Morning Saturday Peeps!
We took full advantage of the snow day yesterday and watched Monster Family. 🙂
This did not require a treacherous trip to the cinema as Now TV (owned by Sky) are showing a premiere film as it’s in the cinema! Very convenient for days like yesterday but I’m not sure I like the idea of taking business from the cinema generally.
When we went to see Early Man the cinema was advertising this film, while it looked funny, I don’t think we were desperate to see it. Yesterday though we wanted to watch a film together and it came up first and looked fun so we thought we’d give it a go.
I’m not spoiling any plot lines here as the trailers show pretty much the whole story, but if you don’t want to read this until you’ve seen it, that’s cool.
The storyline itself is simple enough, this family get zapped by some spell and turns into various monsters, they then spend the film trying to get turned back. No surprises there but the underlying theme is more about family sticking together and appreciating what you’ve got.
There are several laughs in it, often coming from Frank’s inability to control his wind! The bats are gross but my daughter found them funny. I love the hippy friend who doesn’t bat an eye at the mum’s transformation into a vampire! Frankenstein (Frank, the dad of the family) is such a sweetie very much like Lurch in The Addams Family or Herman in The Munsters.
The graphics are simple and bright, don’t think it’ll win any academy awards….except maybe the London Eye scene…very cool (and probably a large chunk of the animation budget).
The cast list is pretty cool… I looked it up because I recognised the voice of one of the minor characters then found a whole load of surprises!
Jason Isaacs is an amusing Dracula: Nice to see he can do something lighter than Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter! Actually, there’s nothing dark or dodgy about this film (unlike some monster films) it wouldn’t be scary for younger children. The first time we see Dracula was very entertaining…shall we say he wasn’t playing your typical creepy organ music and leave it at that? 😉
The Mum is voiced by Emily Watson, my daughter was impressed when she learned Emily also played the mum in The Water Horse because we love thing!
My favourite, the hippy friend Cheyenne, is voiced by the legend that is Celia Imrie! Makes me love the character all the more- definitely the best in the film!
I was surprised to learn Catherine Tate voiced the witch, I think she’s doing a lot more acting now and although it was a light-hearted voice role for her, the accent made it totally unrecognisable as her! (Suppose that shouldn’t be surprising given her sketch show, but still.)
The lovely Frank was voiced by Nick Frost (of Shaun of the Dead fame) which has to be the easiest job he’s ever had; the monster version of him can barely speak (reminded me of the Easter Island head in Night at the Museum) but the character was sweet and honest…and was a good dad when it mattered most.
So all in all the cast and humour were good, the animation was OK and the plot was sweet. I don’t think I’d put it above Early Man but not a bad way to spend an afternoon. 🙂
Catch ya later peeps!
Anna
A Peace of Life 