Horst_In_Translation Review of Monster Family

Monster Family (2017)

Only worth seeing for the comedy occasionally

[4/10 · 1 September 2017]

"Happy Family" is a German/British co-production from 2017, so a very new release. This is an animated movie that runs for 90 minutes and was directed by Holger Tappe, one of Germany's more experienced animation filmmakers in the last decade. I liked some of his stuff, but other not so much, so it was all open for this one. The movie is based on a book by David Safier and he also worked on the screenplay here. This is the story of a not so happy family and their way to happiness that requires the inclusions of Dracula, an ancient witch, a megalomaniac pharaoh and a lot more absurd creatures like a group of models photo shooting in the desert. As a whole, I would divide the film into good and bad. The good was almost the entire first half and the comedy, the bad was almost the entire second half and the drama. There were funny moments here and there like the invisible vampire mirror scene early on or the hair dryer part near the end, just minor additions that were kinda fun. But there were also many shots at comedy that weren't working like when we randomly see a bunch of skulls in the desert that look like the protagonists' heads. And others. But the film's biggest weakness was perhaps the core plot about how they became a happy family. That one felt dramatic for the sake of it and resulted in several embarrassing moments that eventually cost the film a lot of credibility. The worst example was probably the daughter and honestly her transformation from a girl who cares all about looks into one that cares for inner values was really when the film hit rock-bottom, also with some truly pretentious quotes in the last 20 minutes. The boy's story was slightly better with finding out how scary looks will scare away people, but wait... Doesn't this exactly contradict the daughter's lesson? Well not exactly, but to some extent for sure. Daddy's story was well.. forgettable as he was running around like Dr. Mundo or Hulk for the entire film, but still gets his revelation at the end when he does not accept additional work from his boss in favor of spending quality time with his family. That came a bit out of nowhere admittedly as the character development wasn't really visible before. Oh yeah.. the farting references were kinda embarrassing too. As for the villain, it took a while for us to find out who the bad guy would be eventually, even if he appeared quickly early on. The film's biggest strength was definitely the animation. The film looked nice visually from start to finish really and this is the one area where it does deserve a better rating than the one it's getting here. But story-wise, it just wasn't good enough and got weaker by the minute in the second half while in the first 45 minutes there were only occasional weaknesses like the bizarre concert scene right at the start, but these were followed by superior stuff again. I see the likes of Hape Kerkeling and Oliver Kalkofe were in here. Kerkeling I didn't recognize at all, Kalkofe only through knowing he would be in it. The voice acting is definitely one of the better aspects here. But eventually it needs to be said that apart from the animation perhaps, this is nowhere near the level of Hotel Transylvania. A bit of a pity. I give Happy Family a thumbs-down as the happier they get the unhappier audiences get. Not recommended.