Synopsis:

When a meteorite lands on Susan’s (Witherspoon) car, Susan is covered with an alien liquid that mutates her into a giant monster. Captured by a secret government agency, she meets a ragtag bunch of mutants captured over the years. But, when an alien attack looms, a frantic call from The President (Colbert) offers these monsters a chance to become heroes. Animated.

Our Thoughts:

Yet another animated film is on it’s way. Dreamworks’ Monsters Vs. Aliens looks to follow up Shrek (2001), Over The Hedge (2006) and the upcoming sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008). But will they be able to bring in another hit with this odd-sounding film?

While Dreamworks animation division has had it’s share of flops in the past (Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Flushed Away), their recent success with the films mentioned above and the recent Kung Fu Panda (2008) (with a sequel rumored to be in the works) seem to be showing that they’ve learned from their mistakes, and are striving to bring out good films.

Of course, the fact they are nabbing up good character voices doesn’t hurt either. In Monsters Vs. Aliens, they’ve managed to get everyone from Kiefer Sutherland and Reese Witherspoon to TV favorites Hugh Laurie (”House”) and Stephen Colbert (”The Colbert Report”).

Hugh Laurie himself seems to be worth almost the price of admission, as he will be voicing the character of Dr. Cockroach, Ph. D. (an obvious choice for the guy who plays an unusual doctor on TV).

New “It” guy Seth Rogen also pops up, and fans of his from Knocked Up and the upcoming The Pineapple Express (2008) (not to mention his recent slew of writing credits with pal Judd Apatow) will surely follow him to his new animated venture.

Good character voices and an interesting plot combined with Dreamwork Animation’s continued improvement in the animated film world make Monsters Vs. Aliens sound like a sure thing to me.

With an expected release date of March 2009, providing a good trailer comes along, this may be my pick for my Birthday Movie ‘09.

 

You Might Also Like...