Monkeybone (USA, 2001)

The comedy that lost its way. Underbaked and oddly frayed at all its edges, the multimillion-dollar box-office flop that is Monkeybone is, to date, the only live-action movie helmed by director Henry Selick, a man who had already directed better, more rounded-out and fully developed movies, like The Nightmare before Christmas (1993 / trailer)* and James and the Giant Peach (1996), and went on to do a masterpiece, Coraline (2009). (He also made Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions [1991], which was a wasted life's Short Film of the Month for August 2012.)

* Sure, everyone knows that film as Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas, and Burton generally gets all the credit... But much like Andy Warhol didn't direct Andy Warhol's Dracula (1974 / trailer, with Udo Kier) or Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (1974 / trailer, with Udo Kier) or Andy Warhol's Bad (1977 / trailer, with Susan Tyrrell) — the first two were done by Paul Morrissey (23 Feb 1938 – 28 Oct 2024), the last by Jed Johnson (30 Dec 1948 – 17 Jul 1996) — Nightmare before Christmas was actually directed by Selick. Burton was the producer. Semi-ditto with Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005 / trailer), which is arguably even better than Nightmare before Christmas and co-directed by Mike Johnson. Frankenweenie (2012 / trailer) is to date the only Tim Burton stop-motion animation feature film directed solely by him.

Trailer to

Monkeybone:

Based, possibly loosely, on Kaja Blackley's graphic novel Dark Town, which was illustrated by Vanessa Chong, we have never read the source book so the extent to which the book and movie are or are not similar is unknown to us. But what is up on the screen is a mess. 

That said, it is also an at times highly entertaining mess, so Monkeybone is far from a complete loss, but it hardly looks its budget and feels as if way too many hands were in the brew. Is it a juvenile T&A comedy (without T&A) on drugs or an exercise in surreal but often peckerless black humor? Once too often, it simply comes across as a low-brow semi-copy of Tim Burton's far better (and less raunchy and childish) Beetlejuice (1988 / trailer).

The basic plot concerns cartoonist Stu Miley (Brendan Fraser of The Passion of Darkly Noon [1995 / trailer]), who falls into coma and descends into a carnival-like netherworld, called Dark Town, populated by the creatures of his nightmares and imagination, including Monkeybone (voiced by John Turturro), the eponymous monkey character of Stu's popular comic in the real world. Back there, to the dismay of Stu's true love Dr Julie McElroy (Bridget Fonda of Lake Placid [1999 / trailer] and Army of Darkness [1992]), his sister, Kimmy (Megan Mullally of Once Bitten [1985 / trailer]), wants to pull the plug on her comatose brother — but just when the time comes, Monkeybone manages to take over Stu's body and come to the real world, secretly pursuing a nefarious plan involving Dr. Julie's nightmare serum...

Sometimes the weird sense of humor truly shines in Monkeybone, and there are moments when the visuals are really fun and enthralling. On the other hand, there are also too many dry moments, with a lot of jokes — visual and verbal — falling flat. The ineffectual casting of Whoopie Goldberg as Death feels and plays out like studio interference, as her part, even if played for laughs, needs (needed?) someone who nevertheless carried some level of subliminal threat. In that sense, pre-fame (but mid-career) Giancarlo Esposito (of Maximum Overdrive [1986]) works way better as Death's duplicitous brother Hypnos, the God of Sleep and head honcho of Down Town: he may be freaky, he may be surreally and literally funny, but he is also oddly scary.

The true people to shine in Monkeybone are Bridget Fonda in her straight role of Dr Julie McElroy, who makes the emotions of her character far more palpable than a comedy normally requires, and Kris Katton (of the dissatisfying Undead or Alive [2007 / trailer], the diverting Santa Slay [2005 / trailer], and the better-than-its-rep remake, House of Haunted Hill [1999 / trailer]), who plays "Organ Donor Stu", the dead body that the spirit of Stu takes over for the film's big showdown between Organ Donor Stu and Monkeybone Stu, for his time on screen definitely garners the most continuous laughter. Rose McGowan (of Planet Terror [2007] and Scream [1996 / trailer]) is also pretty good in her thankless role as Miss Kitty, but they really could have put a bit more care into her costume: she looks less dreamy or purgatory-worthy than she does cheap cosplay. But then, that is endemic of the movie: it had a huge budget — its $75 million dollars could have set up us and all our mostly unknown 74 relatives for life — but looks oddly inexpensive most of the time.

Monkeybone is a wacky, macabre black comedy that fails as often as it works, and while it might make a good double feature with, say, Freaked (1993), which definitely shares its juvenile and crude bones (but not its budget), it is definitely the lesser film. 

 

Nevertheless, Monkeybone does entertain and never gets anywhere close to inducing a yawn, and also garners more laughs than many other less-gutsy and less-individual comedies. As such, Monkeybone is worth watching despite being somewhat disappointing. Go in expecting less and you'll probably enjoy Monkeybone more.

 

 

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