Monkeybone (2001)
Directed by Henry Selick
After a car crash sends repressed cartoonist Stu into a coma, he and the mischievous Monkeybone, his hilarious alter-ego, wake up in a wacked-out waystation for lost souls. When Monkeybone takes over Stu's body and escapes to wreak havoc on the real world, Stu has to find a way to stop him before his sister pulls the plug on reality forever!
4 connections found
View:
4 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Monkeybone to
Burton's spirit looms large over the proceedings; at times, Monkeybone plays a lot like his Beetlejuice.
Admittedly, the art direction and imagination that went into the creation of Downtown and its bizarre inhabitants is second to none, and is reminiscent, at times, of Burton's "Beetlejuice."
Selick's next feature, the bizarre and Burtonless "Monkeybone," was a bone-headed attempt to merge live-action and animation.
It's an echo of the single greatest moment in Rose McGowan's acting career, her final scene in Selick's Monkeybone.
But Selick — the director of “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas,” as well as the charming 1996 Roald Dahl adaptation “James and the Giant Peach” and the raucous grown-up fantasy “Monkeybone” — knows how to impart a sense of delight and wonder to even the spooky stuff.
Despite fumbling Monkeybone (2001), Selick has remarkable gifts for invention and fantasy.
The re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas comes in just before Selick hits with his next feature film, Monkeybone, (starring Brendan Fraser and Bridget Fonda) to be released sometime in 2001.
Director Henry Selick("The Nightmare Before Christmas") and screenwriter Sam Hamm ("Batman") couldn't seem to decide whether they were making a movie for teens or for toddlers, an animated frolic or a romantic comedy.
The movie was directed by Henry Selick, and in these sequences and his previous work on The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, he shows that he is a director capable of showing imaginative worlds.
Henry Selick, the amazing director behind The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and James and the Giant Peach (1996) returns with a more live-action oriented movie.
Stop-motion animation innovator Henry Selick, the cheerfully demented director of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach," tries his hand at a feature-length hybrid in the new Brendan Fraser comedy "Monkeybone" -- and he makes a real mess of things.
Not only that, but director Henry Selick (who fared much better with 1993's "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and is making his live-action debut here) proves to not have a gift with human actors, as none of the characters are the least bit interesting, and hardly any of the actors give inspired performances.
Considering the fact that his filmography is studded with the jaw-dropping likes of "Monkeybone," "Inkheart," "Furry Vengeance" and "Crash," it is more than clear that this is a guy who is not exactly selective when it comes to picking scripts featuring implausible creatures roaming bout.