MONSTERS VS. ALIENS

5. DRAMA, RDE, 08/IV/09

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS. Bob Letterman, co-dir., and co-story, co-script. Conrad Vernon, co-story and co-dir. Wallace Wolodarsky, et al. script. USA: DreamWorks Animation, prod. and US dist. (see IMDb for complex international distribution), 2009. Reese Witherspoon et al. for a high-power voicing cast .

Animated combination send-up of and homage to SciFi monster movies with possible allusions to more high-tone works from the capture of Swift's Gulliver to the vril in Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race to the war room and thermonuclear climax of DR. STRANGELOVE. See for underground high-tech imprisonment, and threatening machines — including a giant (potentially) killer robot — associated with the Alien invaders and the US military. For students of the politics of popular culture, note further that General W. R. Monger (right, that's "war-monger") — a combination of STRANGELOVE'S General Turgidson and Major Kong — is voiced by Kiefer Sutherland, star of Fox-TV's 24.