InCinemas SG

Opening Date

05 Oct 2017

Rating

PG

Runtime

93 mins

Language

English - subtitles to be advised

Genre

Animation

Director

Holger Tappe

Cast

Emily Watson, Jason Isaccs, Nick Frost

Synopsis

The Wishbones are far from being a happy family. Mum, Emma, owns a book store that’s deeply debt-ridden, Dad, Frank, is seriously over-worked and suffering under his tyrannical boss, daughter, Fay is a self-conscious teenager infatuated with her first high school crush, and genius son Max is being bullied at school. And it doesn’t end there - at a costume party an evil witch Baba Yaga turns them all into monsters! Emma becomes a vampire, Frank turns into Frankenstein’s monster, Fay into a mummy and Max into a werewolf. Together this monster family must chase the witch halfway around the globe to reverse the curse. During this haphazard adventure, the Wishbones get into trouble with some real-life monsters, not least the irresistibly, charming Count Dracula himself, who professes his undying love for Emma. Well, the road to family happiness is littered with pitfalls and sharp turns, or rather, sharp teeth...

Reviews

By Jason Lin 06 Oct 2017

While possibly putting off adult viewers, Monster Family still proves to be capable of sharing positive lessons in life for the young ones.

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Inspiring the young ones to appreciate family kinship despite adversities may take some effort to inculcate. Holger Tappe’s animated feature Monster Family has chosen to put a family of four through horseplay and preposterous situations to put forth a lesson.

A lesson that is carefully crafted to make sure plot devices enable the onscreen characters and the audience to look beyond the surface. Mother of two Emma (voiced by Emily Watson) lives a dull life with overworked husband Frank Wishbone (Nick Frost). Her daughter Fay (Jessica Brown Findlay) is a teenager who is overly concerned about her appearance and appeal, while her studious son Max (Ethan Rouse) is facing bullies at elementary school.

Frustrated by a stagnant life and surrounded by depressed family members, Emma decides to take a random step to get her family to a Halloween costume party that led to a series of misadventures. One of which involves Dracula (Jason Isaacs) instructing an evil witch by the name Baba Yaga (Catherine Tate) to turn Emma into a vampire as Dracula’s bride.

Forget about plausibility and just be led by the Wishbones through a series of goofy and physical comedy. Monster Family would soon find itself losing the attention span of matured viewers, especially when Fay meets a Pharaoh in Egypt.

In second third of the 93-minute production, the Wishbones find themselves falling prey to real-world temptations. These temptations beg one to question their appropriateness for adolescents. Emma finds herself enchanted by a suave Dracula while Frank finds himself surrounded by nubile fashion models by the pool. These are hardly good family values of influence for children.

Placing the mother at the centre of the film provides a female perspective, but also hints at how mothers are usually the victims of a typical unhappy family. One also cannot help but to notice how Emma becomes more attractive as a vampire while the rest of her family fared worse in the looks department when turned into monsters.

Fay and Max go through their rite of revelation. Fay soon realises that beauty doesn’t last and one should not be superficial and be sincerely true to oneself instead. Max gradually understands that being a fearful figure isn’t that fun after all.

While possibly putting off adult viewers, Monster Family still proves to be capable of sharing positive lessons in life for the young ones.

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Monster Family
怪物家族

Opening Date

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Runtime

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Synopsis

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Get Showtimes

Monster Family怪物家族

Opening Date

Rating

Runtime

Language

Genre

Director

Cast

Synopsis

Reviews

Trailers / Videos

Movie Stills

Monster Family
怪物家族