Monster House

Pros:

1. Some genuinely scary moments. There are a couple really clever spooky scenes in this film, one involving a moving shadow and another involving a demented old man.

2. Some nice nods to Hitchcock's "Psycho" and "Rear Window", as the three children spy on a sinister house through a telescope.

3. Some pretty clever camera work. Director Gil Kenan's orchestrates several neat flourishes worthy of Welles. Watching this film in 3D, I was also impressed with the use of shadows. It's a pretty creepy looking film.

4. Captures the whole "suburban fantasy" feel of Zemeckis' and Spielberg's early work (ie ET, Poltergeist, Back to the Future etc).

5. One of the first animated films to use motion capture technology. "The Polar Express" did this a year earlier, but married the captured performances to "realistic" looking characters. Here the technology is used to apply realistic motion to more overtly cartoonish models.

7. Two or three funny nods to "Forrest Gump".

Cons:

1. Forgettable characters. Our 3 heroes are pretty bland.

2. Like most CGI flicks, the last half hour degenerates into loud and annoying action spectacle. I had this same problem with "Surf's Up". What starts off as an unconventional and charming flick, eventually ends up in mindless Hollywood territory.

3. Inside the house is pretty unimaginative. All the horror and mystery is lost once the kids go indoors.

7.5/10 - Outside of PIXAR, this is one of the most imaginative and entertaining animated films of recent years.

Worth one viewing.