Monkeybone (2001)

In a coma, a cartoonist finds himself trapped within his own underground creation and must find a way to get back, while racing against his popular but treacherous character, Monkeybone.

Director:

Henry Selick

Writers:

Kaja Blackley (graphic novel "Dark Town"), Sam Hamm

Stars:

Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda, John Turturro

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Brendan Fraser	...	Stu Miley
Bridget Fonda	...	Julie McElroy
John Turturro	...	Voice of Monkeybone (voice)
Chris Kattan	...	Organ Donor Stu
Giancarlo Esposito	...	Hypnos
Rose McGowan	...	Miss Kitty
Dave Foley	...	Herb (as David Foley)
Megan Mullally	...	Kimmy
Bob Odenkirk	...	Head Surgeon
Pat Kilbane	...	Burger God Rep
Lisa Zane	...	Medusa
Whoopi Goldberg	...	Death
Sandra Thigpen	...	Alice
Wayne Wilderson	...	Hutch
Amy Higgins	...	Clarissa (as Amy D. Higgins)

Storyline

In a coma, Stu Miley a cartoonist who created a comic strip called Monkeybone which features a rascal monkey. He finds himself trapped within his own underground creation and must find a way to get back, while racing against his popular but treacherous character, Monkeybone. Naturally, Monkeybone himself is there, and he and Stu quickly start fighting like cats and dogs. When Stu realizes that his sister, due to a pact they once made, is preparing to pull the plug on him, Stu makes a deal with Hypnos, the god of sleep, to help him steal a golden ticket from Death himself. But when Monkeybone takes over Stu's body and escapes to wreak havoc on the real world, Stu has to find a way to stop him before his sister pulls the plug on reality forever!

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Plot Keywords:

coma | carnival | monkey | fantasy sequence | car accident | 

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Taglines:

If It Yells, If It Swings, It's Got To Be Monkeybone!

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for crude humor and some nudity

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 February 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Monkeybone Project

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$75,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,685,078, 25 February 2001

Gross USA:

$5,411,999

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,622,365

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, 1492 Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Animation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

On 2016, Rose McGowan wrote this Instagram post:

"Here I am as Miss Kitty in a film called Monkeybone. The movie would've been incredible (at least the underworld part) if the men at 20th Century Fox (the suits) hadn't fired the director, a true artist, Henry Selick 1/2 the way through filming- a profoundly stupid move. Selick went on to direct Coraline and had already made the classic, James and the Giant Peach, both tremendous pieces of work. The set design, costumes, prosthetics, actors, all at master level, at least in the underworld part of the film. What #FoxStudios turned this film into because of their fear and lack of artistic thinking was a travesty. They truly robbed us, the audience, of a possible classic. Also-fun fact alert-Monkeybone was based on a graphic novel called Dark Town. The weenies at Fox changed the name to 'Downtown' because they were scared African Americans would be upset by a psychedelic underground acid trip of a world with a CAT for a waitress named Dark Town. Hmmm... I wonder how many African American women directors they've hired in ratio to white male directors? That is what is what Fox should have been/should be concerned with. #foxstudios #rosearmy #anarmyofthought #bravethebook #thinkdifferent #be better"

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Goofs

As Stu is transferred into his gymnast/organ donor body, when the doctors are pulling out organs, he stands up and startled the doctors. Just then, there is a boom mice visible about the doctors.

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Quotes

Doctor: [while in a van chasing Organ Donor Stu] Wait! We're doctors! We don't want to hurt you, we just want some organs!

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Crazy Credits

Following the credits a stop-motion animated statue, which gave Stu Miley his pajamas earlier in the film, is seen for a few seconds holding two flags. One reads THE and the other reads END.

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Alternate Versions

An Alternate ending was filmed which follows the scene when Stu Miley tries to stop Monkeybone from giving the world nightmares but the difference in this ending is that he was unsuccesful in doing so and thus gets trapped in Downtown forever while Monkeybone continues to take over his life on Earth.

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Connections

Referenced in At the Movies: Freddy Got Fingered/The Body/Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles/The Center of the World/Keep the River on Your Right (2001)

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Soundtracks

Gorilla My Dreams
Written and Performed by Andrew Dorfman

User Reviews

Deserved to do better

Henry Selick's first feature, "The Nightmare Before Christmas", was a modern classic. His next, "James and the Giant Peach", had most of the things that made "Nightmare" great - heavily diluted. One thing that weakened Selick's second movie was his decision to begin and end with live action footage, when the glory of both "Nightmare" and "Peach" lay in skilful, sharp, gorgeous stop-motion animation.

In "Monkeybone" Selick has watered the original batch of Nightmare juice still more (note to Selick: it's time to stop mining this lode - if you make a fourth feature, get a new look), with at least half of the footage lacking the visual trademarks that were probably the reason for making the film in the first place. There WAS some stop-motion footage thrown in, probably it's for old time's sake.

Still, this is a better, more memorable movie than Selick's last one, and certainly not nearly as bad as the miserable box-office returns and scathing reviews would lead you to believe. Yes, the film has its flaws, but if you were to judge from its reception you'd think it didn't have ANY virtues - which simply isn't true. There's Brendan Fraser, for a start. How can you not like Stu Miley, or the way Fraser plays him? (If you want to see Fraser's charm wasted, see "Bedazzled".) At one point Stu is forced to temporarily occupy another body (Chris Kattan), and we instantly transfer our affections to the new actor without giving the matter a second thought - which is more remarkable than it sounds, and shows that Fraser really had been WORKING to get us to like Stu.

Then there's Downtown, which you must admit, looks good. It's more of a visual hodgepodge than Selick's previous two worlds (the first of which owes its look largely to Tim Burton), partly because it was realised through an ill-chosen mixture of costume, CGI, stop-motion and set design ... our eyes must constantly adjust, yet the overall look is strong enough to make it worth the effort.

As for the film's flaws, well, they've been greatly exaggerated. I suppose there were (as several American critics complained) some bodily-function-based jokes, but I can't recall that many - certainly not as many or as witless as in "Shrek", and besides, at least some of the jokes in "Monkeybone" are actually funny. That's because they're character-based, and not solely reliant on the alleged shock value of someone suddenly farting or burping.

All that's really wrong with "Monkeybone" is that it lacks the brilliance a premise this bizarre demands. Yeah, well, big deal. So unlike Selick's first feature it's not a masterpiece. It's still an entertaining, competently made film with a good, solid story, more than inventive enough to justify having been made.