Monsters vs. Aliens

Voices of: Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski
Directed by: Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon
Rating: PG
Genre: Animated, Children's
2009

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: When aliens arrive to take over the planet, only a handful of monsters hidden away in a governmental facility can stop them. Ginormica (Reese Witherspoon), Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), and The Missing Link (Will Arnett) must come together, use their monster abilities, and stop the alien invasion.

Review:

Tim: With Monsters vs. Aliens, Dreamworks gives us a fairly decent animated movie that doesn't quite live up to the sky-high expectations set by nearly every Pixar movie. Still, this film is enjoyable, entertaining, and just misses out on being a good, solid movie. Even still, there is a lot to like here. I found myself mostly happy while I watched, although it is apparent this movie could have been written a bit better.

I wanted to spend some time on the cast because it is impressively extensive. Dreamworks usually doesn't have problems assembling an all-star cast for its animated movies. However, this movie is better than many of them- because the voice cast isn't just a list of big names, but each actor does pretty exceptional voice work. Reese Witherspoon is pretty good as Ginormica. She is a bit over-the-top and not the most believable (some of her acting was quite suspect), but she's mostly fine. I absolutely loved the casting of Seth Rogen as B.O.B. Rogen has such a distinct voice, but he worked perfectly in this role. He was my favorite character, and did great work. Hugh Laurie was a very good choice for Dr. Cockroach, and while I almost always dislike Will Arnett in person, I thought he was quite good here as The Missing Link. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty good as well- Kiefer Sutherland and Rainn Wilson do a good job while not causing you to focus purely on their voices. Stephen Colbert is a bit over-the-top for the President, but I liked his presence here. I also was glad to hear Paul Rudd, Renee Zellweger, and John Krasinski in smaller roles. The voice cast was impressive.

Dreamworks did a pretty good job with the animation- I enjoyed watching an animated movie with some epic scope to it- some of the scenes like the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the other huge moments are beautiful to watch on screen. This film is certainly enjoyable to look at. On the other side, the humor is decent. There are definitely some very funny moments throughout the movie, but not enough laugh-out-loud moments. The humor is there, but we just needed more.

I enjoyed Monsters vs. Aliens, but I couldn't help shake the comparison to some of the better Pixar films in recent years. This movie did have some original moments, but the whole film just felt like a second tier animated movie. Dreamworks needs to do a better job of writing and developing movies that instantly enter into the collective subconscious. This movie is sadly just too easy to shake off and forget. Yes, this movie is pretty decent, but it doesn't have enough substance to be considered very good, either.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Shrek, Shrek 2, Ice Age, Sleeping Beauty, The Lion King, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc.