Lesson Plans - Monster House

This may have been a surprise choice in terms of a animated cartoon.  But we were impressed with the human relationships in the film and thought it would promote some interesting discussion.

The film is put together on two levels.  One is that of adventure and suspense.  A house seems to be alive.  The protagonist is the next door neighbour, a young boy who investigates the strange happenings in the house with the help of two friends.  Their adventure is in coming to know the true story of the house.

The second more complicated and profound story is how in fact the house came to be inhabited with a human spirit.  I will give you this backdrop story line to explain to the students.  This story may get hidden in all the fast action. 

The house is in fact inhibited with the spirit of Mr. Nettercracker’s wife who died in an accident when the house was being build years and years ago.  She was a very large woman who actually worked as “the fat lady” in the circus, a kind of obscene side attraction.  She came to hate those who made fun of her, she hated the public.  It was Mr. Nettercracker who fell in love with her and took her away from the circus to start a new life together by building the house.  Ms. Nettercracker fell into the basement of the house, while she was yelling at the neighbour boys to get away, and was immediately covered by cement (it sounds creepy but handled in a very tasteful and cartoonish way.  She was never seen again.  In fact everyone thought Mr. Nettercracker had killed his wife.

When his wife died, her spirit came to inhabit the house itself.  Mr. Nettercracker did everything he could to protect his wife/his house.  But he also knew his wife hated those around who came close.  He needed to keep others away so that his wife/house wouldn’t hurt others. 

Instead, 90% of the film about is the young protagonist’s adventures.  That part of the film will be easy to follow with a few vocabulary suggestions.  But what you might want to do is give the student’s the second deeper story line just to facilitate a complete comprehension.

_ _ _ _ _

DJ is the star of the film.  As the story opens, DJ sees yet again some strange “goings on” at Mr. Nettercracker’s house.  You can see he has grown tired of trying to explain things to his parents since they don’t believe a word he’s saying and blame it all on PUBERTY by saying “Someone is hitting puberty.”

Key words/phrases/concepts for the opening scenes:

Get off my lawn - (lawn – l’erba che cresce dintorno della casa)

Mr. Nettercracker says this to everyone to help them stay away from his home

Trick or Treating - (phase that is given at Halloween when you knock on the door for treats – dolcezza o scherzetto

This phrase is used often throughout the film.  It’s obvious it’s fall with the leaves turning color and falling off the trees.  Halloween is October 31st.

Instant Recall using a telephone – toward the beginning of the film when DJ is woken up by a phone call, he pushes a button to allow him to re-call the caller immediately.  He discovers in fact that the call came from Mr. Nettercracker’s house even if no one was home.
Other main characters in the film:

Chowder – DJ’s best friend
Z – babysitter
Bones – Z’s boyfriend
Jenny – an accomplice in DJ’s adventures

When Jenny comes to the house to sell candy as a fundraiser for her school, she uses a lot of slang expressions.  She says essentially, to buy her candy to be prepared for the kids trick or treating for Halloween.  But she also alludes to what happens when a household has no candy to give – TP’s, shaving cream, etc.  TP stands for toilet paper.  Men use shaving cream to shave their beard.  Jenny is basically saying that if kids are mad at a certain home for not offering good candy, they could be punished by the neighbourhood kids by throwing TP and shaving cream around the lawn.  This is a sort of joke since TP and shaving cream do nothing to hurt anyone but they are impossible to clean up.  This is a threat on Jenny’s part.

There are hundreds of colloquial expressions in this film.  Ask you students to pick out at least one. 

Here are a few you’ll hear:

Awesome kite (beautiful kite)
Stop fooling around (misbehaving)
Mentally challenged
I have dibs on the girl (possession)
Total moron (stupid)
Whatever – mah!

A play on words come when the police drive up to the haunted house – in the film the police are referred to as cops, the colloquial expression.  The police officer says “I was wrestling with a bear claw.”  A bear claw is a kind of doughnut in America, a kind of dolce.  So what he was actually saying is that he was eating a treat.

Big Foot – a legend of a huge ape like figure found deep in the forest, a legend that has never been proven.

Going in the hole – going to jail
Wrangle a puppy – wrestling with a puppy