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The world of the classic 1950s B-movie genre is explored in the new animated film "Monsters vs. Aliens". From "The Fly" to "Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman," the film pays a loving homage to its source that monster movie lovers will have a blast watching this out-of-this-world adventure.

Reese Witherspoon provides the voice of Susan Murphy, a bride-to-be who's about to experience her worst nightmare. On her wedding day, she gets hit by a meteor full of outer space gunk. To make matters worse, as Susan is exchanging vows with her husband-to-be, Derek Dietl (the always funny Paul Rudd), she turns into a giant, 49-feet-11-inches tall, woman!

The military, headed by General W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland), jumps into action and captures Susan and puts her into a secret government compound. Renamed Ginormica, Susan is introduced to a rabble-rousing group of monsters. There's the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (Hugh Laurie).

The half-ape, half-fish, The Missing Link (Will Arnett); the gelatinous and imperishable B.O.B. (short for "benzoate-ostylezene-bicarbona te") voiced by Seth Rogen; and the 350-foot giant insect simply called Insectosaurus.

The "monsters," except for Susan, have been in captivity for decades, but they will soon be enlisted by the government to help save the world from a megalomaniac alien named Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson). He wants to erase Earth and start a new world in his own image. It's now up to Susan and her monster friends to defend Earth from the very unfriendly alien and his clones.

Directed by Rob Letterman ("Shark Tale") and Conrad Vernon ("Shrek 2"), this DreamWorks Animation production is a splendid tale that's smart, witty, and has a lot of heart.

The movie's charms rest squarely on the dynamics of the "monsters" and Witherspoon and company deliver. The film even has a great girl power message that is not sickeningly politically-correct.

But the laughs are plentiful as well. The filmmakers have a great sense of humor that they even hired Stephen Colbert to voice the Commander-in-Chief. There's a funny scene involving the President when he meets the destructive robot by Gallaxhar for the first time. Upon playing the famous "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" Casio riff, he goes on and jams to the "Beverly Hills Cop" electronic theme "Axel F." This, of course, angers the giant robot.

Like most animated films, "Monsters vs. Aliens" has its share of silly popular culture references ("OMG!") but not as bad as Letterman's previous project, "Shark Tale." The homage to the monster era is pop culture enough that the filmmakers wisely held back their allusions.

Presented in InTru 3-D technology, "Monsters vs. Aliens" is the first film in DreamWorks Animation history to be totally authored in the 3-D format. I'm not a big fan of 3-D films because they give me a headache, but InTru 3-D offers such clarity, beauty, and precision that my head did not ache at all!

Kids will go over the moon with "Monsters vs. Aliens" and like me, they will fall in love with B.O.B. The film may be a bit violent for the little ones but older kids and adults will enjoy this movie.

"Monsters vs. Aliens" is the first Hollywood feature film of 2009 that I truly enjoyed! Heck, I even unabashedly clapped at the end of the screening.

And for that, "Monsters vs. Aliens" gets 3 ginormous kisses

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