In theatres in America July 21st is Sony Pictures Imageworks’ new computer animated film Monster House. With the big-name producing clout of Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, first time director Gil Kenan has created a suburban fantasy centering on a house that is, literally, a monster. Kenan attracted attention following the success of his horror-fantasy short The Lark, and depending on the success of Monster House may become a significant talent in the animation industry. On working with Spielberg and Zemeckis Kenan commented that-
“Their economy of filmmaking is so superlative… It’s crazy. It’s enough to get your first movie made right out of school, and then to have producers be the two biggest filmmakers in the universe is unreal!” (About.com).
It’s neat to see a young new talent bringing something fresh to the Hollywood animation industry, and especially in the role of director. And though Monster House doesn’t look like it’ll be ground-breaking in any creative or technical way, it does appear to offer a more imaginative approach to the “Performance Capture” techniques Zemeckis utilised on The Polar Express. Using technologies that have presumably been refined since Polar Express, the character animation was derived from highly detailed motion capture sessions; Variety’s Todd McCarthy writes-
“After shooting with live actors for 42 days in a “black box” soundstage to achieve credible movements and expressions, filmmakers then computer-animated both the environments and the thesps to give the picture its distinctive look. Characters are generally more facially nuanced than were those in “The Polar Express,” an asset amplified by the overall excellent vocal work by a tasty ensemble of performers…”
Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter explains futher-
“Kenan staged all the action in a 20-by-20-square-foot arena… his actors wearing special suits so their physical motion got recorded digitally. The data was then turned over to animation supervisor Troy Saliba and lead character animator T. Dan Hofstedt to blend the live-action and CG imagery.”
From the trailer and online stills, it’s clear that the hyper-realism of Polar Express has been toned down in favour of a more artistic and stylised approach. And the monstrous house itself seems to be impressing reviewers, though the motion capture technology is again the focus of criticism. Honeycutt’s review goes on to observe-
“Whether this is a wave of the animated future is still in doubt as it currently looks inferior to pure CG animation. Human characters have rubbery faces and limbs, and the voices seemingly bear little relationship to these emaciated bodies.”
The overly soft, smooshy animation, somewhat expressionless performances and generally boring/bad character design of Polar Express did little to bring appeal to the characters and story, and though Monster House’s production quality does appear to be below that of the bigger-budget uber-perfectionists at Pixar, it’s great to see animation grow beyond experimental realism, and actually embrace a more creative aesthetic. At Cinema Blend, Josh Tyler writes that-
“Though much of the computer animation in Monster House is by today’s standards somewhat sub par, the look of the house itself is stunning; a beautiful, nightmarish dream that looks like it might have fallen right out of the head of Tim Burton. It’s a wonderfully alive, fiercely cinematic set piece; an effect so brilliantly conceived that a lesser film might have been content to rely upon merely the house’s toothy appearance as justification for the entire film’s existence.”
One final visual note that I couldn’t help but ponder- is it just me, or is the lead character, DJ, related to James (of Giant Peach fame)? The resemblance is quite interesting!
Read the (very brief) interview with director Gil Kenan, Kirk Honecutt’s review for The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy’s review for Variety, and Josh Tyler’s review for CinemaBlend. Watch the trailer at Apple. At About.com there’s also an interesting article on Mitchell Musso, who plays DJ, and his experiences acting for motion capture.
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