Aliens vs. Monsters
Directed by Rob Letterman & Conrad Vernon
Runtime: 94 min.

As Susan, the apple-cheeked bride hit by a meteorite on her wedding day, Reese Witherspoon gives voice to the frustrations of romantically anxious young women who also fight against society (and nature’s) gender constraints. Sound a little much for a family cartoon? That what makes Monsters vs. Aliens, the new 3-D animated film from Dream- Works, both too much and not enough.

Almost everything about MvA seems odd for the genre—except when the story of Susan (aka Ginormica) joining forces with other government-sponsored “monsters” (a Missing Link, a cockroach scientist, a gelatinous blob and an insect); this follows the same formula that cripples Hollywood’s other contemporary animation. MvA’s story makes it childish while its humor (an overload of pop-culture citations, jokes on marriage and politics) suggests that the story is also a receptacle for writers’ and artists’ wayward satire. Some of it is over the head of kids as well as the adults who insist on kiddie-animation can accept.

It’s especially freaky that MvA’s potpourri of ideas doesn’t blossom into anoriginal pop statement. It lacks the aesthetic/thematic coherence of Teacher’s Pet or the 3-D animated Chicken Little. Even Susan/Ginormica with her Keane eyes and Cameron Diaz face (nothing like Reese) represents confused cultural references (same as glib quotes from Close Encounters and Monsters, Inc.).

As a technical achievement, MvA’s best digital 3-D gimmicks are a surrealistically lush hamburger and a paddleball toy. Most of the film has so many pans, reveals, vaulting perspectives and spatial juxtapositions, it’s obvious the makers forgot about the audience and were merely flexing gigabytes. Just because digital 3-D technology is improving doesn’t mean animated movies are getting better.