Sidewalks On The Corner

Monsters B.O.B. (voiced by Seth Rogen), Girnormica (Reese Witherspoon), Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (Hugh Laurie), and The Missing Link (Will Arnett) are the headlining "monsters" in DreamWorks Animation's 3D-feature "Monsters vs. Aliens."

Follow up:

MONSTERS VS ALIENS
DreamWorks Animation / Paramount Pictures
Opening Date: Friday, March 27th
MPAA Rating: PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Kiefer Sutherland and Paul Rudd

Studio Synopsis:
When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Alerted to the threat of this new monster, the military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of other monsters: the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, The President is persuaded by General W.R. Monger to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction.

J.P.'s Take
Animated films make excellent vehicles for 3D showings and this time around DreamWorks bursts onto the screen with their new adventure, “Monsters vs. Aliens.”

What I Liked: I'm a fan of creature features, so I like the fact that “Monsters Vs Aliens” poked fun at some well known Sci-Fi movies in a cute way. Many of which are some of my favorites. There were elements of “Independent’s Day,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman,” “Mars Attacks,” “The Blob,” “The Fly,” etc. Another interesting thing about this particular animation is that it was totally conceptualized and animated using the latest in 3D technology called Real D. They weren't kidding about the real part, because the animation is very impressive. The movement of the characters is very life like, no more slightly-jerky-cartoonish- articulation. And the 3D part gives the backgrounds and environments great depth and realness. One of the things that stands out is the main hero is female. There aren't many children's animated films where the main character is a heroine. I think Bay Area residents will especially love the references to various California cities, mainly Fresno, Modesto and San Francisco.

What I didn't like: After a while the jokes had run out of gas toward the end of the movie. Some of the lame ones only left me tired. However, the lack of those jokes left room for a nice adventure none the less. I guess there weren’t too many things that I didn't like about “M Vs A.”

(Left to right) The Missing Link (WILL ARNETT), Ginormica (REESE WITHERSPOON), B.O.B. (SETH ROGEN) and Dr. Cockroach, Ph. D. (HUGH LAURIE) board the alien ship to battle the outer space threat in DreamWorks Animation's "Monsters vs. Aliens." ™ & © 2009 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The voices coming from an all star cast helped to bring the movie to life, giving each character nice personalities. Reese Witherspoon lends her voice to the heroic small town girl Susan, a.k.a Ginormica. Witherspoon gave her a strong but cute personality. Seth Rogan is funny as usual, only this time for cartoon sake; he's more of a cornball as the character B.O.B. House star Hugh Laurie voiced the character, Dr. Cockroach Ph. D, who basically sounded like himself in an exaggerated way and much funnier. Kiefer Sutherland modeled his voice after his favorite character Yosemite Sam as he voiced the character General W.R. Mongor (get it War Mongor). Rainn Wilson sounded diabolical as the character Gallaxhar, which is a nice change of pace for him. Paul Rudd is the voice of Derek Dietl, Susan’s fiancé, a weather man who's totally stuck on himself. Stephen Colbert voiced President Hathway and you can see who he's trying to spoof (our former president Bush) There are also surprise voices from Renee Zellweger, Jeffrey Tambor, and Amy Poehler. All did a nice job.

“Monsters vs. Aliens” is a fun, if not adventurous animated comedy that is sure to get the family out of the house and into the 3D world. I though it was a cute fun little movie that will set the stage for many after it.