Monster House

Monster House is a 2006 American computer-animated supernatural horror comedy film directed by Gil Kenan, in his directorial debut, with a screenplay by Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab and Pamela Pettler, from a story by Harmon and Schrab. The story, set during Halloween, follows a group of kids who discover and attempt to stop a sentient haunted house that consumes anything that comes near it. The film features the voices of Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kevin James, Nick Cannon, Jason Lee, Fred Willard, Jon Heder, Catherine O'Hara, and Kathleen Turner, with Mitchel Musso, Sam Lerner, and Spencer Locke as the main protaganists. Produced by Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, and executive producers Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg's ImageMovers and Amblin Entertainment, respectively, the human characters were animated using motion capture animation, which was previously utilized in Zemeckis' The Polar Express (2004). It was also Sony's first computer-animated film produced by Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Relativity's first animated film. Monster House was released theatrically by Sony Pictures Releasing on July 21, 2006. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $142 million worldwide against a $75 million budget. It received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Happy Feet. Plot