spoof news, Colbert voices the President of the United States and is painfully perfect in every way, from his effort to sway the alien with a rendition of Alex F (theme song from Beverly Hills Cop, for those unschooled in the best of 80′s comedy films) to his reaction when noticing the nuclear launch button looks the same as his fresh latte button. It’s easy to see the characters were altered to fit the sound and personality of the cast, which usually means lazy casting or poor writing in the first place, but here it truly meant the marriage of two amazing things to bring something incredibly funny to the screen.

Recommendation: There weren’t any particular moments where I was knocked on the ground, clutching my belly full of giddy bliss, but there was a distinct constant rumbling of chuckles, guffaws, and outright laughter. This fits nicely into the family outing evening or afternoon and should be a film that sees a good lifespan in the theater and even better when it crashes onto DVD. I’ll also go out on a limb here and say little kiddies everywhere are going to be squeezing their own stuffed versions of Insectasorous or B.O.B. in the very near future. Hell, I might be one of them.

Sticky Stamps to Street Fighter Goddess: A day in the life of…(5/12)

1 – A proposed increase of one penny a year for stamps is not really all that alarming or outrageous for me to hndle, but when that increase is announced two days after I just bought a new book of 41 cent stamps, now me no likey postman. Grrrr… [via CNN]

2 – I wonder how many pairs of socks it takes to ride this bike. [via JoshSpear]

3 – What kind of thoughts would run through your mind if you worked in a hospital that only treated video game characters and their completely outlandish array of injuries? It might sound something like this. [via CollegeHumor]

4 – NBC quietly nnounced a little while back that they were planning a spin-off to The Office, but no details have since come out about what the show will be about, but the spin-off tidal wave might only be beginning. House, which coincidentally is also owned by NBC, is going to be spun into another show starring a new private investigator character who will be introduced on the Sarcasticm Hospital phenom sometime later this season. Personally, I love House and if they give the spin-off the same attitude and charm, more power to them (and less power to me since I will become a lazy bum watching all this TV). [via Perez Hilton

5 - And a little bit of Jon's bondage side creeps out (which in turn, creeps me out as well). [via Garfiled Minus Garfield]

6 – Warner Brothers has created the full movie site for Get Smart. There are a handful of interactive things you can do, including creating your own agent for Control or Kaos. If you want to say hi, find the Kaos agent named Dunder, from the town of Mifflin. He’ll be the one doing two handed behind the back karate moves. [via ComingSoon]

7 – John McCain vowed to “fight evil” if he gets into the oval office. While that is a nice sentiment, it rings a tad dangerous since the idea of what is evil changes from person to person, and possibly from day to day. Most of what he talked about in his speech I completely agree falls under the banner of “evil”, but what happens when he decides that abortion is evil, gay rights are evil, or anything else the conservative right wing decides on that week? I’d rather hear someone come out against specific issues and detailed plans for change rather than making grand statements which were once used by people in the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. Not exactly those you want to emulate. Oh, and his appearance recently on The Daily Show where he had to pull out a cue card just so he could make a joke about electing Dwight Schrute (the character from The Office) as his Vice President, well let’s be honest, that was pure pandering to an embarrassing level. [via CNN]

8 – This artist found out that puzzles made by the same brand are usually identical in piece structure, so you can easily make puzzle montages or mosaics. That could be the most exciting news in puzzling since someone actually finished that one with the picture of dogs playing poker and found out the pug on the right was cheating. I’m not bragging or anything, but I told you so. [via JoshSpear]

9 – An updated version of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. No one really believes anymore when they hear the word “Cannonball”. Such a shame. [via CollegeHumor

10 - Here's one of the first pics of Moon Bloodgood as Chun-Li in the upcoming Street Fighter movie. It's looking like it could be rather cool, but it's hard to honestly find anything cooler than that actress's name. Seriously, Moon Bloodgood. She really should be a warrior goddess or something. [via Film School Rejects]

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