Monster House (Widescreen Edition)
The spooky shadows and eerie creaking of a rickety old house are brought to life via lush CGI inMonster House. A young boy named DJ has suspicions about the house across the street and the cranky old man (voiced by Steve Buscemi,Fargo) who lives there. When the old man has a heart attack and is carried away by an ambulance, DJ thinks the danger is over. Unfortunately, as he, his friend Chowder, and a candy-selling prep-school girl named Jenny discover, the house itself has plans--plans that include eating all the kids who'll be trick-or-treating that Halloween night.Monster Housebegins with some deliciously creepy scenes that will send chills down children's spines (and may be too intense for younger viewers); animated movies rarely make such effective use of what isn't being shown. The animation is vivid and detailed (though CGI still has a ways to go in capturing the full range of human facial expressions). But like most horror movies, the anticipation of horror is much more exciting than the horror itself; as the secrets ofMonster Houseare revealed, the movie's thrills unravel. The noisy explosions at the end aren't half as much fun as the slow twitches of a few blades of grass in the movie's elegant beginning. --Bret FetzerMoreMonster Houseon Amazon.comCD SoundtrackThe Art of Monster HousePlaystation 2Stills fromMonster House(click for larger image)