After moving house and witnessing his parents' marriage crumbling in front of him, Brian (Fred Savage) investigates his brothers claims that monsters keep coming from under his bed and scaring him at night. After swapping rooms, Brian is visited by a big blue monster, and the next night Brian manages to trap him in his room using his engineering skills. The monster turns out to be hyperactive troublemaker Maurice (Howie Mandel) who befriends Brian, and shows him the wonders of the monster world under his bed, where every night, the monsters reek havoc in the homes of young children. But the mysterious monster Boy (Frank Whaley) wants Brian for himself and keep him under the bed until the sun comes up, and thus turning him into a monster.

Apart from the first four Rocky films, Little Monsters was hands down the main film I watched religiously as a child, my face no further than two feet from the TV screen. I remember finding it strangely eerie amongst all the fun, and being genuinely disturbed by some scenes. Boy's henchman Snik, a giant, hunchbacked monster with large bottom teeth, really frightened me, and the scene where he breaks one of Maurice's horns always shocked me. Re-visiting the film, roughly around fifteen years later, I can see that I was right to feel unnerved.

Yes, the film is certainly childish and playful, but has a surprising line of darkness flowing through it from beginning to end. From early on, where Brian finds an overturned TV in the darkness of his closet that is showing the climax of The Fly, to the finale that sees Boy's face burned off to reveal a hideous face underneath, the film often steps out of the childhood safety area. It's certainly refreshing to see, and this sort of atmosphere can only be found in the Golden Age of kiddie flicks, the 80's, where films like The Dark Crystal and The Goonies showed creepy creatures and foul-mouthed kids that the target audience could really enjoy and relate to.

Not to say that Little Monsters quite matches up to the two films just mentioned - it has some annoying child characters and Maurice does become slightly tiresome - but it is certainly an imaginative, funny and exciting little film. It's sad to see another of the key child stars of the era, Fred Savage, come out of the decade and dissolve into the woodwork, similar to the likes of Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. Although his maniacal behaviour does occasionally become exhausting, Howie Mandel's performance is certainly energetic, and you can't help but love him when he drinks a bully's apple juice, only to refill it with p**s. Hardly a classic, but certainly a film I will absolutely cherish from my youth, and will enjoy revisiting once every decade or so.

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Being a kid is always going to be tough. Mischief and mayhem is all normal. At night they are afraid to sleep because of monsters. An early stage of common childhood fears. But what if the monsters they encounter are childish themselves? Yes, they are scary, that doesn't mean they are also mean. That's where Brian and his brother Eric are about to find out in this movie, "Little Monsters". It stars "The Wonder Years'" Fred Savage, and his brother, future "Boy Meets World" star, Ben. Fred plays Brian, Ben plays Eric. Brian gets blamed for the the accidents and mischief in the family home. He insists there's a monster who did it. His father(Daniel Stern) doesn't bite. In some reason, he does speak the truth. He meets a very mischievous monster named Maurice(Howie Mandel, "St. Elsewhere", "Bobby's World" & "Deal or No Deal") who lives underneath his bed. Knowing that he was telling the truth, he goes into Maurice world and sees that not all monsters are bad. They just like to have a little fun. Both he and Mo bond, and create all the trouble they want. They even help Brian with the bully by sabotaging his lunch: replacing the tuna with cat food, and Maurice drinks all the apple juice and pees into the bottle to p--- him off! However, he went too far by destroying his favorite girls school project. Brian got very mad! There is one monster who bullies the other ones and breaks Maurice's horn. Brian and his friends help him by taking out the mean monster, and his cronies. Life is tough for a kid, having a friend that's not human is everlasting. I liked this movie a whole lot, it was a lot of fun. 3 out of 5 stars!

Howie Mandel and Fred Savage star in "Little Monsters," a tale that features the "Monsters under the bed" delusions and reality.

In 2001, the world witnessed a great monster tale unlike any other: "Monster's Inc.," a computer-animation film featuring the voice talents of Billy Crystal and John Goodman, as well as James Coburn and Steve Buscemi.

"Monsters Inc." achieved what "Little Monsters" was trying so obviously to do. Make a funny and endearing monster film. Unfortunately, due to too much "cuteness" and predictability, "Little Monsters" was sadly left to gather dust by most people.

I'll admit, "Little Monsters" is nowhere near as fun, entertaining or smart as "Monsters Inc.," but it still deserves more credit than it receives.

So it's predictable and cute: I've seen worse. Howie Mandel is pretty funny, and Fred Savage is a lot better of a child actor than Macaulay Culkin ever was.

I recommend "Little Monsters" to you, because despite its flaws, it's still a good, clean family film.

3/5 stars --

John Ulmer