I watched this one the other day, thought it was quite good for an animated film. It was a creative throwback to the monster movies from the past. It was directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon. A collaborative effort on the screenplay was done by Maya Forbes, Rob Letterman, Wallace Wolodarsky, Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and the initial story was contrived by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon.
The cast includes an interesting mix of talent such as Reese Witherspoon who is the voice of Susan Murphy aka Ginormica. Her character was surely inspired by Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) feature. Paul Rudd is the voice of her love interest named Derek Dietl who is a newscaster at a local network station trying to move his way up the ladder.
Seth Rogen is the voice one of the monster characters named simply B.O.B. this character was a tribute to the slimy creature The Blob (1958) starring the late Steve McQueen. There was a remake of the film The Blob (1988) as well. Hugh Laurie is the voice of Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. a mad scientist type character which I think was inspired by The Fly (1958) starring the late Vincent Price. Again, there was a remake of this film directed by David Cronenberg with the same title The Fly (1986) starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis.
Will Arnett is the voice of The Missing Link which is a character inspired by the classic Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) with Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, and Richard Denning. Kiefer Sutherland brings his voice as the over the top General W.R. Monger who is a stereotypical military man. Rainn Wilson is the voice of Gallaxhar the alien invader. Stephen Colbert best known from the network station Comedy Central is the voice of President Hathaway. Julie White is the voice of Wendy Murphy, Jeffrey Tambor is the voice of Carl Murphy, Amy Poehler is the voice of the Computer on the alien spacecraft, Ed Helms is the voice of the News Reporter, Renée Zellweger is the voice of Katie, John Krasinski is the voice of Cuthbert, Sean Bishop is the voice of Private Bullhorn, the Helicopter Pilot, and Advisor Ortega.
The story is about a woman (Susan) who gets hit by a meteorite and things dramatically change in her life affecting her in ways she doesn’t realize until later in the story. She is surrounded by new unusual friends and together they must save our planet from the sinister alien invader. There are a few life lessons thrown into this story which were good values for younger children to learn. Overall, I think this is something anyone can enjoy and it holds your interest throughout the length of the film.
My wife and I went to see this one on Halloween. I thought it was quite entertaining after the first 20 minutes or so. This film cost only $15,000 to make, and was filmed at director Oren Peli home who also wrote the screenplay. As I’m writing this, the film has grossed around $62 million already. So, it is possible to make an entertaining feature on a dirt cheap shoe string budget if it is creatively done. We were the only ones at the start of the film, and a few more people came in a bit later. There was laughing during some of the scenes. The special effects were quite convincing with the way it was filmed. It left you feeling like this really actually happened and you witnessed something truly supernatural.
The backdrop for this takes place almost entirely inside Peli’s home, aside from several scenes that were filmed on the back porch, pool and driveway. The chemistry between the actors was quite incredible, and very believable. They used one another’s real names; this possibly helped them during the scenes. I suspect a lot of the dialogue was ad-libbed. This film was completed years ago in digital video, and just now is making its way around the country. Paramount Pictures has been unsure how to market this film, but word of mouth certainly seems to be spreading about it. People were talking about it out of the theatre as we left it, and there seemed to be a line forming for a later showing.
The two leading actors in this are Katie Featherston playing Katie and Micah Sloat as Micah. Mark Fredrichs plays The Psychic, Ashley Palmer is Diane, and Amber Armstrong is Amber. Randy McDowell appears in this as well as Tim Piper and Crystal Cartwright as the Exorcism Nanny who was uncredited.
This film certainly set the mood for our evening as later we went to a Haunted Forest event for Halloween. I will recommend this film to others if they enjoy different films away from the mainstream. It certainly stands out apart from the bigger studio productions, and I think that is part of its allure. It would be considered a Horror/Thriller with some comical moments. The tagline that was used was “Don’t See It Alone”
