Little Monsters

Little Monsters is a fun film for kids. Brian Stevenson (Fred Savage) seems to be getting blamed for everything these days. Leaving his bike out behind his dad's car. Making a mess out of the ice cream. But Brian insists that it isn't his fault.

One night, Brian discovers the cause to all his problems is a monster named Maurice (Howie Mandell), and shows Brian that under every kids bed, is the entrance to the underworld of childish monsters. And for Brian, it's the coolest thing and an excellent escape from his problems in the real world. It's great. There's no adult supervision. They can do whatever they want, whenever. And, the funniest part, is that Brian gets to join Maurice creating monster mischief to get little kids in trouble (peanut butter on the phone, seran wrap on the toilet seat, etc). It's a whole lot of fun for kids tired of rules.

But the monster life isn't all the treat it's cracked up to be. In the first place, there's an ugly looking fat monster who torments the monster kids that don't obey him. Maurice and his new friends have to destroy the evil monsters who have kidnapped Brian's little brother, Eric (played by Fred Savage's brother, Ben). And, Brian, Maurice, and some of their friends, have to get Eric back before they get stuck in the monster world forever. If they do, they'll turn into monsters too.

This is a great, creative kids movie, exploring the idea of monster life under the bed long before Monster's Inc. I still enjoy the sequence of Brian setting up his room to trap the monster and also the sequence where Brian and Maurice go around the neighboorhood to cause mischief and get the kids in trouble. And, despite it's age, I don't even think it's a dated adventure movie. Unfortuantely, it was also one of those movies where young Ben Savage was still the cute little kid that made you ignore the fact that he couldn't act.

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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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.

Although I did enjoy this movie (and gave it a 7), I found the PG rating a major misstep by the MPAA. Cuss words, adult situations, more than cartoonish violence .. not that the movie is lessened because of it .. but at the beginning of the video I rented, there was an add for kids to call a 1-900 number and try to win prizes related to to the show - but this movie is in no way made with kids in mind. Howie Mandel hams it up, and an early movie appearance by Frank Whaley is five minutes of fabulous.

Little Monsters is one of those guilty pleasure films that, when viewed through the lens of love and nostalgia I have for it, is quite enjoyable. Looking back more recently and as close to an unbiased viewing as I can get, however, the cracks quickly begin to show in the film.

This film feels like an extension of The Wonder Years, with both Fred Savage and Daniel Stern playing the same basic characters. Opposite them you have the always-manic Maurice, played by Howie Mandel, who has no apparent "off" switch as he pulls a number of mean-spirited "pranks" from his mysterious world accessible from under the bed of a child before dragging Brian, Savage's character, in on the action.

There are a few jokes in the film, but the majority of them are dated and just don't land anymore. There's a lot of humor that comes from the downright hateful tricks the monsters pull on the children (complete, of course, with the horrific reactions from the parents). That humor doesn't land either.

The "mysterious" monster world is literally the equivalent of a studio backlot, full of cardboard boxes and digital effects glittered throughout. The monster world, along with the "real" world, look like something lifted directly from a TV movie.

Then, of course, you have the villains. Boy, the ruler of the monster world, and Snik, the genuinely terrifying creature who exists as an enforcer of the rules. He's truly menacing and about the only thing in the movie that still invokes the intended emotion in the audience.

Nevertheless, nostalgia is a powerful thing, and it's what kept me coming back to this movie time and time again over the years. No matter how bad this movie is in a countless number of ways, it'll always hold a special place in my heart.