Monkey Bone

MONKEY BONE, directed by Henry Selick (JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS), is a fantasy adventure that combines live action, stop motion, claymation miniatures, puppets, and computer imaging. Monkeybone is a cartoon character created by a successful comic book illustrator named Stu Miley (Brendan Fraser). (He wears a coat with the tag S. Miley, which is a good hint at the film's brand of pun-filled humour.) On the night that Stu is going to propose marriage to his girlfriend, Julie (Bridget Fonda), a freak accident throws him into a coma. Though he appears unconscious, lying in a hospital bed, he is actually having the strangest experience of his lifetime inside his own head. Trapped in a bizarre amusement park called Downtown, the land where nightmares are stored, Stu comes face to face with a living version of the small, mischievous Monkeybone (a stop-action paraffin sculpture voiced by John Turturro). The other inhabitants of Downtown are either part-humans like the seductive cat woman, Kitty (Rose McGowan) and the mysterious face of Death (Whoopi Goldberg), or beasts--cyclops, minotaurs, and centaurs. While dodging obstacles from his own nightmares, Stu strives to break out of his coma and return to his true love. Little does he know, Monkeybone has plans of his own.