Monsters vs. Aliens (***)

Directed by: Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon
Starring (voices): Reece Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, Rainn Wilson, Paul Rudd
Seen: April 8th 2009

*** Out of ****

My favourites amongst animated films seem to keep involving monsters. My all-time favourite animated film is Monsters Inc., and now along comes another hugely enjoyable one, this time from DreamWorks, Monsters vs. Aliens. The world is under attack from aliens, and the only thing we have to strike back is monsters, hidden from the public eye for years, allowing people to focus on more important things, like paying taxes, for instance.

But let’s rewind a bit, the film starts off with Susan Murphy’s (Witherspoon) wedding to Derek Dietl (Rudd), before which Susan gets hit by a meteorite. She starts glowing, and then she starts growing, into what the government then goes on to rename as Ginormica. The military comes in and captures her, and locks her up in a top-secret government facility where General W.R. Monger (Sutherland) introduces her to a group of monsters kept prisoner here over the years. There’s B.O.B. (Rogen), an indestructible gelatinous mass, Dr. Cockroach Ph. D. (Laurie), the mad scientist with the head and abilities of a cockroach, the Missing Link (Arnett), an amphibious fish-ape person and the gigantic, yet very timid Insectosaurus.

When Gallaxhar (Wilson) invades earth General Monger calls on the monsters, headed up by Susan, to stop the threat after the President of the United States (Colbert) fails to “communicate” with the aliens (great and extremely funny scene). Susan is not ready to deal with it, and B.O.B., Dr Cockroach, and Missing Link are all too happy to be released from their prison, which detracts them from their mission, which is to destroy the aliens.

As the monsters eventually start understanding their powers and mission, the film keeps throwing extremely funny jokes at the viewer, and the 3D animation is fantastic, with the exception of one or two extremely short scenes where it gets used more as a gimmick to throw things at the viewer than a tool to effectively tell the story. Monsters vs. Aliens is absolutely beautiful entertainment, and offers a great night out if you’re looking for a generous hour and a half of laughter. Enjoy!