<<Movies of My Childhood list
Little Monsters
Released
the same year as “The Wizard”, Fred Savage, from The Wonders Years was only 13
when he did this film, and was already two years into his hit TV show. Savage
proved he was one of the best child actors of his generation. He wasn’t
necessarily a good looking kid, and not an amazing actor the likes of Haley
Joel Osment or Dakota Fanning, but he was dependable and could turn in a half
decent performance.
The
story is about Brian (Savage) and his family, moving into a new house. Things
are not all quiet in the night as they should be. First, Brian’s younger
brother Eric claims to have seen a monster in his room on the first night in
the house. Rushing in, his parents comfort him and naturally, believe he’s been
dreaming. But little Eric is convinced a monster visited him that night.
Even
though the family has moved into a new house, the family’s problems weren’t
left behind at the old house. Eric still gets blamed for almost everything,
even though he claims he didn’t leave his bike in the driveway causing his dad
to hit it with his car. So who put it there? Eric’s theory is that the monster
from under the bed did it. Brian wants to prove Eric wrong, and offers to sleep
in his little brothers room that night. Not believing in monsters himself,
Brian is in for a big surprise. He hears and sees a couple of strange things
that night, and offers to stay in Eric’s room again the following night. Not
the type of kid to get scared of very much at all, he set’s himself up that
night to catch the monster under the bed.
Preparing
a trap that will lure the monster out with Doritos. Brian tries to stay awake
all night, but nothing happens. Not until about 5.30 in the morning when an
obvious crunching sound comes from under the bed. Someone or something is
eating the chips, which wakes Brian up. He reaches for the handle of his
homemade booby trap, which brings the bed down on top of whatever might be
under there. But it’s loose in his room. Brian can only hear grunts and see
shadows whizzing past, until someone grabs him from behind. Without fear, Brian
wrestles his assailant until his dad comes in and turns the bedroom light on.
The visitor vanishes, and once again Brian gets blamed for the mess he’s caused
and sentenced to a day of chores the next morning.
Then
as dad leaves the room, the monster reappears. He’s tall, ugly, with blue skin
and dressed in denim. “Boo” he says and taunts and teases Brian. He rolls and
tumbles around the room, cracking jokes and plotting to get Brian into trouble.
As the morning sunlight peeks into the room, the monster reacts to it, and
pretends to melt away to nothing. All just a joke, as he ducks under the bed
again and says “The name’s Maurice, I’ll catch you later”.
Maurice
returns the next night, and he’s not as scary as he first appeared to be. He is
more of a prankster, cracking rude and crude jokes every second. But he’s come
back with an offer for Brian; to go under the bed with him and check out the
monster world, where he’s guaranteed to have the time of his life. A world solely
of kids, where they can have fun and where trouble is the code of honour. No
rules, no parents and the chance to do whatever you want. Brian reckons that
sounds great, and takes the monsters invitation. And so the crazy adventure
begins.
Entering a whole other world, Brian discovers that monsters truly
do have fun all the time. It’s a visually inventive place, where tall
staircases reach up to the sky, and into some kid’s bedroom. There are all
types of monsters just hanging out and as crazy but friendly as Maurice. Brian
discovers there’s other kids down there, having fun and playing games all night
long. There’s even a room where all the best tasting foods in the world are
available; pizzas, lollies, chips, chocolate, cake, soft drink and more. Maurice
even takes Brian up to some other kid’s bedrooms to show him how scaring is
really done.
Since
Brian is a bot of a brat, he plays along with Maurice joining him in an
onslaught of jokes and gags at a bunch of houses, like putting peanut butter on
the phone and gladwrap over the toilet seat. Realising they can go anywhere,
Brian asks Maurice to take him to the bedroom of the kid he fights at school.
They arrive and create a few surprises for the bully to wake up to in the
morning, such as swapping the tuna fish in his sandwich for school with cat
food. Maurice even goes as far as to swap his apple juice with piss. Yes, it’s
a bit of a crude film, and probably shocked the parents who let their kids
watch it, even mine I guess. But that’s the whole point. Kids like gross stuff,
and pulling pranks on kids they don’t like or the school bully. That’s what
this film is all about.
Brian
had so much fun the night before in monster world, he waits impatiently for
Maurice to reappear but he doesn’t. Discovering he can just enter the portal
under his bed himself, Brian nose dives in and is greeted by Maurice at the
bottom of the hole.
Maurice
is played by comedian Howie Mandel. He steals the show with an energised and
offbeat performance. Essentially playing a big kid in a mans body, he dresses
like a punk and behaves like a more filthy and deranged version of The Fonz.
That’s the best way I can describe him, but certainly, Maurice is a very
original character. He’s the kind of guy you’d like to hang out with for fun,
but not for long, because you know he would just get you into trouble. Aside
from all that, Maurice is actually a nice guy and genuinely cares for Brian, as
the two become friends.
But
not all is fun and friendly in monster world. There is another monster called
Snik, that isn’t nice whatsoever. He hurts other monsters and doesn’t like it
when kids come to visit. Turns out he had plans for Brian; he wanted to turn
him into a monster. When Brian decides he’s had enough of Maurice’s shenanigans,
he decides to stop the monster from visiting him anymore. So Snik plots to grab
him back and turn him into a monster. Unable to reach Brian, he takes his
little brother Eric instead. Once Brian discovers his brother is gone, he teams
up with a couple of mates to go into monster world and try to save him.
Little
Monsters was a great kid’s film. It lets kids be the stars, doing whatever they
want; no parents, no rules and no limits to the imagination. For a film about
monsters coming up from under the bed, it’s got a lot of heart and has that
classic 80’s sense of magic and adventure. Creative, outlandish, gross and
funny. They really don’t make them like this anymore.
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