Plot vs. Gimmick

Rating: 5/10 (9 November 2009)

Gimmick wins. That's what sold the movie.
While better than "Bee Movie", I think it loses out to "Bolt" on my measuring stick of animated films this decade.
The plot was flimsy and rather nonsensical, even for animation. The characters were hard to get into, especially the monsters. Obviously we got lots of backstory and emphasis on Susan, since she's the focal point of the story. However, the rest of the monsters were just thrown at us with a quick "Oh, we have to let the audience know how they became monsters" attitude and as a result, I felt no connection or desire to care about the rest of them. The lead villain was kinda fun, and Stephen Colbert's President had a moment here and there. As a whole, though, I think this movie was all about the 3-D and pretty much nothing more as a selling point. To Dreamworks' credit, that strategy worked.