50 Fun Facts About Monster House

In what year was the animated film Monster House released in US theaters?

It opened on July 21, 2006, the same weekend as Clerks II and Lady in the Water.

Who directed Monster House, his feature directorial debut?

He was a recent UCLA film-school graduate whose stop-motion thesis short, The Lark, got him noticed by Robert Zemeckis.

Which actor voices the grumpy old neighbor Mr. Nebbercracker?

He also voiced Randall Boggs in Monsters, Inc., another 2000s animated favorite.

Who voices D.J. Walters, the boy who spies on the house across the street?

Musso was also starring on Disney Channel's Hannah Montana around the same time.

What is D.J.'s best friend Chowder's real first name?

His full name is Charles Peterson; the film never lets anyone call him that.

Who voices Chowder?

The director called casting the lead trio a laborious process, and animators enhanced the young actors' motion-capture performances by hand.

Which actress voices Jenny Bennett, the prep-school girl who joins the boys?

Locke went on to play K-Mart in the Resident Evil films.

Who voices D.J.'s teenage babysitter Zee?

Zee is short for Elizabeth; a much younger Elizabeth also loses her tricycle to Nebbercracker in the opening scene.

What is Mr. Nebbercracker's first name?

He fakes cruelty toward the neighborhood children to keep them safe from what his house might do.

What is the name of Nebbercracker's late wife, whose spirit possesses the house?

The character was added to the script by the director and co-writer Pamela Pettler, who had just written Corpse Bride.

What was the freak-show billing of Nebbercracker's wife before he helped her escape?

She was an unwilling participant in the show; Nebbercracker helped her flee and start a new life with him.

Which actress voices the house itself, Nebbercracker's wife?

Turner had already voiced one iconic animated woman: Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

What is the day job of Reginald "Skull" Skulinski, the local supernatural expert?

He is also a hardcore gamer, and in the epilogue he ends up dating Zee.

Which Napoleon Dynamite star voices Skull?

Skull is the one who suggests the house can only be beaten by striking its heart.

Who voices Bones, Zee's rude boyfriend who gets swallowed by the house?

Lee was starring in My Name Is Earl at the time, and had voiced the villain Syndrome in The Incredibles two years earlier.

Which two comedians voice police officers Landers and Lister?

The house plays dead when the cops arrive, so they dismiss the kids' report, then get eaten with them.

The story of Monster House takes place on the day before which holiday?

D.J. thinks he has outgrown trick-or-treating, then goes anyway with Chowder at the end.

What does Chowder lose on Nebbercracker's front lawn, setting the plot in motion?

Nebbercracker confronts D.J. over it, faints, and is taken away by paramedics.

What childhood toy of Bones' had Nebbercracker confiscated years earlier?

Bones sees it in the front door of the house, tries to reclaim it, and is abducted.

In Monster House, what do the kids decide is the heart of the house?

They build a dummy to put the house to sleep before going in, but the cops foil the plan.

What do the kids stuff inside their dummy to knock the house out?

The plan is foiled by Officers Landers and Lister, and the house swallows everyone.

What household fixture serves as the house's uvula?

Jenny grabs it and forces the house to vomit the trio back onto the lawn.

What is Jenny doing when the boys rescue her from the house's front porch?

She is a prep-school girl whom Variety's critic compared to Hermione Granger.

How did Nebbercracker's wife die, according to his story?

Children harassing her one autumn night triggered the fall; her spirit merged with the house once it was finished.

Where do the kids lure the walking house for the final showdown?

Chowder fights it with an excavator while D.J. finishes the job with dynamite.

What does the house use to lift itself off its foundation and give chase?

It overhears D.J. insisting that the spirit must be put to rest, and takes it badly.

Which two writers, later of Community and The Sarah Silverman Program, wrote the original Monster House script?

Pamela Pettler, who wrote Corpse Bride, was brought in to help add the backstory of Nebbercracker's wife.

Which two filmmakers served as executive producers on Monster House?

The film went into turnaround at DreamWorks before Sony picked it up in 2004.

Monster House's human characters used an animation technique pioneered on which Zemeckis film?

Actors performed while wired to sensors; the director visited that film's set to see how motion capture worked.

Monster House was the first animated feature to use which rendering software?

It was also the first feature film rendered entirely with brute-force path tracing.

Monster House lost the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature to which film?

At the Golden Globes it lost the equivalent prize to Cars instead.

What was Monster House's approximate production budget?

It grossed about $142 million worldwide, with $73.7 million of that in North America.

Which film kept Monster House out of the number one spot on its opening weekend?

Monster House took $22.2 million in its first weekend, good for second place.

The film's suburban setting was designed to evoke 1980s movies like which Spielberg classic?

Production designer Ed Verreaux and the director toured the Universal backlot, including the street from The 'Burbs and the Psycho house.

The screenwriters told the director that the film's neighborhood was inspired by which part of the US?

Dan Harmon grew up in Milwaukee, which explains the Upper Midwest flavor.

Which company published the Monster House video game in July 2006?

It came out on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS three days before the film opened.

In the Monster House video game, which rooms serve as save points?

Players carry a water pistol with a built-in flashlight and fight furniture brought to life by the house.

In the video game, what special weapon does Jenny use to attack enemies and break padlocks?

D.J. stuns enemies with his camera, while Chowder throws water balloons.

What was the subtitle of the film's 2006 novelization by Tom Hughes?

A companion comic focused on the side characters Bones and Skull came out the same month.

Variety's Todd McCarthy complained that the lead trio was lifted from which book series?

He cast D.J. as Harry, Chowder as Ron and Jenny as Hermione, and called the film a desensitizing theme-park ride.

Roger Ebert gave Monster House four stars and compared it to the work of which director?

He called it one of the most original and exciting animated movies he had seen in a long time.

What was the director's next film after Monster House?

Based on Jeanne DuPrau's novel, it came out in 2008; he later directed the 2015 Poltergeist remake and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

Before landing Monster House, the director wrote an unproduced screenplay based on which video game?

He pitched Monster House to Zemeckis and then Spielberg with sketches he had drawn beforehand.

Which studio's animation house made Monster House its first computer-animated feature?

It was also the first animated film from Relativity Media.

Roughly how many theaters showed Monster House in the new REAL D digital 3D format?

The studio nicknamed the process Imageworks 3D; the source material was already built in virtual 3D so it converted well.

As of 2025, what was Monster House's approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes?

The consensus reads that it welcomes kids and adults alike into a household full of smart, monstrous fun.

Which two actors voice D.J.'s unnamed parents in Monster House?

Both were veterans of Christopher Guest's mockumentaries; here they leave town for a convention, handing D.J. over to babysitter Zee.

Which screenwriter did Gil Kenan bring in to help revise the script after reading her work on Corpse Bride?

Kenan kept Harmon and Schrab's characters and tone but added the idea that the house was possessed by a soul, creating Constance.

Roughly how much did Monster House gross worldwide during its theatrical run?

About $73.7 million of that came from North America, and its $22.2 million opening was second only to Dead Man's Chest.

Which studio first set up Monster House before putting it in turnaround in 2004?

Sony Pictures picked up the project and began production on August 23, 2004, with Zemeckis and Spielberg as executive producers.