Little Monsters: Kleine Monster

Little Monsters will always be an absolute classic from my childhood. It's a movie I've seen many times, and it's just as entertaining now as it was then. The comedy is perfect for all ages, and it's the kind of movie you'll want to see more than once.

The story about two complete opposites becoming best friends wasn't exactly original, but throwing in the monster element, and the fantasy underworld setting definitely made it feel original. The characters/monsters were very creative along with the overall concept for the film, and the cast portrayed those characters great.

This is a great movie that I would recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it.

An astounding film like this should be in the top fantasy and family lists, and I'm shocked that it isn't. I first saw it actually about a year ago, but completely forgot about it after that until about a month ago. Since then I've probably watched it 7 or 8 times. It just plunges you into believing in magic. Kids movies are NOT made like this today...and I wasn't even alive in the 80's. But this movie has more substance, more of a story and reason to being made. It starts off showing what kind of life Brian has, but quickly picks up when Maurice enters the scene. And it all turns to fun and games. But just as quickly it turns serious, but I won't give that away. The sets are amazing, the acting is great, the costumes are fun and wild looking. The swearing caught me off guard, but it's nothing kids haven't heard already. Either this movie was rated by another system or the MPAA just overlooked it since it did have such a small release...sadly. This film has to be the most underrated film I have ever wathced...It has quickly become one of my favorites and probably will always be...

If you're a fan of quality movies then watch this one because it will blow you away.

Howie mandell plays a great job as maurice, the boogyman that lives under brians bed. His wacky and fun and really shows off his acting talents here. His makeup along with the design of the rest of the monsters is fun also. We also have Danial stern as brians father, who was fun but wish we saw more of him. The rest of the cast were good and this movie is just a big thrill ride. That is untill brians fun becomes a nightmare but even that is entertaining but also scary at the same time. Overall a good movie but not intended as a family viewing experiance.

I remember watching this movie with my dad when I was 9 and it was easily one of the funniest movie I had ever feasted my eyes upon. Howie Mandel's one liners were wildly inappropriate for children. Not too mention Fred Savage who was playing an eleven year old boy was almost just as cheeky which made the hilarity of the characters even more difficult not to laugh at. While it definitely doesn't even come close to being as hilarious as The Goonies it certainly is one of the funniest children's films to come out of the 1980s.

After moving house and witnessing his parents' marriage crumbling in front of him, Brian (Fred Savage) investigates his brothers claims that monsters keep coming from under his bed and scaring him at night. After swapping rooms, Brian is visited by a big blue monster, and the next night Brian manages to trap him in his room using his engineering skills. The monster turns out to be hyperactive troublemaker Maurice (Howie Mandel) who befriends Brian, and shows him the wonders of the monster world under his bed, where every night, the monsters reek havoc in the homes of young children. But the mysterious monster Boy (Frank Whaley) wants Brian for himself and keep him under the bed until the sun comes up, and thus turning him into a monster.

Apart from the first four Rocky films, Little Monsters was hands down the main film I watched religiously as a child, my face no further than two feet from the TV screen. I remember finding it strangely eerie amongst all the fun, and being genuinely disturbed by some scenes. Boy's henchman Snik, a giant, hunchbacked monster with large bottom teeth, really frightened me, and the scene where he breaks one of Maurice's horns always shocked me. Re-visiting the film, roughly around fifteen years later, I can see that I was right to feel unnerved.

Yes, the film is certainly childish and playful, but has a surprising line of darkness flowing through it from beginning to end. From early on, where Brian finds an overturned TV in the darkness of his closet that is showing the climax of The Fly, to the finale that sees Boy's face burned off to reveal a hideous face underneath, the film often steps out of the childhood safety area. It's certainly refreshing to see, and this sort of atmosphere can only be found in the Golden Age of kiddie flicks, the 80's, where films like The Dark Crystal and The Goonies showed creepy creatures and foul-mouthed kids that the target audience could really enjoy and relate to.

Not to say that Little Monsters quite matches up to the two films just mentioned - it has some annoying child characters and Maurice does become slightly tiresome - but it is certainly an imaginative, funny and exciting little film. It's sad to see another of the key child stars of the era, Fred Savage, come out of the decade and dissolve into the woodwork, similar to the likes of Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. Although his maniacal behaviour does occasionally become exhausting, Howie Mandel's performance is certainly energetic, and you can't help but love him when he drinks a bully's apple juice, only to refill it with p**s. Hardly a classic, but certainly a film I will absolutely cherish from my youth, and will enjoy revisiting once every decade or so.

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