Monster House in Digital 3D

Last weekend, I took my youngest nephew to see Monster House in Digital 3D. I promised I’d take him and the only place that still had it in 3D was in Arundel Mills, way up in Maryland. Well, I had wanted to check out this supposedly super-huge movie complex so this gave me the appropriate excuse. And not only that, the movie turned out to be one of my favorite movies of the year! More than just a haunted house story, Monster House has a refreshingly accurate childlike sensibility that few family movies ever achieve (except Hayao Miyazaki & PIXAR films) plus a sense of suspense a la “The Twilight Zone.” The animation, which utilized the same motion capture style as “The Polar Express,” was much livelier and expressive than the latter movie because the production and character design is more stylized and exaggerated yet vey fluid and life-like. There were a few startling moments, which made my nephew jump in his seat and we both left the theatre with huge grins on our faces. Grade: A