This summer's "Monster House" is up for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award.

Gil Kenan's "non-existant" career was given a big boost by executive producers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis.

"Monster House" official website


Q: Did you always have an interest in fantasy?

GK: This film is kind of a documentary of my life. I grew up moving from city to city, so the idea of home and place is important to me. We moved to three different continents by the time I was eight. I became aware at a really young age that the places we live play an important role in who we are as people. That's been percolating in my head for a while, which led into some of the things that are explored in "Monster House."

Beyond that, I've just been a huge fan of film since my eyes opened. There are millions of key experiences that shaped who I am, all defined by movies—ironically, many of them created by my [current] producers. The person I am is an amalgam of where I've lived and the movies I've seen.

Q: Did that have an effect...

GK: —and I hate my dad! No, no, no. [laughs]

Q: The film is pretty scary, isn't it too intense for kids—who would you say is your target audience?

GK: Family movies don't need to be pacifiers. We've dumbed down what we feed to kids in terms of entertainment these days. There used to be a healthy tradition of kids' films offering a full range of experiences, from scary to funny to emotional. You can go back to "Snow White" and it's got some real terror, but it's also got the rest which creates a fully rounded story.

I remember "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", which starts off lightly and pleasantly as a romp and then takes this sharp turn into the perverse. It always really captured me on that turn. I always felt that experience made watching the movie more satisfying. I'm proud this movie doesn't talk down to kids, but appreciates them for who they are, which is a really brave, smart audience that can handle a lot more than we give them.

Q: Why did you or the studio have a Halloween film come out during the summer?

GK: Kids are in school at Halloween. Once inside the house and leading up to the third act, it's very much a summer film so it shouldn't have to be squeezed into a one-weekend Halloween release. There is a tradition of films based on a holiday not coming out around the holiday but "ET" was a June release.

Q: Were you worried that you'd get crucified for making fun of "fatties"?

GK: I think she's a tragic character more than a villainous character. You see in the role of Chowder that fat's heroic in equal measure. Speaking as a former fat kid myself, and for a few years, as a fat adult, I can say with some certainty none of it is against the weight, it's more a character trait of who Constance is.

Q: ["Monster House" makes use of motion-capture with its actors, meaning that all the actors' phsyical movements were recorded and translated into their onscreen, animaed counterparts' actions.] [Yet] there's no motion-capture for the house?

GK: Kathleen Turner is one of the most giving, generous actors I've had the pleasure of working with. I asked her about building the neighborhood out of foam and motion-capturing her going through the house's rampage. She agreed and we built the entire city in foam and that's going to be an awesome DVD extra. It's pretty amazing to watch. Although the ultimate performance of the house is mostly animated, her kind of inspiration is there in every nuance.

Q: How did you pick the other actors?

GK: At the first meeting, Robert Zemeckis had a list of names. I was naïve—but it did end up working that way. I told Zemeckis no one except Steve Buscemi could be Neb.

Q: It's uncanny how individual traits come through even though someone is animated. You couldn't miss Jon Heder.

GK: It's fascinating what it takes to distill a performance—to communicate who they are. It's almost like cutting off an arm and it living on beyond its connection to the body. Even without the facial information, just take an actor's movement, the way they stand and listen, so much of that humanity is transferred. That's what fascinated me about using motion capture to extract these performances. I was able to learn what a human performance was made up of, mathematically, which was fascinating.