A delightful treat for horror fans!

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2009)

The reviews that I've encountered on "Monsters Vs. Aliens", both from professional and amateur authors, were largely negative and harsh ones, mostly claiming that the film doesn't have a real target audience. Animated movies are usually primarily aimed at young children but this movie is definitely "scarier" than your average cartoon and even for the more adult audiences the script it too full of subtle references and little tributes to the world of ancient 50's B-cinema. I even read in one specific review that "Monsters Vs. Alien" is the out-of-control project of a couple of obsessive and nerdy film-fanatics and can probably only be enjoyed by other obsessive and nerdy film-fanatics. Well, I am a obsessive and reasonably nerdy – at least when it comes to old horror and Sci Fi movies – film fanatics and indeed I tremendously enjoyed this film; thank you very much! I never dreamed I would ever see an animated movie that brings homage to long-forgotten (at least I assumed they were) and shamefully underrated cinematic milestones like "Creature from the Black Lagoon", "The Blob" and "The Fly"! And then to think these titles are only just the famous sources of inspiration. I really couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted references towards much smaller and even charmingly clumsy Sci-Fi films like "Mothra", "The Thing from Another World", "It Came from beneath the Sea", "The Amazing Colossal Man" and "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". To me – although we stated clear that I'm just an obsessive and nerdy fan boy – this is all the more proof that horror and Sci-Fi, and monster mania flicks in particular, are not dead genres. Even though you're not familiar with the era of 50's monsters, the over-the-top grotesque ideas and situations of mass hysteria still definitely inspire the nowadays generation of scriptwriters and, in spite of what a lot of people think, with success!
On the day of her long anticipated wedding with the ambitious weatherman Derek Dietl, the beautiful Susan gets hit by a radioactive meteorite and almost instantly grown into enormous proportions. Much against her will, Susan – now renamed Ginormica - is taken to a secret government lair where she's locked up amongst other monsters, like The Missing Link, a blob-like creature, a gigantic moth and a genius but mad scientist with the body of a cockroach. When the evil alien super villain Gallaxhar threatens to destroy the world, however, their guardian General Monger releases the monsters to fight back. It's true that the story of "Monsters Vs. Aliens" occasionally feels rushed and the creators didn't take enough time to properly introduce the magnificently versatile cast of characters and their fascinating background. On the other hand, though, this is an animated movie and nobody wants to watch a three hour cartoon, right? "Monsters Vs. Aliens" is fast-paced, witty, incredibly clever and chock-full of hilarious situations and adorable inside jokes. Especially the character of dim-witted B.O.B and self-indulgent evil alien Gallaxhar are downright hilarious. The computer animation and design is damn close to perfection and even the 3-D gimmicks were aptly chosen. Also, Dreamworks made some excellent choices in Hollywood names to provide these delightful B-animation-movie characters with the exact right voice, like Reese Witherspoon as Ginormica, Hugh Laurie as Dr. Cockroach PhD, Kiefer Sutherland as General Monger and Seth Rogen as B.O.B. Don't even bother reading the bashful guarantees; I'm an obsessive nerd and I say this is the best animated movie out there, along with Kung Fu Panda.