Monkeybone (2001)

20% of critics liked it
(112 reviews)
30% of users liked it
(45,965 ratings)

This feverishly energetic comedy combines stop-motion animation and live action from director Henry Selick, creator of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and James and the Giant Peach (1996). Brendan Fraser stars as Stu Miley, a cartoonist who created a randy monkey character called Monkeybone… More This feverishly energetic comedy combines stop-motion animation and live action from director Henry Selick, creator of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and James and the Giant Peach (1996). Brendan Fraser stars as Stu Miley, a cartoonist who created a randy monkey character called Monkeybone that has taken off in popularity, making him a celebrity. Stu's set to launch a TV series based on Monkeybone and marry his beautiful fiancée Julie (Bridget Fonda) when he's injured in a freak accident that puts him in a coma. He travels to Dark Town, a holding area for the comatose who wait to either regain consciousness or move on to the afterlife with the help of Death (Whoopi Goldberg). Dark Town is also a realm where fictional characters reside and before long Stu has met the vulgar Monkeybone, who travels back to the land of the living to inhabit Stu's body. Aided by Kitty (Rose McGowan), Stu must find a way to reclaim his body and put Monkeybone back in his place before the raunchy primate ruins his charmed life. Monkeybone is based on the cartoon graphic novel Dark Town by Kaja Blackley. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 32 min.
Directed By: Henry Selick
Written By: Sam Hamm
Genres: Animation, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy

In Theaters: Feb 23, 2001 Wide
On DVD: Jul 10, 2001
Studio: 20th Century Fox

Critic Reviews

Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader
You can almost see money dripping off the walls of the sets and cybersets in this special-effects extravaganza.
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
Why do I still have a soft spot for this flick? Because there are glimmers of intelligence in the mess, because it must have driven the marketing department crazy, and because it fails so differently than all those run-of-the-mill failures.
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
There's unwieldy mess -- but there's also unruly brilliance to this dark and funny story.
Paul Tatara, CNN.com
One of those newfangled production design monstrosities that grabs you by the collar in the first ten minutes, then shakes you around like a rag doll until you're ready to drop.
Rita Kempley, Washington Post
The result is a script so needlessly complicated that it defies comprehension.
Dennis Harvey, Variety
The guy can't control his 'monkey,' get it? Heh-heh. Yep, that's the whole concept. Heh. Pretty twisted, eh? Heh ... har ... um ... zzzzzz.
Scott G. Mignola, Common Sense Media
Starts out bad and gets progressively worse.
, Film4
Fun fun fun, but not necessarily for all the family.
Jeffrey Chen, Window to the Movies
Primed to be dark, twisted, and playful -- all exhibited traits of the works of the director, animator Henry Selick -- it is instead juvenile, amateurish, and sloppy.
Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
A bundle of chaotic energy signifying nothing.
Tony Macklin, Las Vegas CityLife
The film Monkeybone is a raucous mess. Director Henry Selick mixes animation and live action to the noisy, clumsy detriment of both.
Josh Larsen, LarsenOnFilm
...an outrageously funny demonstration of how our interior angst can be put into the service of art.
Mark Halverson, Sacramento News & Review
This tale about alter ego and greed generates more morbid and sexual content than a real sense of ghoulish fun or panic.
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
A crass and frantic comedy-fantasy pitched alternately, I think, at ten-year-olds or stoned college students.
Derek Adams, Time Out
The design is often brilliant, although the film is nowhere near as tasteless or funny as it ought to be.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
The movie doesn't seem to have a purpose other than to fill space.
Staci Layne Wilson, StaciWilson.com
Click to read the article.
Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan
An embarrassment for Brendan Fraser. Consider this surreal comedy attempt a career hurdle that Fraser has since cleared.
Ted Murphy, Hollywood.com
Don't waste your time with this monkey business.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
Monkeybone is kind of like a Tim Burton movie - except it wasn't directed by Tim Burton.

Read all 23 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

Phil H

Based on the comic 'Dark Town' but slightly twisted somewhat resulting in this film from Selick which by no means is a bad thing as the film is great fun. When I first saw this it was a straight to 'video' release but I was enticed by the unusual title and… More
Based on the comic 'Dark Town' but slightly twisted somewhat resulting in this film from Selick which by no means is a bad thing as the film is great fun. When I first saw this it was a straight to 'video' release but I was enticed by the unusual title and colourful film cover, but I must admit after seeing it I didn't really like it that much. The film did bomb heavily in the US and this is why the UK only saw it at the videoshop which is a shame. I think the odd casting of Brendan Fraser (never been a big name really) and Bridget Fonda didn't help as the you don't tend to think of these two for a surreal 'Burton-esq' life after death flick as this. I also think Fraser gave the film a childish outlook due to his previous films plus he's not a great actor anyway so this may have detracted from the film. Upon watching again I must say I've warmed up to this fantasy now bigtime, it does show tremendous imagination and originality throughout which is unique in itself, add to that some marvellous stop motion animation, cartoon animation and a whole host loony toon rubber masks and suits equalling many strange and bizarre creatures. Selick being the master behind 'Nightmare Before Christmas' shows us again here how that wasn't a fluke, much like 'Beetlejuice' the characters are all suppose to be dead or with this film imaginatively created also. Most of the film is set in a limbo land and this allows Selick to run riot with the creations and utilize his skills in stop motion perfectly, all of which is really nicely done. You really could be forgiven for thinking this was a Burton/Selick collaboration as the film is very dark and off the wall highlighting their fascination of the afterlife being basically a pain in the ass. The whole film is highly colourful, vivid and shows great artistic merit with some nice alternative takes on the look for limbo, death, passing over etc...its not morbid but nicely ghoulish. Must applaud Chris Kattan for a brilliant little role as a dead body that Fraser's character inhabits towards the end :) really nicely played and quite believeable as a corpse with a broken neck haha kudos. Worst choice is easily casting Whoopi Goldberg as 'Death', who's decision was that!!?.
KJ P

This was an enjoyable ride. It was just funny how the main act was holding his head on with anything he could find. I laughed every time he came up with something new and original to hold it up.
Dead A

I watched this because of Brendan Fraser. But this was stupid.
Wahida K

Bone 2 B Bad
Luke B

Monkeybone gets a lot of undeserved flack. It's by no means a great film but there's so much to like about it. Selick's imagination runs wild in the fantasy segments. He makes great use of stop-motion animation and some wonderful make-up and costumes. Rose McGowan is a… More
Monkeybone gets a lot of undeserved flack. It's by no means a great film but there's so much to like about it. Selick's imagination runs wild in the fantasy segments. He makes great use of stop-motion animation and some wonderful make-up and costumes. Rose McGowan is a particular treat. It does seem like the budget may have forced more of it to be set in the real world than one would have liked, and there's definitely a sense that a LOT has been cut. It always seems as though the film is darker than it's allowed to be, making it the repressed character that Fraser himself portrays. The sister disappears, McGowan is underused and certain plot points go unexplained. There's a few brilliant twists and turns, but it's one of those films without a definite tone or audience, which can leave it flailing in the wind.
Dean M

This is what happens when a film suffers from being too unrestrained. What should have been a clever dark fantasy about a comic-book artist who enters his own world is instead a textbook case of style over substance. Director Henry Selick - so wonderful with puppet animation -… More
This is what happens when a film suffers from being too unrestrained. What should have been a clever dark fantasy about a comic-book artist who enters his own world is instead a textbook case of style over substance. Director Henry Selick - so wonderful with puppet animation - hasn't the faintest idea how to manipulate live human beings, which leaves Brendan Fraser and Bridget Fonda looking woefully bad.
Randy T

Should be on any comprehensive list of the worst films ever made.
Curtis L

The part in 'downtown' is really cool, but as a whole i hate brendan fraser so much it's hard to watch.
Lafe F

I thought "Monkeybone" would be as brilliant as "Beetlejuice" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" but was wrong. It's an unfunny gross movie with lots of flat black humour. Visually, the world of the afterlife looks great with its cartoonish neon… More
I thought "Monkeybone" would be as brilliant as "Beetlejuice" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" but was wrong. It's an unfunny gross movie with lots of flat black humour. Visually, the world of the afterlife looks great with its cartoonish neon amusement park glow, but nothing fun happens within. The "Monkeybone" character looks really cute, but it's an annoying dirty-minded little scoundrel that needs to be locked in a cage.
Yinalí R

Very weird movie...Yeah...
C.R. L

When Henry Selick created a Nightmare before Christmas it was the start of a new era in stop motion animation. While Selick has always stayed in the world of stop motion animation he has given us a great and wonderful time with that, James and the giant peach was phenomenal and… More
When Henry Selick created a Nightmare before Christmas it was the start of a new era in stop motion animation. While Selick has always stayed in the world of stop motion animation he has given us a great and wonderful time with that, James and the giant peach was phenomenal and now in 2001 he created a film that blends perfectly live action with the stop motion animation of his design. And this film so happens to be called, Monkeybone. Monkeybone is smart, charming, unrelentingly funny and visually breathtaking it's a fantasy adventure with such high class and such great comedic timing that it just leaps out at you and sucks you deep, deep into the world of Henry Selick and his wild, dark and zany creatures. What I loved about this film is how Fraser's character started out meek and dull and slowly but surly turned into the hero and real man you know he is on the inside. It's a great face the music type of story and a great fantasy adventure that is just too good and just too eye catching to resist. Brendan Fraser gives one of his best comedic performances here as comic strip scribe and creator of Monkeybone Stu Miley. Fraser's performance is key to the film and it sometimes calls for him to go above and beyond the call of duty for his role. But never the less Fraser pulls it off nicely and helps make this comedic adventure worthy watching. Bridget Fonda is alright as the doting and caring girlfriend Julie, while not as strong as Fraser and not as serious as she could have been Fonda does alright with her part and is not a thorn in this films side. John Turturro is fantastically funny and witty as the popular but treacherous comic strip character, Monkeybone. Turturro breaks out all his comedic skills and brings some seriously huge laughs and style to this film as the voice of the mischievous little monkey. But all in all the cast holds up great and brings some serious charm laughs to an otherwise unique and original picture. Monkeybone is cool as it is slick and while not as popular as it should be or as praised but Henry Selick's Monkeybone is an original and visually striking motion picture that I know if your forgiving and open up to this world Monkeybone will not disappoint. All in all Monkeybone is one wild and zany trip you really want to take.
Jay R

it was good, kinda corny... but good right up until brendan fraser started singing right near the end... that killed it for me... that and the cliche ending...