Monster House

Monster House is a 2006 American animated comedy horror film directed by Gil Kenan in his feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab, and Pamela Pettler. The film stars the voices of Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jon Heder, Kevin James, Jason Lee, Sam Lerner, Spencer Locke, Mitchel Musso, Catherine O'Hara, Kathleen Turner, and Fred Willard. The plot revolves around a suburban neighborhood being terrorized by a sentient haunted house during Halloween. The film was produced by Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke, with Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, and Jason Clark serving as executive producers. The human characters were animated using motion-capture animation, which was previously utilized in Zemeckis' previous film, The Polar Express (2004). Monster House was also Sony's first computer-animated film produced by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Relativity Media's first animated film. Monster House premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 15, 2006, and was released in the United States on July 21, 2006, by Sony Pictures Releasing under their Columbia Pictures label. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $141.9 million worldwide against its $75 million budget. It received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, but lost to Happy Feet and Cars, respectively.