# Monster House (film)

Monster House is a 2006 American CGI-animated fantasy film, released on July 21, 2006 produced by ImageMovers and Amblin Entertainment, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Executive produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, this is the first time since Back to the Future Part III. The film stars the voices of Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, Spencer Locke and Steve Buscemi.
In this film, 3 teenagers discover that an old man's house is a living-breathing monster.

## Dialogue

    Mr. Nebbercracker: [to Eliza] GET OFF MY LAWN! [Eliza screams in terror; runs over to her as she tries to get her tricycle out of his lawn while pedaling faster] Trespasser! Do you want to be eaten alive?!
    Eliza: No.
    Mr. Nebbercracker: THEN GET OUT OF HERE!
    DJ: [running out the front door] Mom, he did it again! He took another tricycle.
    Mrs. Walters: Okay, honey. We talked about this. You cannot stay up in your room all day, staring at an old man through a telescope.
    DJ: But, Mom, there's something wrong with that house. I'm serious!
    Mrs. Walters: What was that?
    DJ: [clears throat] I'm serious.
    Mrs. Walters: His voice sounds funny.
    Mrs. Walters: We both love you. That includes your dad.
    Mr. Walters: That's right.
    Mrs. Walters: Blow him a kiss.
    Mr. Walters: He's had enough kisses.
    Mrs. Walters: Blow him a kiss. Blow him a kiss.
    Mr. Walters: Goodbye.
    Mr. Nebbercracker: YOU!
    DJ: No.
    Chowder: DJ, run! Get the ball and run! You are so close!
    [DJ accidentally rips off a part of his lawn]
    Mr. Nebbercracker: What have you done?
    Chowder: Just nudge it over here.
    DJ: I'm sorry. Oh, I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean...
    Mr. Nebbercracker: YOU ARE DEAD! [angrily runs after DJ]
    Chowder: Run! DJ, come on! [starts running from Nebbercracker]
    DJ: Chowder!
    Chowder: Come on, DJ! [Chowder sees DJ being caught by Nebbercracker]
    DJ: [screaming] HELP, CHOWDER!
    Chowder: [shouting] Help!!! Help!!!
    Mr. Nebbercracker: [lifting DJ in the sky like in the Lion king] You think you can just terrorize my lawn?!
    DJ: [getting lifted] No, I'm sorry!
    Mr. Nebbercracker: You wanna be a dead person?!
    DJ: No, I love life!
    Mr. Nebbercracker: This place is not a playground for children!
    DJ: Got it from now on!
    Mr. Nebbercracker: This is my house! Why can't you respect that? Why can't you just, stay away from my....?!?! [ stops and makes weird faces, his spine cracks as he falls down on top of DJ, releasing him]
    [The front door closes, the fire blows through the chimney and the house comes alive, moaning]
    Chowder: Whoa. No siren. Never a good sign.
    DJ: I'm a murderer.
    Chowder: No, you're not!
    DJ: I'm not?
    Chowder: When it's an accident, they call it manslaughter!
    DJ: I think I'm gonna throw up. Babysitter's here.
    Chowder: See ya, DJ!
    Chowder: Heat seeker!
    DJ: Chowder, what are you doing?! Shut up!
    Chowder: What?
    DJ: Nebbercracker's back from the dead.
    Chowder: No way.
    DJ: Yeah.
    Chowder: They left the keys in here. You dare me?
    DJ: Chowder, you're not listening to me! Nebbercracker's haunting me, all right? His blood is on my hands. And now he's coming back for revenge.
    Chowder: You're really crazy right now, have you noticed that? I think you're just freaking out because you killed a guy today. Life goes on for you. Try and relax, be cool like me.
    DJ: Chowder, what are you doing?!
    Chowder: Make it stop!
    DJ: Quit screwing around! I need your help.
    Chowder: Fine, you want my help?
    DJ: Yeah.
    Chowder: I got three words for you: trick-or-treat.
    DJ: Okay, whatever. Let's go.
    Chowder: Hold on.
    DJ: Chowder, come on.
    Chowder: The haunting is subtle, yet really, really boring. Can I go home now?
    DJ: Chowder, shh! He'll hear you!
    Chowder: DJ, this is why nobody will sit next to us at lunch. I'll go ding-dong-ditch the house and you'll see. No ghost!
    Chowder: 8:00am. No detectable movement.
    DJ: No detectable movement.
    Zee: Hey, DJ, I brought you some chocolate.
    DJ: Cover blown?
    Chowder: Oh, no detectable movement.
    Zee: What are you two weirdos up to?
    Chowder: Oh, nothing. Just something in the house across the street just tried to eat us!
    DJ: Yeah, we've been up all night watching it! We haven't even left this room once! Not even to go to the bathroom! Don't drink that!
    Zee: Oh, gross! Whatever disease you guys have, I'm sure it's got letters and that they make pills for it.
    DJ: Zee, it's true. There's something evil going on across the street.
    Zee: That's excellent. I'm really happy for you. Anyway, have you two astronomers seen Bones? He left last night unexpectedly and he never came back.
    DJ: Never came back?
    Chowder: The bottle!
    DJ: Of course!
    Zee: Oh, okay, you know what? I really don't have time for this.
    Chowder: Listen, Zee, I really don't know how to tell you this...
    DJ: Your boyfriend has most likely been eaten alive.
    Zee: Sherry Klausen. I gotta go. Breakfast. Happy Halloween, losers.
    Jenny: May I please use your phone?
    Chowder: Yeah, sure.
    DJ: Here. Who you calling?
    Jenny: My mother.
    Chowder: Rude.
    DJ: You know, she's probably not gonna believe you. It's too much for the adult mind to comprehend.
    Jenny: Um, is this pee? Because if it is, that's really gross.
    DJ: It's...
    Chowder: DJ?! You pee in bottles?!
    DJ: What are you talking about? That one is your pee!
    Chowder: Uh-uh! It's yours!
    DJ: It's his!
    Jenny: May I please speak with Alison?
    Chowder: Oh, unsanitary!
    Jenny: Her daughter, thank you.
    DJ: It's his pee!
    Jenny: Excuse me. Mom, I was selling chocolates in Mayville, and, well, it's kind of confusing.
    Officer Landers: All right, kids, this had better be good. I was out there in the forest wrestling with a bear claw when we got the call. (laughs) I was eating a donut.
    Officer Lister: All three of you, step to the car now.
    Chowder: My ears.
    Officer Landers: Well, they're at the car. It's okay. He's a rookie, first week on the job.
    Jenny: Officer, we have reason to believe that there's a dangerous creature inside that house.
    DJ: It may have killed a man.
    Chowder: And a dog.
    Officer Lister: Doggy down? We've got a situation! We've got a situation!
    Officer Lander: Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing?
    Officer Lister: I'm calling for backup. Didn't you hear what the kid just said? There's a dangerous creature inside that house.
    Officer Landers: We don't have backup. It's just Judy at the station. And this is no situation. It's just a couple tater tots hopped up on too many Pixy Stix.
    Officer Lister: I bet you the dead dog would beg to differ.
    Officer Landers: What was that?
    Officer Lister: Nothing.
    Officer Landers: All right, time's up, peewees. It's Halloween, and believe it or not, we've got things to do.
    Officer Lister: Oh, we do?
    Officer Landers: Yeah.
    DJ: No, no, wait. You can't. All right, this thing, it has a mouth, and it comes out and grabs things and pulls them in and eats them.
    Chowder: Yeah, like this.
    Jenny: Okay, okay! The thing is, we're trying to make this sound more real than it normally would.
    Officer Landers: Hmm, problem is that it sounds kind of not real. So we'll see you later.
    DJ: No. All right, I'll show you. But if things get out of hand...
    Officer Landers: We'll aim for Bigfoot. (he and Officer Lister laugh) That's loaded!
    Officer Lister: He's hopping.
    Jenny: Smart house.
    Officer Landers: Hey! You- both of you, come here. Bring it to the car. Come on. I'm gonna forget about you throwing that rock because that dance was pretty funny. But the next time any of you mess with this guy's house, all three of you are going in the hole, you got it? Now, I'll give you ten seconds to march!
    Jenny: But we need your help! It's your job to help us!
    Chowder: Mm-hmm.
    Officer Landers: One.
    DJ: Come on.
    Officer Landers: Two. Three. Four. Five.
    Chowder: Ow, that's tender!
    DJ: My house is right over there!
    Jenny: So much for relying on the government.
    Chowder: Yeah, I know. I hate the government. Dude, we're screwed.
    DJ: No, we're not! We'll go to an expert! You're looking at the three-time, tri-state, over fourteen Thou Art Dead champion. His name is Reginald Skullinski, but they call him "Skull".
    Jenny: Who's "they"?
    Chowder: Me and DJ.
    DJ: Yeah.
    Chowder: He's the smartest guy on earth.
    Jenny: So, let's go talk to him.
    DJ: Hey, Jenny, Jenny.
    Chowder: Hey, Jenny, Jenny, hold on. Hold up. Skull is in the game zone right now, and you don't wanna mess with him when he's in the game zone.
    Jenny: Fine, so how long is he gonna be playing?
    Skull: Die, die!
    Chowder: Who knows? He once played for four days straight on one quarter, a gallon of chocolate milk, and an adult diaper.
    DJ: The man is a legend.
    Jenny: Well, if he is not coming out of the game zone, then we are going in.
    DJ: What? Hey, what are you...?
    Chowder: Uh, what? Jenny, no.
    Skull: It's like you're not gonna do it. Like, you're gonna die. You're gonna die. Oh, did you see that? I just chopped off your head again. Your head's rolling. You can't see it. Your eyes are on your head.
    DJ: Uh, sir?
    Skull: What? I'm busy playing a video game without even looking at the screen. What?!
    DJ: Okay, old man Nebbercracker's house is possessed, and I need to know how to destroy it before it comes out and tries to kill people...
    Skull: Calm down. You make me wanna throw up in some tinfoil and eat it! Oh, you like the steel of my blade? It's so cold! Yah! Possessed house, you say? Hmm. In my travels to the video store and comic-book conventions, I've seen many strange and wondrous things. And I've heard tell of man-made structures becoming possessed by a human soul so that the spirit becomes merged with wood and brick, creating a rare form of monster, known as Domus Mactabilis.
    DJ: The house is Mr. Nebbercracker.
    Chowder: We're its murderous enemies.
    Skull: Have fun getting killed. Oh, look at that blood.
    DJ: So, how do we kill it?
    Skull: You've gotta strike at the source of life, the heart.
    DJ: But houses don't have hearts.
    Skull: Yes! Yeah, you might be right about that. Sorry, children, but I've got some very important business to take care of. I won't be seeing you later.
    Officer Landers: Littering, loitering, vandalism, vagrancy...
    Officer Lister: And treason!
    Officer Landers: No, not treason.
    Officer Lister: You sure? Because in the book it says...
    Officer Landers: I'm sure! All right, kids, out of the trash cans. Let's go.
    Officer Lister: Come on, you heard the big guy. You see the light. Walk towards it. Come on, keep it moving. All right, drop your weapons. Pass them to me. Come on. I will shoot you.
    Officer Landers: Well, lookie we've got here. You stay here. I'm checking this out.
    Officer Lister: I am on it! Y'all think something is funny? You testing me, huh, tough girl? You disrespecting the badge? You don't want none of this. I'm telling you, test me, please! Y'all wanna test me? I am the police! I know that you're a thug, them brown eyes, I see it in your eyes.
    Officer Landers: That's it! That is it!
    Officer Lister: You got something to say, porky, huh? Devil deva?
    Officer Landers: That's it, we're taking them in!
    Officer Lister: That's what I am talking about! Where we taking them?
    Officer Landers: To jail! Let's go!
    Officer Lister: You hear that? You guys are going to jail!
    DJ: But, Officer, you've gotta believe us!
    Officer Lister: Yeah, yeah, yeah, 2%, you got the right to shut up!
    Jenny: Okay, the house is a monster.
    Officer Lister: And to think that I believed you!
    Jenny: Ow!
    Chowder: Hey, listen, I am with you guys. My cousin is a cop in Milwaukee. I mean, kind of a cop. He has a gun.
    Officer Landers: Yeah, they're gonna love you downtown, jughead.
    Chowder: Ow!
    Officer Lister: We are super cops.
    Officer Landers: Yeah, that's why I live in a condo.
    Officer Lister: Super cop. Super duper cop. Super... Uh, you hear that?
    Officer Landers: Yep, that's my stomach. I am starving.
    Officer Lister: No, no, no. That sounds like a dangerous creature. I'm gonna go check it out.
    Officer Landers: Oh, my gosh. This is like trying to wrangle a puppy. All right, I'll be back.
    Chowder: Whoa. Look at all these toys.
    Jenny: This must be where Nebbercracker kept his stash.
    Chowder: [chuckles] "Stash."
    DJ: Constance.
    Chowder: Holy moly! He really did eat her!
    DJ: Couldn't have. Her whole body is buried in cement.
    Jenny: Look at all this stuff. Why would he build her a shrine if he murdered her?
    Chowder: Maybe he just felt guilty or something. DJ, can we please get out of here?
    DJ: Shh. I always knew you were hiding something, Mr. Nebbercracker.
    Jenny: Gross!
    Chowder: Um, did we just get upchucked?
    Jenny: The uvula, nature's emergency exit.
    Chowder: [dusting himself off] That's it! Another great idea, DJ! Brilliant!
    DJ: What do you want from me, Chowder? I don't see you coming up with any big ideas!
    Chowder: Oh, yeah? Yeah? Do you wanna hear my big idea? I'm going home to make a pretzel sandwich! See ya! [storms off but DJ stops him]
    DJ: Chowder, the house is still alive and you're gonna wuss out?!
    Chowder: I risked my life for you! I stole drugs for you and I could've died in there!
    DJ: Yeah, me too!
    Chowder: Yeah, but you're the one who killed Nebbercracker in the first place!
    DJ: Getting your stupid ball back!
    Jenny: [intervening] You guys, stop fighting! You're acting like babies!
    DJ: We are babies! What were we thinking? We tried to put a house to sleep with cold medicine. How lame can you get?
    Chowder: Where are you going?
    DJ: I'm going home. I suck. [nearly gets run over by the ambulance]
    Jenny: DJ!
    Chowder: At least it's an ambulance. DJ? It's a ghost! Begone! Fie!
    Mr. Nebbercracker: Begone yourself! Get away!
    DJ: He's not a ghost! He's not dead! I'm not a murderer!
    Mr. Nebbercracker: Of course I am not dead. Who said that I was dead?! You'll be dead if you don't scram!
    Chowder & Jenny: DJ!
    Mr. Nebbercracker: Don't you know what day this is? I'm running out of time! I'm running out of time! Honey, I'm home. Oh, look at you. Your shingles are all ruffled, and your windows are cracked. Oh, but it's no problem, sweetie. It's no problem at all.
    DJ: It's her. The house is her.
    Chowder: DJ, come on!
    Jenny: Come back!
    Chowder: Where are you going?!
    Mr. Nebbercracker: Nothing a little paint and varnish can't handle.
    DJ: Mr. Nebbercracker! [Nebbercracker turns around, glaring at D.J.] I know about Constance. [The house growls while watching DJ's re-encounter with Nebbercracker]
    Mr. Nebbercracker: What? What do you know? You don't know anything! You were in my house? You-- [He tries to lunge at D.J., but he nearly falls, D.J. saves him from the fall and Nebbercracker recognizes DJ]
    DJ: You didn't kill her, did you?
    [Nebbercracker shakes his head and starts to remember]
    Mr. Nebbercracker: I love her so much.
    [Nebbercracker is shown in a flashback, watching Constance in the circus, having tomatoes thrown at her, and alone that night]
    Young Nebbercracker: Hello? I can take you away from here. Would you like that?
    [Constance is delighted by this offer]
    Constance: Yes!
    [Nebbercracker ties her cage to his truck, and drives Constance away from the circus, taking her to an empty sold spot for building the house]
    Young Mr. Nebbercracker: OK, open your eyes. [She does so] OK, it's not much, I know, but--
    Constance: Darling!
    [Constance picks him up and takes him to the spot as the house starts building, rocks are being thrown at it, and Constance descends the spiral staircase]
    Constance: Hah! Get away from my house! I'll rip them to bits! Help! Help!
    [Young Nebbercracker chops off the cage door with an axe and hears Constance's yells for help]
    Young Mr. Nebbercracker: Constance!
    Constance: Help! Help!
    Young Nebbercracker: What's wrong? Are you hurt?
    Constance: Hurt?! Yes, I'm hurt!! Those criminals are attacking our house!!!!
    Teenage Bully: Trick or treat! Trick or treat!
    Young Mr. Nebbercracker: Now, now, they're- they're just kids, dear. It's Halloween.
    Constance: No, no, no, it's my house, and they are HURTING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Young Mr. Nebbercracker: Constance! Look at me! Look at me! [He turns her face towards him] As long as I'm here, I will never let anyone hurt you. [An egg is thrown at her]
    Young Mr. Nebbercracker: Constance!
    Teenage Bully: Sucker!
    [Constance takes the axe from him]
    Constance: You vandals! [The bullies continue throwing eggs at her as she swings the axe to hurt them]
    Teenage Bully: Eat this!!!! Eat this!!!!
    Constance: You hooligans! I will get you!
    Young Mr. Nebbercracker: Constance, no! [He tries to take the axe from her, but she accidentally knocks him over. Then she pulls the cement lever and falls into the pit, yelling. The cement spills on herself. The flashback ends with the finished house.]
    Mr. Nebbercracker: So, I finished the house. She would have wanted that. [A boy rides by the house on a bicycle, throwing a newspaper at it] She died, but she didn't leave. [The newspaper is thrown back at the biker, hitting him and making him fall off the bike causing it and other newspapers to fall out, cut to him hammering a "beware" sign in front of the house, then a trio of kids in Halloween costumes in front of the house] And that night, that, that one night of every year, I had to take precautions.
    Bully: [he and the other two start throwing things at the house] Trick or treat! Trick or treat!
    Mr. Nebbercracker: I had to. I had to!
    Young Mr. Nebbercracker: HEY! Get a... STAY AWAY FROM MY HOUSE!!
    [The scene changes back to the present]
    Mr. Nebbercracker: She attacks anyone who comes near! [backs away from D.J.] Go! I'm coming, dear! GO!
    DJ: No, no, wait! I can't let you do this, Mr. Nebbercracker! I know that you've been protecting us all these years, but now it's our turn to protect you. Let her go.
    Mr. Nebbercracker: But if I let her go...then I'll have no one.
    DJ: That's not true.
    Mr. Nebbercracker: You stay away from those children, Constance! Constance.
    DJ: Mr. Nebbercracker.
    Mr. Nebbercracker: Oh, now. There, there. Oh, my sweet. You've been a bad girl, haven't you? You hurt people. Oh, Constance. We've always known this day would come. Haven't we? I—I have to make things right. I have to make things right. Constance? I've always done best for you, haven't I? Haven't I, girl? Constance? Let this be the right thing to do.
    Mr. Nebbercracker: Take this. You have to help me, please?! I know you can do it! Go on! Go, hurry!
    Mr. Nebbercracker: 45 years... We have been trapped for 45 years. And now... we're free!

## About Monster House (film)

* We had to build an incredibly robust character because the story demanded it. We mapped out where every board would break, how they would break, etc. Character rigging supervisor JJ Blumenkranz and his crew had to get all the right pieces moving in just the right way. The texturing part of the house is also incredibly complex. Audiences may not notice right away, but the house breaks down over the course of the film. There are many, many layers of paint on the house, and this all had to be created in textures and shaders. It is one of the most complex characters I have ever been involved in creating!
* Our characters in Monkey House are indeed human, but we always approached them as stylized almost as if they were puppets. If you look at their proportions, you will notice that the heads, eyes, hands, and feet are larger than they should be. Also, we didn't concern ourselves with moisture, eyelashes or even real hair. We started our character modeling by creating actual clay sculptures of each character. Once a sculpture was approved, it was laser-scanned in, and final clean-up and patching, costumes, etc. were created. The most interesting aspect here is that we avoided symmetry at all costs. So many people model one side of a character and then simply mirror and flip to get the other side, which is highly unnatural. Admittedly, modeling and rigging non-symmetrical characters is a lot more work for the crew, but the results are so much more interesting and subliminal.
   * Visual effects supervisor Jay Red in "'Monster House': Capturing a Haunted Tale", by Alain Bielik, Animation World Network, Friday, July 21, 2006.

## Taglines

* There Goes The Neighborhood.
* This Summer......Cross Over to the Other Side........Of the Street.
* A living, breathing, nightmare of a house!
* Welcome to the Fun House!
* Three Kids. One House. It's Alive!
* Hide Your Children. This House Will Eat Them!
* The House is . . . . Alive!!
* It's up to them to save the neighborhood

## Cast

* Mitchel Musso - D.J. Walters
* Sam Lerner - Chowder Peterson
* Spencer Locke - Jenny Bennett
* Steve Buscemi - Horace Nebbercracker
* Nick Cannon - Officer Lester
* Maggie Gyllenhaal - Zee
* Jon Heder - Skull Skulinski
* Kevin James - Officer Landers
* Jason Lee - Bones
* Catherine O'Hara - Mrs. Walters
* Kathleen Turner - Constance Nebbercracker
* Fred Willard - Mr. Walters

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Monster House (film) on Wikipedia
* Media related to Monster House (film) on Wikimedia Commons
* Monster House quotes at the Internet Movie Database