Monsters vs. Aliens Review

Mr. President, Mr. President, we have a situation!

Once again, I - country oppos ever seem to land

in. Humans of Earth, my quest has led me to your

planet. Give it to me now! You should in no way

take any of this personally. It's just business.

Galax our out. Somebody think of something and

think of it fast. Mr. President, we need a Hail

Mary pact. We need raw power. Say hello to Insectosaurus.

Don't scare Insectosaurus. It's okay, buddy.

I'm not gonna let the human hurt you. Here we

have the missing link, a 20 ,000 -year -old fish

man. Ow! Papa's a little out of shape. These

handsome fellas, Dr. Cockroach, Ph .D. I'm not

a... I'm a mad scientist. Oh, dear. We call this

an indestructible gelatinous mass. Hi. I'm Bob.

As you can see, he has no brain. Turns out you

don't need one. And our latest addition. She's

50 stories tall. Excuse me! With enormous strength

and size. What do people scream when they see

you coming? You know, like, look out! Here comes!

Susan. Susan! Ooh, I just scared myself. All

right, monster, move out! Welcome! We are here

to destroy you! I got him, you guys! I got -

Don't worry, I won't let go! I'm wearing him

down! Hot dogs! A monstrous event. In True 3D

Coming March 2009 Hello and welcome to episode

48 of Tooncast Beyond brought to you by the GeekCast

Radio Network and Audible .com. I am Ryo, Steve,

Joe, and Mike, and joining me once again is Sketch1984.

Hello. Hey. How are you? I'm doing alright. That's

good. And today we're going to be choosing sides,

either monsters or aliens. Oh god. How do these

- DreamWorks films get such great actors to be

voices and yet the film itself sucks. I Didn't

think this film sucked. I Thought it was kind

of middle of the road ish Had some funny moments

at some funny moments. Yes, but When I was the

whole time I was watching this back before the

recording it was like Okay, when's Jack Nicholson

gonna pop up? Or when's George Foreman gonna

pop up? I swear to God, this is an animated version

of Mars Attacks. It is! It's Mars Attacks with

Monsters and Aliens is what it is. I was just

waiting for the disembodied head of Michael J.

Fox to come around the corner. Really not...

I disagree with that. Other than involving aliens

in both cases, they couldn't be that much more

different. Alright, this is the stage for the

people listening out there in podcast land. Monsters

vs. Aliens is a 2009 American computer animated

3D science fiction action comedy film. Produced

by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount

Pictures, the computer -animated movie was the

first to be directly produced in stereoscopic

3D format instead of being converted into 3D

after completion, which added $15 million to

the film's budget. Bet they didn't make that

back. We'll find out about that later. The film

was scheduled for a May 2009 release. But the

release date was moved to March 27th, 09. It

was released on DVD and Blu -ray, blah, blah,

blah, blah. Did you see this in theaters? No.

No, I did not see this in theaters. Me either.

I have a almost violent opposition to going to

see movies in 3D. Same here. I only saw a few

movies in 3D intentionally. I saw Toy Story 3

in 3D. Because I figured Pixar would do a good

job And they did yeah, but most of the time when

I go see a movie in 3d particularly like a live

-action one Yeah, it's just not appealing to

me because the screens just darker And the 3d

stops working with my eyes about halfway through

the film or even before then So that's just paying

extra for a movie, and I'm not into that I think

and and this is we We've talked about 3D on the

GeekCaster network before. 3D is a gimmick that

was created in the 80s, and it will never outlive

that original design of it, I don't think. Because

when I think of 3D, I think of the actual, you

know, the 3D style of shit's gonna pop off the

screen at you. You know, I think of, you know,

when I was, oh God. Is it was a 15 or 16? I don't

know. I was 15 or 16. I was living in Florida

with my mom and we went to went to Disney and

At the time I don't know there was a I don't

remember if there's a Honey I Shrunk the Kids

TV show or if it was one of those You know third

or fourth movies that came out or whatever They

had a Honey I Shrunk the Kids 3D ride there and

You know it's you know you put on the red and

blue glasses and keep in mind. This is 95 96

so Was that like God knows how many years ago?

It was like 17 years ago, so You know 3d for

me is you know in the scene when the when the

when the mouse gets you know in the in the part

of the when the rat or the mouse gets loose and

they move something under your feet to make it

feel like a mouse or when the dog sneezes on

the screen and they splash water on your... That

to me is 3D. I have never not seen a difference

in a regular movie and a 3D showing. I've gone

to several different movies in 3D simply because

at the time the theater I go to was not offering

a choice. They're like... yeah it's um... freaking

harry kumar man i can't believe how much it paid

to see that movie well yeah i haven't seen any

of the harry kumar movies well the first two

are funny the third was not worth seeing in 3d

but the thing here is is that like like you said

and i agree with what you said is the same thing

i've said when i went to see a 3d movie all is

the glasses do is make the screen darker and

Even even with not wearing the glasses. Yeah,

the screen will shake a little bit or whatever

else because it's in it's supposedly in 3d And

you're supposed to be able to see a difference.

I've never seen a difference I did not see monsters

to bring it back around. I did not see monsters

versus aliens until Before we recorded this show

It wasn't again, you know, I've said throughout

and I will continue to say throughout this season

of to cast beyond So far outside of the Shrek

movies outside of like Megamind B movie a lot

of the you know how to train your dragon race

You know outside of those films DreamWorks movies

for me have sucked to this point Yeah, I feel

like this movie was the warm -up for Megamind.

Oh most definitely most definitely Most definitely.

Even when we reviewed a couple weeks ago, JT

and I talked about Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu

Panda 2. I enjoyed Kung Fu Panda 2 a hell of

a lot more than I did the original, because it

actually had a good story to it. Instead of basically

saying, you can be a total slob kids and still

be the hero. Well, essentially. Kung Fu Panda

1 is Shallow Hal Animated is what it is. Oh crap.

You make really weird jumps to conclusion. What?

Who, me? Weird connect - Shallow Hal Animated?

Yeah! But - It's got Jack Black in it. You see,

that's - That - What? What? No! It has - It's

nothing like Shallow Hal. a little bit oh it's

not just because it has jack black and it doesn't

mean that they are anything alike sure it does

anyway uh monsters versus aliens has a uh a a

stellar voice cast um it's got um reese witherspoon

as uh susan murphy uh it's got um It's actually

Will Harnett, who is the voice of the missing

link, even though behind the voice actors has

it shown up as David Kay. David Kay did do some

voice work for it, but it wasn't in the actual

movie, I don't think. You got Seth Rogen as...

DreamWorks has released since. I can see how

that would be similar enough to work. Well, yeah,

yeah. You got Seth Rogen as Bob. I almost called

it Blob, but it's Bob. You got House, oh God,

as Dr. Cockroach. Exactly! It's House in cockroach

form! That still fits, actually. No, this movie

has really... Really fitting actors for the roles

you got You get Jack Bauer himself key for so

on as general WR monger Hmm Get him an iron suit

and there you go. Anyway, sorry Jeffrey Tambor

is Carl Murphy Julie White is Wendy Murphy Rainn

Wilson is also in it He's the he's the alien

Yep, and he's great as the alien. Yeah, it's

fantastic Yeah, very very awesome, but the crown

jewel of this cast is Stephen Colbert as the

president I Take it you're a Colbert fan Well,

I guess he's living his Americone dream in this

movie. Yeah, he is Now I really want some Ben

and Jerry's damn it You can get it after the

podcast. Yeah. Yeah. All right So any other thoughts

on the overall voice cast? I Love it. Honestly

for me. I liked it. I think it's outside of like

some of the other movies. I just mentioned earlier

Out of the ones that I haven't really paid attention

to, like this one, like some of the other ones

up until having to watch them for the show, I

think this is my favorite cast out of the DreamWorks

movies that I had not paid attention to. I would

definitely say this is a very well -cast movie.

Yeah. You got Will Arnett as a show -off character.

That's fantastic. You have Hugh Laurie. As a

mad scientist, that's fantastic. You have Rainan

Wilson from The Office, who's always scheming

as Dwight. He's so perfect for an evil alien

that's got a chip on his shoulder. And you have

Kiefer Sutherland as the general guy. And he's

always good in those militaristic roles because

at 24. And Stephen freaking Colbert is the president.

That is just amazing. Also Seth Rogen is a mindless

blob, that makes sense. That's what Seth Rogen

is. And Reese Witherspoon was very good as...

Susan. Susan. Susan. Here comes... Susan. Yeah,

that doesn't ring true at all. a girl that just

doesn't really understand what's happening to

her. And it's like, but I'm normal still. No,

no, you're not. You're gigantic now. I did like

the scene when she was essentially using vehicles

as roller skates. Yeah, that was pretty good.

That's pretty awesome. All right, getting into

the plot here, you've got Bride -to -be Susan

Murphy is struck by a meteorite on the day of

her wedding to weather reporter Derek Deedle,

who is played by Paul Rudd. Instead of killing

her, the meteorite exposes her to the substance

quantonium, causing her to rapidly grow to over

50 feet tall. Alerted to the meteorite first

by an Arctic base and then by a priest at Susan's

wedding, the military arrives and captures Susan.

She is given the code name Gynormica. Um, yeah,

where's Jennifer Hale in Giganta when you really

need her? And sent to a top -secret, secure facility

headed by General W .R. Monger. There she meets

her fellow monster inmates, Bob, a brainless,

indestructible, jealous blob, Dr. Cockroach,

Ph .D., a mad scientist with the head and abilities

of a cockroach, the missing Link, an amphibious

fish -ape hybrid, An insectosaurus, a massive

grub that is even larger than Susan. Alien named

Galaxar detects quantonium radiation on Earth

and deploys a gigantic robot probe to find it.

After the robot lands, the President of the United

States, played by Colbert, attempts to make first

contact with it by playing the axle F on a keyboard.

Oh god, I love the Axe Left theme, but I'm sorry,

when you're trying to make contact with an alien

race, that's so not the theme song you should

be playing. Oh my god. That was a funny bit.

So yeah, the whole general plot here is that

Galaxar wants to take over the world and find

this cutonium crap. or quantonium or whatever

the hell it's called and they have to the monsters

are the good guys the aliens are the bad guys

and they have the monsters have to delete delete

defeat the aliens robot thing outside of the

whole hey we need to save the planet thing is

there an actual plot line here Yeah, the plot

is basically Susan coming to terms with being

a monster And also finding her individual self

-worth because she used to latch all of her Ambition

on to her soon -to -be husband Right. It was

a twat. So yeah She puts all of her self -worth

into her fiancee instead of herself and she realizes

by the amazing things that she can now do as

ginormica that She she has a place in the world

and she's not just gonna be riding off his coattails

anymore She's gonna be her own person and she's

gonna do good because she's been given the ability

to do so Yeah Other than that it's stopping the

alien Yeah, pretty much. Why does... Why does

the heroic welcome home remind me of the end

of a new hope? The only thing that was missing

was metal. Because that's the first thing everybody

thinks of with a heroic welcome home. Easy. Oh

my god. God, the ending of this movie is just...

It's just so set up for a sequel. It just is.

Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, this isn't one that

I'd be watching again. I like it. I like the

voice cast, but as far as the actual story of

it, as far as actually, you know, who they have

to fight... It just... It didn't resonate with

me, I don't think. Yes, I agree with what you

said about Susan's story and about her, you know,

coming to terms with her own life and everything

else and I, you know, I like that part of it

but as far as like good versus bad, this is not

a very good DreamWorks. It's not a very compelling

narrative. No, not at all. It's just silly and

funny and DreamWorks attempted to make a monster

movie. Yeah. To make a kaiju movie, if you will,

like Godzilla. It, uh, it's... A liquid Mothra,

sorta. Yeah, pretty much. Let's see, the worldwide,

the film, uh, it was the third highest grossing

animated film of 2009 with a total of 381 million

and change. Behind Up and Ice Age, Dawn of the

Dinosaurs. It was the Ice Age! I can't believe

this is behind Ice Age. I mean, obviously it

would be behind Up, but behind Ice Age, Dawn

of the Dinosaurs? Which Ice Age was that? Was

that like the third one? I think that was the

third one, yeah. Man, they've been making Ice

Age movies since I was in high school. Yeah,

yeah, you've got... Oh god, that makes me feel

really old. Actually, I think the first one might

have even come out when I was in junior high.

Oh, man. Why do they keep making more? Oh, right.

Monsters vs. Aliens did fairly well at the award

stuff. It won an Annie Award for best storyboarding

in an animated feature. It's been nominated for

a bunch of stuff. It won a Saturn Award for best

animated film. Very, very awesome. As far as

the ranking being the Edge and Replacement crew,

I give it a three. I don't think it's, for me

personally, I don't think it's something I would

actually add to a DVD collection. I'm dying over

here, the aliens are killing me. I don't think

it's something I would actually add to a DVD

collection, but it's something I could watch

again if I really wanted something fun to watch

on Netflix or, you know, rent online or something

like that. What about you? Yeah, I'd give it

a three. And of course, for the home media and

all that stuff, it was released on DVD and Blu

-ray in the U .S. and Canada on September 29,

2009. We also have several different short stuff

that they've done. Besides the main film, Monsters

vs. Aliens franchise also includes a video game,

short film, Bob's Big Break, and two television

specials, Monsters vs. Aliens, Mutant Pumpkins

from Outer Space, and Monsters vs. Aliens, Night

of the Living Carrots. Where's Bugs Bunny when

you need him? A TV series based on the film will

air on Nickelodeon, apparently. Yeah, that still

hasn't happened. Yeah, what is it about? Okay,

I get the whole thing of wanting to cash in on

your film, but what is it? And I've only really

noticed it with DreamWorks, you know? Oh, let's

not be coy. This is what Disney did in the 90s.

Okay, yes, but there's a big difference. There

wasn't a Gummy Bears movie. Okay, there was a

Gummy Bears television series. There wasn't a

DuckTales movie. There was a DuckTales television

series. And yes, you are correct. I would say

the late 90s to the early 2000s, they had Aladdin,

the TV series, Lumberman, the TV series, Lilo

and Stitch, the TV series. Yes, I do agree. But

I'm just saying now, I would say from, well,

2001 to now, the last 12 years or 11 years. It

just seems like... The it just seems like TV

series based on movies are popping up everywhere.

I mean hell that's it That's been going on for

years man. There was a police academy show. There

was the mask I know There was ace Ventura It

was dumb and dumber Yeah, don't remind me. But

no, no, I understand the concept of, hey, let's

turn the movie into a TV series. I understand

the overall general concept. But I'm saying,

with DreamWorks specifically, they're making

television series out of their movies. Some of

the movies don't even need a TV. Like this to

me. OK, sure. If it gets a sequel, fine. I don't

have a problem with that. I don't think it needs

an ongoing television series. You know what I

mean? Yeah. I agree. I mean, this would work

for a Monster of the Week scenario, obviously.

So that makes sense. But it basically, DreamWorks,

their biggest thing is movies. But they're trying

to expand into other venues. So they try. First,

give them some credit. They first try these things

out as those specials before they go hog wild

with. Making shows out of them So they kind of

test the waters first to see if people are gonna

buy into more of this brand and then they go

full force into TV production and I on paper

would you think that a show about the penguins

of Madagascar was gonna be a success Fuck yeah,

I love the penguins. Well, there you go. But

that's but that's the thing like like for me

Those are the only characters that stick out

in those films to me. Those are the only characters

I enjoy in those films. I mean, do you want a

Shrek cartoon about Shrek? No. We have the four

movies. Why would we? You know, we have the four

movies, we have the Halloween special, we have

the holiday special that they did. And I understand

that DreamWorks is testing stuff out with these

specials, and I like that they're testing the

stuff out, but... Have you ever just watched

a movie and you know watched it all the way through

and be like, okay? That's you know it that it

had a beginning middle and end and put a period

on on what that movie was and it's like Yeah,

okay. That was a great movie if they make more

fine if they don't find but as is It doesn't

need a television series. It's you know, the

movie is it had a movie should be that way. Yeah

and we shouldn't rely on a continuation. Right.

Well, that's Holly weird for ya. Alright, so

I guess we're gonna go to the commercial break

and we'll come back with some final thoughts.

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.com slash geekcastradio. Final thoughts on Monsters

vs. Aliens? That's pretty good It's it's entertaining

Nothing too groundbreaking. Just just fun. I

enjoyed it. But like I said earlier, it's not

something I could rewatch multiple times. Whereas

if The other better monster movie with you know

pistol You know, if Monsters Inc. came on, I

could watch that so many times because it's just

so... And that's what I find really funny about

DreamWorks and Pixar. They're essentially trying

to best each other at every single turn with

their films. I mean, sure, there's many, many

differences, but like you, you know... You know,

you've pointed out before about certain... aspects

of comparing stuff to other stuff, and it's like,

holy crap, that's right. I don't know. I liked

Monsters vs. Aliens. It's a decent film to watch

maybe once or twice a year, or once every two

or three years, something like that, but it's

not something I can watch. Yeah, I wouldn't watch

it more than once a year. Yeah, it's not something

I can watch more than once a year. You got anything

you want to pimp out or anything? No, not not

so much. I'm still doing reviews for nick and

more comm On occasion quite a bit less than I

used to like in 2010 I did a lot of reviews for

that in 2011 I did did a pretty decent amount,

but I've been kind of slacking this year Slacker.

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