Henry Selick’s Monkeybone is another of the director’s brave experiments in combining various forms of animation following his successes with The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Two-dimensional, stop-motion, CGI and muppetry effects whizz by with casual dazzle, but sometimes a collection of great ideas isn’t just enough for moviegoers, and audiences summarily dismissed Monkeybone at the cinema. Shame really, because the eye-popping design deserves as big a screen as possible to drink it all in.

Adapted from a graphic novel the story concerns cartoonist Stu Miley (a suitably schizophrenic Brendan Fraser) who finds himself in a hellish purgatory called Downtown after a freak car accident puts him in a coma. Once there, he must find a way to cheat Death in the person of Whoopi Goldberg. There are complications, however. In the real world his girlfriend (Bridget Fonda) is battling to prevent his family pulling the plug, and his comic character alter ego Monkeybone has come to life as a randy stop-motion whirligig of bad taste and ideas.

Although visually the film is a feast of inventive ideas--the amazing look of the Pyjama Party and the Land of Death are truly impressive--ultimately Monkeybone stands or falls by its sense of humour. But then it’s all a matter of taste. If the sight of a possessed organ donor jumping off the operating table and running around with a broken neck isn’t for you, avoid. If seeing Fraser ham it up as he’s enjoyed doing before in the likes of George of the Jungle, then enjoy!--Paul Tonks