00s Movie Review - Monster House

Director: Gil Kenan
Genre: Comedy/ Animation/ Advenure/ Family
Runtime: 91 minutes
Year: 2006
Starring: Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Spencer Locke, Steve Buscemi, Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard, Kevin James, Jason Lee, Kathleen Turner, Jon Heder

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 CHALLENGE
WEEK 38: A MOVIE STARRING A CHILD
 
Description: Three kids discover that their neighbor’s house is really a living, breathing, scary monster.

Review: Right across the street of young DJ’s house, is the old, run-down house of Mr. Nebbercracker. Nebbercracker is a grumpy man who always takes kids toys that end up on his lawn, never to return them to the owner. The night before Halloween, he and his friend Chowder play basketball and the ball ends up on Nebbercracker’s lawn. As usual, he takes it from them, but this time Nebbercracker collapses and ends up being taken away with an ambulance. But even without Nebbercracker being home, the house doesn’t seem empty. Or is it the house that’s alive?

“Monster House” uses the performance capture technique, just like “The Polar Express” did. There the character looked very realistic. In “Monster House” not so much. But nevertheless, it’s a very enjoyable film to watch, for the entire family during spooky season. It’s somehow a family-friendly take on the haunted house trope.

Rating: 3/ 5

00s Movie Review - Wall-E

Director: Andrew Stanton
Genre: Animation/ Family/ Adventure
Runtime: 98 minutes
Year: 2008
Starring: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Carlin, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Sigourney Weaver

Description: In the distant future, a small waster-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.  

Review: Before “Wall-E”, Pixar brought us “Ratatouille” and topped animation with visuals and substance. And “Wall-E” manages to stay at that level. In an ode to the science fiction genre, director Andrew Stanton takes the audience to a new world, yet also familiar. “Wall-E” also criticizes the modern lifestyle on certain aspects.
Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is a small waste collecting robot in a far future. Seven hundred years earlier all people left Earth, which became so polluted it made living impossible. Wall-E was left behind and has been cleaning the planet ever since. He survived because of music from “Hello, Dolly”, his friendship with a cockroach, his hording hobby and repairing things. Wall-E’s life is shown in the first twenty minutes, which contains no dialogue whatsoever, at least not in spoken word. This makes “Wall-E” an unique Pixar animation.
One day Wall-E is visit by EVE, an advanced ‘female’ robot searching for any living organism on planet Earth. Wall-E falls in love and in a short time he becomes the most innocent and cute ‘stalker’ of the universe. EVE is focused on her mission, but eventually accepts Wall-E’s companionship. When Wall-E travels with EVE, he finds out what has become of mankind.
“Wall-E” is endearing and funny, but also has a more heavy theme. Where we are warned for the consequences of how dependent we are on technology these days. This messade isn’t forced on you though.
Of course the visuals are amazing, the humor is great and the entire film is so touching. The total film is entertaining for the entire family and is one of the most beautiful Pixar movie experiences.

Rating: 4,5/ 5