Twist on a classic
Kids don’t get enough credit for knowing a thing or two about life.
Take the young heroes in the new animated film “Monster House,” who find they have to save the neighborhood on their own when the adults around them can’t see the sinister stuff going on right underneath their noses.
In this twist on a classic haunted house tale, 12-year-old DJ (voiced by Mitchel Musso) lives across the street from a rickety old house that belongs to the ancient and angry Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi), who’s notorious around the neighborhood for confiscating any toy that lands on his lawn.
When he takes a sudden leave of absence, the house starts acting up by eating people – and it’s up to DJ and his pals Chowder (Sam Lerner) and Jenny (Spencer Locke) to stop it.
First-time director Gil Kenan remembers encountering his own Nebbercracker as a child.
“There was an apartment on the ground floor, right next to the pool, where this old man lived,” he recalls. “He was the superintendent of the building – Old Man Ben. And he used to terrorize us.
“He had this cane, and whenever we played … he would take the cane and smash it up against the ceiling. It would create this really haunting, resonating sound. And whenever we left any toys around the pool … they would disappear into this vast emptiness of his checkered interior.
“He used to wear Mr. Furley pants,” Kenan adds, referring to TV’s old “Three’s Company” landlord, “like kind of plaid, checked pants, really hideous and scary.”
“Monster House” uses motion-capture – aka “mo-cap” – technology. The actors wore suits with sensors or “dots” covering their body and face that would translate their performances to the screen.
That method allows actors to interact, as opposed to having a single actor isolated in a recording booth, as in other animated movies. It also allows for an almost exact transfer of an actor’s personality onto film.
“Yes, I definitely see everything that we did. I can see my mannerisms,” acknowledges Locke.
“When Jenny gives a nasty look to Chowder – my sister said, ‘Oh, you’ve given me that look a hundred times. That’s so you, Spencer.’ “
The film’s pals determine that in order to fight the house, they’ll have to infiltrate the mysterious interior, where everything from a tricycle to a dog has been yanked inside. They plan a couple of scenarios for their covert ops mission, which also involves lots of arguing.
Like their on-screen alter egos, Musso, Lerner and Locke became close friends from their shared experiences on the film, so creating good-hearted bickering came naturally. Kenan, a “kid at heart” who once took the actors to In ‘N’ Out Burger in their mo-cap suits, also encouraged their input.
“He’d let us use all our own expressions and emotions,” says Musso. “He let Sam, me and Spencer ad-lib lines all the time.
“We’d be like, ‘Hey, this sounds like a good idea,’ and he’d be like, ‘Yeah, that’d be funny. Let’s work that in.’ Or he’d tell us, ‘That’s horrible. What are you talking about? That’s the dumbest idea.’ No, he wouldn’t say it like that.”
In the end, Kenan believes that “Monster House” will provide the scary thrills that kids really crave.
“Kids are so up to the challenge and are thirsting for more than just this really passive, toothless entertainment fluff,” he asserts. “They want something that’s going to give them the full experience and the challenge.
“It’s like going to an amusement park: you don’t go there to sit on the merry-go-round. That’s lame. … There’s something that doesn’t speak down to them. It looks them right in the eyes and tells them a real story.”
Locke, who’s observed children at several test screenings, agrees that most kids these days can handle a few scares.
“I was sitting in front of a 5-year-old girl thinking she’d be really scared,” the actress says. “Afterwards, I asked her, `What did you think? Did you like it? Were you scared?’
“And she said, ‘No, no. I wasn’t scared. I loved it.’ “