Monster House: A-

What delightful and freakish fun, and how imaginative to boot! A living house? A corpse-like neighbor? The venemous babysitter? A movie that doesn't belittle kids? This latest animated gem from the likes of Spielber and Zemeckis has all of these things plus a very talented voice cast and a clever script. When three kids discover the house across from them is possessed they do the usual: they scream. Then they do the unusual (for kids in kid's movies anyway): they try and solve the problem but without the usual hoo-ha and craziness, although a crack is made by one of them later about the sanity of their plans. The director, a recent graduate of film school that was snagged up by Spielberg, has a vivid mastery of animation and camera motion that could very well leave you exhausted and alittle motion sick. Plus who can't love a movie where both John Heder and Jason Lee pop up for develishly good cameos of self-mockery? It turns out animated movies may just be the new secret club for cool kids this summer. Who knew?