Monsters vs. Aliens, DreamWorks' first 3-D feature, pulled out all the stops to create a fun, broad actioner. All images © DreamWorks Animation LLC.

Now, after all the 3-D hype, Monsters vs. Aliens finally arrives in theaters today from DreamWorks Animation (released by Paramount). But Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2), who helmed the feature with Rob Letterman (Shark Tale), is the first to emphasize that MVA is not a 3-D gimmick in its depiction of a gaggle of monster misfits out to save the world from a maniacal alien.

"What we talked about from the very beginning, before we knew it was going to be 3-D, was doing something a lot bigger and more spectacular in terms of scale than had ever been done before," Vernon suggests. "There's room in animation to do the beautiful, little, quiet films, like Ratatouille, which is character-driven and one of my favorites. But we wanted to blow the roof off… So when we first started thinking about doing this in the old Ed Wood, B-movie style of science fiction and horror, it was fertile ground to satirize these films [Tarantula, Godzilla, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman] and have some fun with them. We also wanted to make the action sequences real action sequences. We wanted there to be real danger, real stakes and spectacular visuals. And DreamWorks let us go with that..."

The directors aimed to "blow the roof off" with Monsters vs. Aliens, giving a palate for the 3-D to work on.

However, this ambition to pull off the biggest actioner in the history of DreamWorks Animation began with a design style inspired by Mad magazine. "I gave Craig Kellman, our character designer, the Jack Davis template and he went to town," Vernon adds. "We didn't want to rubberize the characters too much. We wanted them to be funny but we didn't want them to break bones or have eyeballs popping out. For instance, I gave everyone the idea of John Cleese doing the funny walks from Monty Python. Look at that for reference for how the President moves. He's almost falling down constantly, but very elegantly picking himself back up."

As far as the animation, Vernon wanted to make sure it was unique. "I wasn't dictating what the animation should be, but telling them to break out of the normal little poses and get into the characters' emotions. And I would actually get up in front of the animators and act things out for them. They would ask questions and we finally settled on a style."

According to Dave Burgess (Bee Movie, Madagascar, The Lion King) head of character animation, "The directors and I kept going back to Chuck Jones and reference how his characters really milk their poses. They'd stay in their poses for a long time and there'd be secondary actions with hands and shoulders and little shifts of the head. But we didn't feel the need to illustrate every single word or phrase being said in the time-honored way of having it done in pantomime.

Characters were to hold their poses for a beat, giving the animation a Chuck Jones feel that should feel unique.

"Personally, I have an aversion to typical acting you see in animation where you [hold very long poses]," Burgess adds. "I told the animators they would have to figure out something else to do."

Overall, Burgess thinks the CG humans are the best yet at DreamWorks, thanks to the latest technical advances as well as a mandate from the directors. "There's a depth to the skin and a level of detail that isn't photoreal but it blends with the design-y characters. Again, I think we did a good job of avoiding the Uncanny Valley. They're stylized enough, especially Susan/Ginormica (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) and Derek, her fiancé (voiced by Paul Rudd), but also General Monger (voiced by Keefer Sutherland as a cross between R. Lee Ermey from Full Metal Jacket and Yosemite Sam) and the President (voiced by Stephen Colbert) as well, so we were able to find a fairly sophisticated look that augmented the design.