Months after reading about it on the
Dimensions web boards, I finally got a chance to view the computer animated
Monster House on cable this weekend. The horror comedy – primarily aimed at a
Goonies aged audience – concerns a hungry old house that’s haunted by the spirit of an embittered sideshow fat lady. Soon as I read that Constance, the fat lady we see in flashback, was voiced by Kathleen Turner, it was like reading about one of my long-held FA fantasies come true.
Watching the actual film – and its too brief fat lady sequence – I couldn’t help wishing we’d been given at least one more moment of film. (Here goes Wilson, once more gassing about how
he'd make a movie better!) Though Constance’s hubby Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi) is clearly enthralled with the super-super-sized femme the moment he spies her, we’re never really given any moments showing this in action. Instead, we see the sideshow performer being taunted by rubes and neighborhood kids – and raging against these taunts. For the film’s poignant final shot of Nebbercracker dancing with the freed spirit of his wife to really work, we needed at least one good long shot of the full-sized woman as seen through her loving husband-to-be’s eyes. Perhaps on the DVD?
P.S.: Points to
MonHouse for having a portly kid character – and not making a lotta obvious Chunk-style fat jokes about him!