Monsters fighting aliens. It’s such a startling simple idea that it’s a wonder why no one ever thought of putting this down in a movie before. Sure, some of those Japanese monster movies featured monsters from space, but a true titanic struggle between Godzilla and E.T. with minions seems to have escaped the Hollywood cut and paste machine… until now. From Dreamworks Animation comes this highly ambitious 3-D animated film that manages to confound expectations by actually being reasonably well made and well executed. It doesn’t always work, at least for me, but it’s got spirit, artistry and some pretty good gags to boot.

The film starts with Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), who suffers the extreme misfortune of having a meteorite fall on her right before her wedding. Normally people hit by meteor freefalling from the sky are killed instantly, but Susan just grows to the size of a skyscraper, resulting in her transfer from small town California to a government facility called Area-something-or-other. In custody, and under the command of General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland), Susan meets other monsters also being held by the government: the man-bug Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), the fish-man Missing Link (Will Arnett), the gelatinous B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) and the gigantic grub Insectosaurus.

The main thrust of the action is that these monsters become the last hope for America when the alien Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) sends his giant, one-eyed robots to collect a rare element he’s detected on Earth. On a basic level, the film’s a very kid friendly tale about misguided misfits of science being cast against a megalomaniac super-villain by borderline competent human commanders. Dig deeper though and we’re dealing with some bizarrely adult themes.

Susan, for instance, is engaged to a wholly, self-absorbed jerk, but doesn’t realize it until after she’s become a “monster;” in fact she has to become a monster in order to realize her inner-feminist and that she can do anything she sets her mind to – alone. More broadly, the other monsters refer to their confinement as “jail,” and when Susan arrives Monger tells her that her stay will be “indefinite.” Hmm, people being held in secret detention centres, being held for indeterminate amounts of time without status or acknowledgement by the government. Sound like anything we might know about?

Despite a few instances of questionably kid-friendly humour, Monsters Vs. Aliens has all you could want in family entertainment. It’s bright and colourful, popping with a lot of really neat visuals thanks to the Digital 3-D effect; and if you are planning on seeing this movie, accept no substitute: splurge on the 3-D glasses. But of course the movie’s going to be technically excellent, that’s not even a question. I’ve chastised some Dreamworks animated films previously for trying too hard to be all things to both kids and parents. And while some of the jokes will like fly above the heads of the young’ins, there’s still a better balance here than in Sharktale, for example.

Sure, kids aren’t going to get the subtle wordplay in the name W.R. Monger, or fully appreciate the inner-pop-culture reference of the US President’s attempt to communicate with the aliens through a synthesiser, but I didn’t find that stuff as galling in this film. The point is that the main story will definitely jive because what kid hasn’t played with the imaginary notion of being either a) a monster or b) an alien. To this spirit of play the film seems dedicated; it’s just a lot of fun and really enjoyable on that level. What the film lacks in subtext, it makes up for in showmanship and amusement. It’s a not completely cohesive effort, but when it works, it works well.