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Monster House
Monster House poster
Directed by	Gil Kenan
Produced by	Jack Rapke & Steve Starkey
Written by	Dan Harmon Rob Schrab Pamela Pettler
Starring	Mitchel Musso Sam Lerner Spencer Locke
Music by	Douglas Pipes
Cinematography	Paul C. Babin
Editing by	Adam P. Scott
Distributed by	Columbia TriStar
Release date	July 21, 2006
Language	English
IMDb profile

Monster House is a computer animated horror film expected to be released on July 21, 2006. The film's characters will be animated primarily utilizing performance capture, making it the second film to use the technology so extensively, following producer Robert Zemeckis' The Polar Express.

The film's director is Gil Kenan. Executive producers include Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. The film is being produced by Zemeckis's ImageMovers and Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, the animation by Sony Pictures Imageworks, music by Douglas Pipes, released by Columbia Pictures and distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

In a Columbia press release distributed the company's New York City headquarters, at an early-May 2006 screening of the film's first half, the voice cast was listed as including Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Jason Lee, Catherine O'Hara, Kathleen Turner, and Fred Willard.

Director Kenan won the UCLA Spotlight Award for his live-action/animated horror-fantasy short The Lark. On the basis of that film, he was signed by the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) upon graduation. Kenan also garnered a 2001/02 British Academy Fellowship and the 2001/02 Lew Wasserman Fellowship in Film Production. Following Monster House, Kenan began developing The City of Ember, adapted by screenwriter Caroline Thompson from the Jeanne DuPrau book, for Walden Media and Playtone.

Premiere

Monster House premiered in North America at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 15th, 2006. The film will show again at SIFF at on Sunday, June 18th, 2006. [1]

3D version

As with The Polar Express, a stereoscopic 3D version of the film has been announced for release. While The Polar Express was produced for 3D IMAX format, the studio has said Monster House will be released in approximately 200 theaters equipped for REAL D Cinema digital 3D projection.

Cast

• Mitchel Musso voices 10-year-old Douglas J. "D.J." Hartner.
• Sam Lerner voices Chowder Wilson.
• Spencer Locke voices Jenny Brewster.
• Ryan Newman voices D.J.'s little sister, Eliza.
• Maggie Gyllenhaal voices D.J.'s babysitter, Zee
• Steve Buscemi voices mean old man, Nebbercracker
• Nick Cannon voices police officer Lister
• Jason Lee voices D.J.'s worst enemy and Zee's boyfriend, Bones
• Jon Heder voices Bones' second-in-command, Skull
• Catherine O'Hara voices D.J.'s Mom
• Fred Willard voices D.J.'s Dad

Plot

The story begins on the day before Halloween in the sleepy town of Mayville. A little girl is riding her tricycle down the sidewalk singing(badly) and enjoying the beautiful autumn day until she veers off of the sidewalk and her tricycle gets stuck on someone’s lawn. Suddenly a mean old man appears from the house and grabs her tricycle away from her sending the little girl running away screaming.

The story of Monster House revolves around the character DJ who is certain that there is something strange going on in the house across the street. This house in question is well known by the children throughout the neighborhood as the house to avoid at all costs. It is owned by a mean old man named Nebbercracker who is infamous for taking anything that lands on his property. If children are playing in the street and their ball rolls into his yard, they're as good as gone. He has turned terrorizing the neighborhood children into an art form. DJ’s parents leave town for the weekend to attend a dental convention and leave him in the care of his babysitter Zee.

DJ has been saving up his money and has bought a brand new basketball which he decides to break in with his best friend Chowder. Chowder is obsessed with Halloween and likes to wear his Halloween cape all year round. While playing with the ball it ends up on old man Nebbercracker’s lawn. When DJ tries to recover the ball old man Nebbercracker suddenly appears and grabs DJ, lifting him off of the ground screaming bloody murder in his face until his face goes flush white and he collapses on top of DJ. Old man Nebbercracker dies on the spot. So now DJ feels that he is responsible for Nebbercracker’s death. After his death DJ notices that there is still something strange going on at the house across the street. It appears to be taking on characteristics of old man Nebbercracker. DJ recruits Chowder to help him uncover the secrets of old man Nebbercraker’s house. During their investigations of the house they rescue a girl named Jenny who they both fall head over heels for.

Later Zee’s boyfriend Bones arrives and it only makes things worse, since all he does is make fun of DJ. Bones is a burnout metalhead who has a band called Skull and Bones with his friend Skull and neither take much of anything seriously. It will be DJ’s job to convince people that the house across the street is coming to life and eating anything that gets in its way.

Taglines

There goes the neighborhood.

Quotes

• D.J.: (running back to his place) DON'T LOOK BACK!

• CHOWDER: (running, just happens to look back, screams) I LOOKED BACK!

---

• ZEE: No more Mountain Dew.

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• MOM: (happily) We'll be back tomorrow night. If anything happens, call the police and hide in your closet!

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• D.J.: Don't go any further.

• JENNY: Are you guys mentally challenged? If you are I'm certified to teach you baseball.

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• ZEE: What are you weirdos up to?

• CHOWDER: Um, nothing. It's just that something inside that house just tried to eat us!

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• JENNY: (gesturing to the objects) If that's the teeth...and that's the tongue...so that must be the uvula.

• CHOWDER: Oh, so it's a "girl" house?

• JENNY: (bewildered) What?

---

• LISTER: Freeze...tree?

---

• D.J.: (explaining to the police) The house grabs things, pulls them, and then eats them!

• POLICE OFFICER: (laughs) Heh, heh, we'll see you later. (the house comes alive and eats the squad car.)

---

• D.J.: We have to fight back.

• CHOWDER: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! I don't want to go inside a monster!

• JENNY: I say it's worth a shot.

• CHOWDER: Yes, I agree. Let's do it.

--- (Chowder Gets hit in the head by a basketball)

• Chowder: my nose just went into my brain!

• D.J.: Let me see. (looks at chowder's face). Oh my god!

• CHOWDER: What?

• D.J.: You're a dork!

Trailer music

The trailer prominently features the main theme to Beetlejuice, confusing some audiences about whether this movie is a Beetlejuice sequel or prequel. This marks one of the rare instances a trailer has borrowed music from a movie that is so instantly recognizable and associated with the original movie. Hailey Ann Singer and the band Velvet Revolver have also announced that they are contributing a song to the movie and will be featured on the soundtrack.

References

• Official site
• Monster House at The Internet Movie Database
• Columbia Pictures press release titled "Monster House: July 21st 2006" (offline)

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