Author: Mosh

At long last I finally caught Monsters vs Aliens yesterday. I was hoping to take my little cousin to see it about a month back, but she had already been invited to see it for a classmate’s birthday and we ended up seeing 17 Again instead.

As with every major cartoon these days, the voice “talent” is impressive. Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen and Kiefer Sutherland amongst others in this case. The only problem I had with the voices were that their synchronisation seemed a little off with the mouth movements in the earlier scenes. Visually it’s up there with most other films of this ilk, though Witherspoon’s character Susan/Ginormica seems to be built like a Barbie doll – all legs and no torso.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Army secretly hordes monsters. Aliens invade. Monsters are granted their freedom if they destroy the aliens.

There are plenty of cookie characters to please the kids, and a lot of slapstick. Explosions and destruction is as prevalent as in a mid-budget Michael Bay offering. The plot’s about as complicated as any large summer event film, as well. What sparkled for me, though, were the subtle jokes and references that most kids won’t get.

Without giving a spoiler, watch for the missile with “ET GO HOME” written on it. Listen very carefully and you’ll hear a few bars from that film’s title music in the background.

Overall, it was fun but not a classic. Given this came from the same stable as Shrek (see if you can spot a very small cameo appearance from him!), I was expecting a little better but I have no major complaints. It was certainly an entertaining 90 minutes.

Oh, and don’t leave too early. After the first 60 seconds or so of the credits, there’s an extra scene!