Who's In It: Voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski
The Basics: A young bride is hit by a meteorite and grows to be 50 feet tall, only to find herself kidnapped by the government and taken to a hidden facility designed to indefinitely imprison monsters, whether they're guilty of much monstering or not. Meanwhile, evil aliens have their sights set on the destruction of Earth and will do anything it takes to invade. And that's where all metaphors for recent terrorism-based events come to an end. The monsters have to battle a lot of huge space robots and save the Earth. That sort of thing takes priority over making political statements.
What's The Deal: I've got a list of grievances against contemporary animation. I've already resigned myself to the fact that we live in an era where digital is the law, so while I'd love to see more contemporary stuff like Lilo & Stitch take the time to make it all look beautiful and watercolored, I know it's just not going to happen. But I despise and will not accept any more snarky, sarcastic animals, heroes' journeys, characters tailored to the celebrity voice, pop culture references that will make the movie irrelevant and stale in two year's time and nonstop jabber in place of great visuals. Somebody in charge was, thankfully, as tired of that crap as I am because this movie glides over all those potholes with ease.
How It Pays Its Debt To The Past: It has the fast-paced spirit of an old Looney Tunes short and it pays tribute to classic vintage monster movies like Attack of the 50 Ft Woman, Creature From the Black Lagoon, The Blob and all sorts of men-from-Mars films while still pushing forward with a fresh perspective. It nods to that stuff but doesn't rely on it for cheap gags.
The Solution To That Seth Rogen Ubiquity Problem: You can't blame the man for taking jobs as they're offered, but it does sort of seem that he's in something new every week lately. Happily, his presence here as "B.O.B.," an idiotic blob of blue goo, feels just like just the right way to have him be funny in a movie without feeling like you can't escape.
What The 8-Year-Old Godzilla-Obsessed Boy In Me Jumped Up And Down For: The moment when the head alien intoned, "ATTENTION ALL ALIENS! DESTROY ALL MONSTERS!" I feel like I should send a thank you card to the filmmakers.