Monsters vs. Aliens

Monsters Versus Aliens
Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Conrad Vernon Rob Letterman
Produced by	Lisa Stewart Co-producers: Jill Hopper Latifa Ouaou
Written by	Maya Forbes Wallace Wolodarsky Rob Letterman Jonathan Aibel Glenn Berger Conrad Vernon
Starring	Reese Witherspoon Seth Rogen Hugh Laurie Will Arnett Conrad Vernon Rainn Wilson Kiefer Sutherland Stephen Colbert Paul Rudd
Music by	Henry Jackman
Editing by	Joyce Arrastia Eric Dapkewicz
Studio	DreamWorks Animation
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	March 27, 2009 (2009-03-27)[1]
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$175 million
Box office	$381,509,870[2]

Monsters vs. Aliens is a 2009 American computer-animated 3-D 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 a stereoscopic 3-D format instead of being converted into 3-D after completion, which added $15 million to the film's budget.^[3]

The film was scheduled for a May 2009 release, but the release date was moved to March 27, 2009. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray September 29, 2009 in North America and included the easter egg to the upcoming movies and previews. Monsters vs. Aliens features the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Conrad Vernon, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, and Paul Rudd.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast and characters 2.1 Monsters 2.2 Aliens 2.3 Humans 3 Production 4 Marketing 5 Reception 5.1 Critical reception 5.2 Box office 5.3 Awards 6 Home media 7 Video games 8 Soundtrack 9 Television pilot 10 Sequel 11 Short films 11.1 Monsters vs. Aliens: B.O.B.'s Big Break 11.2 Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space 11.3 Monsters vs. Aliens: Night of the Living Carrots 12 References 13 External links

Plot

Bride-to-be Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is hit by a meteorite on her wedding day to weather reporter Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd), causing her to absorb a substance called quantonium and grow into a giantess. Alerted to the meteorite crash by first an Arctic base then Susan's dad, the military arrive and capture Susan, who is labeled "Ginormica" and sent to a top-secret prison facility headed by General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) where she meets her fellow monster inmates: B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), a brainless, indestructible gelatinous blob; Dr. Cockroach, PhD (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist with the head and abilities of a cockroach; the Missing Link (Will Arnett), an amphibious fish-ape hybrid; and Insectosaurus, a massive grub that is larger than Susan.

An alien named Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) detects the quantonium radiation emanating from Earth and deploys a gigantic robotic probe to find it. The President of the United States (Stephen Colbert) attempts to make first contact with the alien robot, which begins destroying everything in sight, impervious to any weapons. General Monger convinces the President to use the monsters to fight the robot instead. The monsters accept the mission with the promise of freedom if they succeed. Arriving in San Francisco, Susan is chased by the robot across the city to the Golden Gate Bridge, where the monsters are able to defeat the robot.

Now free, Susan returns to her hometown and introduces her family to the monsters, but they are quickly rejected after innocently causing a panic in the neighborhood. Derek, meanwhile, breaks up with Susan, claiming that he cannot be married to a freak who would overshadow his career. At first devastated, Susan begins to realize that becoming a monster has improved her life, and fully embraces her new lifestyle. Suddenly, she is abducted by Gallaxhar, who seemingly kills Insectosaurus when he tries to save her. On Gallaxhar's spaceship, Susan breaks loose and chases Gallaxhar down, only to enter a machine that extracts the quantonium from her body, shrinking her to her normal size. Gallaxhar proceeds to use the quantonium to power a cloning machine which reproduces him into an army so he can invade Earth.

With assistance from General Monger, B.O.B., Dr. Cockroach, and the Missing Link infiltrate Gallaxhar's spaceship, rescue Susan, and hot-wire the spaceship's power core, activating the self-destruct sequence. During their escape, Susan is cut off from her friends, who are trapped in the power core. They tell her to save herself, but Susan instead confronts Gallaxhar, who tries to escape with the quantonium, and attempts to force him into releasing her friends. When Gallaxhar says he cannot reverse the sequence, Susan absorbs the quantonium, restoring herself to giant size and she saves her friends. The monsters leap out of the exploding spaceship and are rescued by General Monger on the back of the revived Insectosaurus, who has metamorphosed into a butterfly.

The monsters receive a hero's welcome home. Derek tries to get back with Susan for the sake of an interview that could benefit his career. Instead, Susan rejects him by throwing him in the air where he is caught, swallowed and spit out by B.O.B. on camera. The monsters are then alerted to a giant snail named Escargantua attacking near Paris and fly off to face the new menace.

Cast and characters

Monsters

• Reese Witherspoon as Susan Murphy/Ginormica, a normal woman who is hit by a radioactive meteor on her wedding day, causing her to mutate and grow to a height of 49 feet 11 inches (15.21 m). Meek and unassertive, she just wants to return to her old life, but gradually warms up to her new status as a monster. In addition to her size, she is amazingly strong and has a resistance to energy attacks. She serves as the film's central character.
• Seth Rogen as B.O.B. (Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate), an indestructible gelatinous mass created when a genetically-altered tomato (which he referred to in the Halloween special as his mother) was injected with a chemically-altered ranch dessert topping. His greatest strength lies in his ability to digest any substance as well as being indestructible. His one weakness is that his mutation did not give him a brain ("Turns out, you don't need one!"), making him incredibly dimwitted, such as sometimes mistaking the other monsters' goals in life for his own. His main goal in life is to digest things.
• Hugh Laurie as Dr. Cockroach, PhD, a brilliant but mad scientist who, in an experiment to imbue himself with the abilities of a cockroach, ending up with a giant cockroach's head and some cockroach personality, but gained the ability to climb up walls and high resistance to physical damage. He is charming and sophisticated in spite of his tendencies to eat garbage and laugh maniacally, working to help Susan learn more about her condition while in captivity. He is also an avid dancer, which was handy in overriding the ship security system.
• Will Arnett as The Missing Link, a 20,000-year-old fish-ape hybrid who was found frozen and thawed out, only to escape and wreak havoc at his old lagoon habitat. Usually referred to as Link, he behaves as a macho jock most of the time, but is out of shape. Despite this, he is an expert martial-artist and takes it upon himself to lead the team in attacks, even if his energetic attitude does not always work to their advantage.
• Conrad Vernon as Insectosaurus, formerly a 1 inch (25 mm) grub transformed by nuclear radiation into a 350 foot (110 m) monster with the ability to shoot silk out of his nose. He is unable to speak clearly, and is mesmerized by bright lights (usually used to lead him to other locations); He also has a close bond with the Missing Link, who can understand what Insectosaurus is saying. As Butterflysaurus, he has wings and is able to fly and becomes the Monsters' mode of transportation.

Aliens

• Rainn Wilson as Gallaxhar, an evil alien overlord who hopes to take over Earth. He is served by gigantic robot probes (around the same size as Insectosaurus) and possesses a giant cloning machine. He claims to have suffered several traumas in his youth, driving him to destroy his own homeworld, and plans to make a new one on Earth – although viewers never hear most of the story. He aims to collect quantonium – the substance that transformed Susan – to give his cloning machine enough power to generate an army of clones of himself to conquer Earth, and is determined to extract it from Susan. Gallaxhar serves as the main antagonist of the film.
• Amy Poehler as Gallaxhar's Computer, a user-friendly computer that follows his orders, albeit with a sarcastic tone.

Humans

• Kiefer Sutherland as General Warren R. Monger, a military leader who runs a top secret facility where monsters are kept. It is his plan to fight the invading aliens with the imprisoned monsters. In a scene during the credits, he claims to be 90 years old, in spite of his youthful appearance. His name is a pun on the word warmonger. Despite imprisoning the "monsters", he never shows them any particular disrespect, and upholds his part of the bargain to set them free when they defeat the alien probe. Later on, having helped the team infiltrate the ship, he comes back for them on Insectosaurus, just as he promised. At the end of the film, Gen. Monger is promoted to the President's senior security staff.
• Stephen Colbert as President Hathaway, the impulsive and dimwitted President of the United States. Not wanting to be remembered as "the President in office when the world came to an end," he agrees with General Monger's "monsters vs. aliens" plan. He is very tolerant of the use of weapons, firing repeatedly—and pointlessly—at the original alien probe. He even suggests using nuclear weapons to attack the aliens, only to be stopped every time by his more-reliable staff. Colbert's performance as Hathaway is distinctly similar to the caricature of himself that he portrays on his Comedy Central series, The Colbert Report.
• Paul Rudd as Derek Dietl, a local weatherman and Susan's ex-fiancé. He jumps at whatever opportunity he has to boost his career, which causes him to place himself before his relationship with Susan (he cancels their plans to have a romantic honeymoon in Paris to land an anchorman job in Fresno, for example). After she sees him as the self-obsessed man he really is, she effectively turns him down by publicly humiliating him during his attempted interview with her.
• Jeffrey Tambor as Carl Murphy, Susan's over-emotional father.
• Julie White as Wendy Murphy, Susan's loving mother.
• Renée Zellweger as Katie, an adventurous human girl. Her date with her boyfriend Cuthbert is interrupted by the landing of Gallaxhar's robot.
• John Krasinski as Cuthbert, Katie's more timid boyfriend.
• Ed Helms as News Reporter
• David Koch as newsreader who comically notes how aliens only ever seem to appear in America (voice-over only in the Australian Edit).

Production

Ed Leonard, CTO of DreamWorks Animation, says it took approximately 45.6 million computing hours to make Monsters vs. Aliens, more than eight times as many as the original Shrek. Several hundred Hewlett-Packard xw8600 workstations were used, along with a large and powerful 'render farm' of HP ProLiant blade servers with over 9,000 server processor cores, to process the animation sequence. The movie demanded 120 terabytes of data to complete, with one explosion scene alone requiring 6 TB.^[4]

Since Monsters vs. Aliens, all feature films released by DreamWorks Animation will be produced in a stereoscopic 3-D format, using Intel's InTru3D technology.^[5] IMAX 3D, RealD and 2D versions were released.

Marketing

The teaser trailer had two versions that show General W.R. Monger's plan to use the monsters to defeat the aliens. The first version was seen on the Kung Fu Panda DVD and the other version was shown with Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. A full-length trailer was launched on the Internet on December 23, 2008.

To promote the 3-D technology that is used in Monsters vs. Aliens, DreamWorks ran a 3-D trailer before halftime in the U.S. broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009. Due to the limitations of current television technology, ColorCode 3D glasses were distributed at SoBe stands at major national grocers. The Monsters, except Susan and Insectosaurus, also appeared in a 3-D SoBe commercial airing after the trailer. Bank of America gave away vouchers which covered the cost of an upgrade to a 3-D theatrical viewing of the film for its customers.^[6]

Reception

Critical reception

Based on 206 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Monsters vs. Aliens has an overall approval rating from critics of 72%, with an average score of 6.5/10.^[7] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 58% based on 36 reviews.^[8] By comparison, on Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 56, based on 35 reviews.^[9] Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed review, saying "I suppose kids will like this movie", but said "I didn't find the movie rich with humor."

Box office

On its opening weekend, the film opened at No. 1, grossing $59.3 million in 4,104 theaters.^[10] Of that total, the film grossed an estimated $5.2 million in IMAX theaters, becoming the 5th highest-grossing IMAX debut, behind Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Dark Knight and Watchmen.^[11] The movie made $198,351,526 in the United States and Canada making it the second-highest grossing animated movie behind Up. Worldwide, it is the third-highest grossing animated film of 2009 with a total of $383,466,166 behind Up and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. According to Boxofficemojo.com the film cost $175 million to develop.

Awards

On 2010, the films is nominated for 4 Annie Awards, including Voice Acting in a Feature Production for Hugh Laurie. Reese Witherspoon and Seth Rogen were both nominated for best voice actor at the 2010 Kid's Choice Awards for voicing Susan and B.O.B, but lost to Jim Carrey for Disney's A Christmas Carol. Monsters Vs Aliens was also nominated for Best Animated film but lost to Up. On June 24, 2009 the film won the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film.

Awards
Award	Category	Name	Outcome
Annie Awards	Annie Award for Best Animated Effects in an Animated Production	Scott Cegielski	Nominated
	Annie Award for Best Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production	Tom Owens	Won
	Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production	Hugh Laurie	Nominated
Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie	Seth Rogen	Nominated
Saturn Awards	Saturn Award for Best Animated Film	Rob Letterman Conrad Vernon	Won
Visual Effects Society	Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Effects Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture	David P. Allen Amaury Aubel Scott Cegielski Alain De Hoe	Nominated

Home media

Monsters vs. Aliens was released to DVD and Blu-ray in the US and Canada on September 29, 2009 and on October 26, 2009 in the UK. The home release for both the DVD and Blu-ray format only contain the 2D version of the movie. However, the release is packaged with a new short, B.O.B.'s Big Break, which is the more traditional 3D that required green and magenta glasses.^[12] Also included are four pairs of 3D glasses.^[12] As of November 29, 2009 the DVD has sold 4,431,584 million copies generating $73.79 million in sales so far.^[13] On January 6, 2010, it was announced that a 3D version will be released on Blu-ray.^[14] On February 24, a tentative March release date was set for the UK, where anyone who buys a Samsung 3D TV or 3D Blu-ray player will get a copy.^[15] On March 8, it was reported that the 3D Blu-ray will be released in the United States, also with Samsung 3D products, on March 21.^[16]

Video games

A video game was released on March 24, 2009 on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and Wii. The game, developed by Beenox and Amaze Entertainment, allows users to play through scenes from the movie as Ginormica, B.O.B., and The Missing Link, and features drop-in/out co-op.^[17] Players can play as Dr. Cockroach, PhD in multiplayer co-op, as well as Insectosaurus on the Nintendo DS version of the game. The music was composed by Jim Dooley, with live brass recorded at the Warner Brothers Eastwood Scoring Stage.^[18] The Monsters Vs. Aliens Videogame has garnered a Metacritic score of 63 for the Xbox 360 version of the title.

Another video game entitled Super Star Kartz was released by Activision on November 15, 2011,^[19] for PlayStation 3, XBox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS. The game features 14 different characters from DreamWorks' films – Monsters vs. Aliens, Madagascar, Shrek, and How To Train Your Dragon.^[20]

Soundtrack

Monsters vs. Aliens
Film score by Henry Jackman
Released	October 24, 2011
Genre	Score
Length	1:05:51
Label	Lakeshore Records

All music composed by Henry Jackman, except as noted.

Television pilot

Jeffrey Katzenberg announced that Nickelodeon has ordered a pilot for a Monsters vs. Aliens cartoon series.^[21]

Sequel

Despite its success in the United States market, DreamWorks Animation's CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg was quoted in the Los Angeles Times that a sequel would not be made because of the film's weak performance in some key international markets. "There was enough of a consensus from our distribution and marketing folks in certain parts of the world that 'doing a sequel' would be pushing a boulder up a hill."^[22] After the release of Megamind, Katzenberg commented Shark Tale, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Megamind: "All shared an approach and tone and idea of parody, and did not travel well internationally. We don’t have anything like that coming on our schedule now."^[23]

Short films

Monsters vs. Aliens: B.O.B.'s Big Break

B.O.B's Big Break is a 3D animated short film. The short premiered on Nickelodeon in 2D on September 26, 2009, and was released 3 days later in 2D and 3D on the Monsters vs Aliens Blu-ray and the double DVD pack.

B.O.B., Dr. Cockroach, PhD, and The Missing Link are trying to outwit General W.R. Monger to escape from Area 52, the government's top-secret holding cell. Cockroach's escape attempt by feeding B.O.B. a chemical mixture to turn him into a bomb results in B.O.B. temporarily acquiring the ability to read minds, and allowing them to find out about a secret exit from Area 52. Unfortunately, the plan fails when B.O.B. smashes the jet they were using to escape believing it to be a piñata, with the resulting explosion erasing B.O.B.'s new power.

Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space

A Halloween special entitled Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space premiered in Ireland on RTÉ One on October 26, 2009, and aired in USA on the NBC channel on October 28, 2009.^[24] The special was released on DVD in the UK on the October 16, 2010, and is set to have US releases on September 13, 2011,^[25] and on September 27, 2011,^[26] along with Scared Shrekless.^[27]

Susan and the fellow monsters go back to Susan's home in Modesto, Ca; just in time for Halloween celebrations. Susan spends time with her parents, while the other monsters join in trick-or-treating and collect a large amount of candies. Later, it is revealed that the monsters came to destroy mutant pumpkins disguised as Jack-o-lanterns. When the pumpkins begin to eat children's candies to grow larger, the monsters and children defeat them by throwing excessive candies to bloat them up and explode them. But, in a twist ending, some of the pumpkin "blood" (a green goo that mutated the ordinary pumpkins) falls into a planting of carrots, causing a mutant carrot to be formed.

Monsters vs. Aliens: Night of the Living Carrots

Monsters vs. Aliens: Night of the Living Carrots is a 13-minute^[28] 3D Halloween short film based on Monsters vs. Aliens, and a sequel to Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space. First part of the short premiered on October 13, 2011,^[29] and the second part five days later,^[30] for a limited time, exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS video service.^[31]

Following the cliff hanger at the end of the short, Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space, The Mutated Carrot has spawned hundreds of zombie carrots which once they bite a victim they take control of the subject's mind. Dr. Cockroach determines that the only way to defeat the carrots and free their victims is for B.O.B. to eat all of the carrots (specifically because B.O.B. has no brain and thus is immune to the carrots' mind control powers), which B.O.B eventually, albeit reluctantly, does. A cliff hanger at the end of the short shows B.O.B. being turned into a giant zombie carrot.

• Night of the Living Carrots at the Internet Movie Database

References

External links

• Official website
• Monsters vs. Aliens at the Internet Movie Database
• Monsters vs. Aliens at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Monsters vs. Aliens at AllRovi
• Monsters vs. Aliens at Rotten Tomatoes
• Monsters vs. Aliens at Metacritic
• Monsters vs. Aliens at Box Office Mojo

DreamWorks Animation Feature films Computer-animated Antz (1998) Shrek (2001) Shrek 2 (2004) Shark Tale (2004) Madagascar (2005) Over the Hedge (2006) Shrek the Third (2007) Bee Movie (2007) Kung Fu Panda (2008) Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) How to Train Your Dragon (2010) Shrek Forever After (2010) Megamind (2010) Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) Puss in Boots (2011) Traditionally animated The Prince of Egypt (1998) The Road to El Dorado (2000) Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) Produced with Aardman Animations Chicken Run (2000) Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) Flushed Away (2006) Upcoming films Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) Rise of the Guardians (2012) The Croods (2013) Turbo (2013) Me and My Shadow (2013) Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) Franchises Shrek (2001–11) Madagascar (2005–) Kung Fu Panda (2008–) How to Train Your Dragon (2010–) TV series Computer-animated Father of the Pride (2004–05) The Penguins of Madagascar (2008–) Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness (2011–) Traditionally animated Toonsylvania (1998) Invasion America (1998) Alienators: Evolution Continues (2001) Neighbors from Hell (2010, with 20th Century Fox Television) Television specials Shrek the Halls (2007) Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space (2009) Merry Madagascar (2009) Scared Shrekless (2010) Kung Fu Panda Holiday Special (2010) Madly Madagascar (2012) Direct-to-video Joseph: King of Dreams (2000) Short films Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party (2001) Shrek 4-D (2003) Cyclops Island (2003) Far Far Away Idol (2004) Club Oscar (2005) The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper (2005) First Flight (2006) Hammy's Boomerang Adventure (2006) Secrets of the Furious Five (2008) B.O.B.'s Big Break (2009) Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (2010) Donkey’s Caroling Christmas-tacular (2010) Megamind: The Button of Doom (2011) Thriller Night (2011) Monsters vs. Aliens: Night of the Living Carrots (2011) The Pig Who Cried Werewolf (2011) Book of Dragons (2011) Gift of the Night Fury (2011) Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters (2011) Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos (2012) Themed lands (attractions) Far Far Away Madagascar

Monsters vs. Aliens Films Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) Shorts B.O.B.'s Big Break (2009) Television specials Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space (2009) · Monsters vs. Aliens: Night of the Living Carrots (2011). Television series Monsters vs. Aliens (TBA) Video games Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) · Super Star Kartz (2011)

Films directed by Rob Letterman Shark Tale (2004) Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) Gulliver's Travels (2010)

Saturn Award for Best Animated Film Spirited Away (2002) Finding Nemo (2003) The Incredibles (2004) Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005) Cars (2006) Ratatouille (2007) WALL-E (2008) Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) Toy Story 3 (2010)