This might be a long-winded post, this might be really short. I’ve been really thinking of writing but then I’ve also been really work-busy and then I got sick-busy. And I’m in that delicate stage where I went to work yesterday which turned into a 5 hr appt. This doesn’t include the 1+ driving and I was amazed at how wiped I was when I got home. Was supposed to celebrate the in-law parents with a dinner and so, natch, I took a pass. Wasn’t hungry but ate some lemongrass-flavored chicken hors doeurves anyway and watched Monster House (mini-review, below):

Monster House

The Bad:

The Uncanny: I have not seen Polar Express, mostly because I thought that its lack of facial expression in the trailers was creepy. This, in turn, reminded me of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and first reading of Dr. Masahiro Mori’s theory of the Uncanny Valley. In 1970, he suggested that as a simulation of a human being’s appearance and/or motion becomes increasingly accurate, there is very suddenly a point at which humans’ interest in the creation turns into utter repulsion. There is still some of that dissonance in Monster House. They couldn’t get the faces to register emotion enough. Even though the production had something like 70 points of detection on everyone’s faces, they still wound up looking like they had just gotten a Botox treatment.

Kathleen Turner as Constance/The House: Mind you, she was fine, but the notion of taking such a role… I thought that Turner had a lot of cajones to take a part as a circus freak/possessed house. I hope she got a nice check for her troubles.

The Plot: I know this is a kids’ movie but it seemed a bit too simple at times.

The Good:

The characters: Their acting was just fine. Verbally, everything was perfect.

The animation: Despite the Uncanny Valley, you have to be amazed at what Sony accomplished. A good deal of this film is very, very beautiful to look at.