--- title: Ghoul Friends: 10 Friendly-Monster Movies description: 'Monsters University' inspires a lesson on the history of freakish yet lovable creatures on film canonical: https://time.com/archive/7118498/ghoul-friends-10-friendly-monster-movies/ author: Gary Susman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-06-24T09:45:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T05:38:19.197Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Ghoul Friends: 10 Friendly-Monster Movies og:description: 'Monsters University' inspires a lesson on the history of freakish yet lovable creatures on film og:url: https://time.com/archive/7118498/ghoul-friends-10-friendly-monster-movies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c4d2a898e534c20/698a8eac16d88460e7c443c5/23.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: Harry and the Hendersons og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ghoul Friends: 10 Friendly-Monster Movies twitter:description: 'Monsters University' inspires a lesson on the history of freakish yet lovable creatures on film twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c4d2a898e534c20/698a8eac16d88460e7c443c5/23.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # Ghoul Friends: 10 Friendly-Monster Movies > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Gary Susman](https://time.com/author/gary-susman/) Jun 24, 2013 9:45 AM UTC  Universal Pictures by [Gary Susman](https://time.com/author/gary-susman/) Jun 24, 2013 9:45 AM UTC ‘Monsters University’ inspires a lesson on the history of freakish yet lovable creatures on film ## Out of the Closet 
If you and your kids find the grotesque creatures of Disney/Pixar's new Monsters University (a prequel revisiting the beloved characters of Monsters Inc.) more lovable than terrifying, you're not alone. Even some of the scariest horror movies in history, from 1931's Frankenstein on, have featured monsters whose tragedy is that they're as misunderstood as they are scary; approached gingerly, they may even be friendly.



If we can't empathize with the despised creature, at least we can laugh with him at the absurdity of his situation. That's the lesson of Pixar's Monsters movies, and of these 10 films featuring surprisingly amiable monsters. niennunb ## King Kong 
All three incarnations of King Kong make clear that it's a star-crossed romance, a variation on Beauty and the Beast. (Merian C. Cooper, the filmmaker of the original 1933 film, supposedly promised to star Fay Wray, "You will have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood.") Sure, Kong has a temper that turns homicidal when he feels threatened. But he's also undeniably regal (hence the title) and chivalrous, protecting his gal from rampaging dinosaurs, fighter planes, and other menaces.



Of course, on Skull Island, in the state of nature, his nobility is apparent. The big gorilla is the creature most like us (at least, the Western us; he's arguably more humane than the tribespeople, who traffic in kidnapping and human sacrifice). In New York, however, he's just another immigrant, viewed with fascination and suspicion by the locals and chafing under their gawking scrutiny. He tries to climb to the top too quickly and is abruptly and fatally smacked down. niennunb ## Young Frankenstein 
Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder's spoof of classic 1930s monster movies – particularly James Whale's Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, maintains the notion of those original films that the doctor's reanimated creature isn't necessarily evil, just misunderstood and clumsy. As played by a lumbering Peter Boyle, he clearly doesn't know his own strengths and weaknesses, as is apparent in two scenes that are direct parodies of scenes in Whale's films, the scene with the little girl who sees him as a playmate and the scene with the blind hermit (an unrecognizable Gene Hackman) who sees him as a dinner companion.



Indeed, despite his abnormal brain, the monster could indeed become a sophisticate, as hilariously demonstrated by his deft soft-shoe routine in the famous "Puttin' on the Ritz" sequence. By the end of the film, with the mind-meld between the doctor and his creation, the line between man and monster has been blurred beyond recognition. niennunb ## E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 
Steven Spielberg has given us scary aliens who kidnap people for mysterious reasons and plant obsessive visions in the minds of others (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and scarier aliens who want to destroy humanity (War of the Worlds), but E.T., despite his homely appearance, is about as benign as alien visitors get.







In fact, he's so benign, he's a Christ figure. Presaged by a bright light in the sky, he arrives in a shed. He has amazing healing powers and other seemingly miraculous abilities. He's adept with tools, like a carpenter. Pursued and captured by the authorities, he's tortured and killed, a martyr to our sins of paranoia and xenophobia, but the power of love resurrects him. He ascends into the heavens, leaving behind the lesson: "Be good." niennunb ## Harry and the Hendersons 
Spielberg produced this film, which borrows more than a little from E.T. Here, the strange creature who finds a home with a suburban family is Bigfoot himself. Despite trashing the Henderson's house upon his arrival, he turns out to be warm and nurturing. Surprisingly, he bonds more with the dad, George (John Lithgow) than the kids, one of whom is a snotty teenage girl who finds Harry more of a pest than a pet.



As in E.T., the authorities come looking for the beast, and while the Hendersons wonder if he wouldn't be better off in the wild than in the suburban jungle, Harry is soon lost in a hostile city. The movie has more slapstick comedy and less philosophical/spiritual weight than E.T., though it does ladle on the pro-environmental, pro-vegetarian messages. It does have an unusually soulful monster, thanks to 6'9" Kevin Peter Hall, who does most of his acting with his eyes, the only part of him visible behind monster-makeup whiz Rick Baker's Sasquatch suit. niennunb ## My Neighbor Totoro 
Japan has a venerable tradition of lovable monsters – see the whole Pokemon phenomenon for an example. Or see the works of animator Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli, wondrous features where children come of age in countrysides full of mysterious, wondrous, sometimes dangerous creatures. So it is in My Neighbor Totoro, one of his earliest films (though it was only just released on Blu-ray last month).



Here, two young sisters and their professor father move to the sticks to be near the hospital where the girls' mother lies gravely ill. There, the girls meet a variety of woodland spirits, most notably, Totoro, a sometimes scary but generally friendly and protective monster who looks like a cross between a cat, a bear, and an owl. The giant monosyllabic beast takes the girls on adventures and helps them in their time of need (for instance, when they're stranded in the rain, sending a furry-footed cat-bus to drive them home). The movie is a lovely reminder that, for children facing some truly scary reality, fantasy monsters can offer cathartic solace. niennunb ## The Nightmare Before Christmas 
Sure, it's a movie about ghouls who kidnap Santa Claus and take over Christmas (leaving creepy presents in kids' stockings), but the Halloweentown designed by Tim Burton (and brought to life by stop-motion animator Henry Selick) is full of imaginative creatures who, for the most part, are utterly lacking in malice. Like the Monsters Inc. creatures they prefigure, the Halloweentown residents scare people because that's their job, one that they're good at.



Or so we're told, though the characters are more gruesome than truly frightening. Jack Skellington is a well-dressed skeleton; love interest Sally is a rag doll patched together Frankenstein-style; and Dr. Finklestein is a mad scientist who looks like a cross between Dr. Strangelove and Donald Duck. The only truly scary, malicious character is Oogie Boogie, the walking bag of worms who threatens to kill Santa Claus. Everybody else is just trying to have some holiday fun.



The movie owes a debt to the similarly kid-friendly and delightful 1967 film Mad Monster Party (a stop-motion animated film from the Rankin/Bass team that made Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and all those other classic Christmas TV specials), as well as to Burton's own fondness for misunderstood monsters, from the Maitlands of Beetlejuice to Edward Scissorhands to Frankenweenie (both the 2012 feature and the 1984 short that launched Burton's career, featuring a dog that looks a lot like Nightmare canine Zero). niennunb ## The Iron Giant 
The Iron Giant is a killer robot from outer space, but he's also the best friend a lonely boy could ask for. To young Hogarth Hughes, he's E.T., Superman, King Kong, R2-D2, and his absent father, rolled into one. (Voiced by Vin Diesel, the automaton may be the most soulful, heartfelt performance the Fast & Furious actor has ever given.) Of course, it's hard to keep a massive flying robot under wraps. The movie is set in the 1950s, so there's a beatnik (voiced by jazzbo Harry Connick Jr.) who reacts with mild irritation – and a military force that responds with atomic/Sputnik-era paranoia and fear.



Not that kids unfamiliar with the period need to grasp those details in order to understand the film. As in his other animated features (The Incredibles, Ratatouille), director Brad Bird is skilled at telling stories about exceptional creatures whose extraordinary gifts generally meet with responses of horror and mistrust. Here, however, the monster shares in that sense of horror, since he's as shocked as anyone to discover that he was built and programmed to be a weapon of mass destruction. No one counted on this hollow hunk of iron developing a soul. niennunb ## Shrek 
Shrek is a supposedly scary ogre who delights in frightening people with his roar, insulting them with his belligerent Scottish-accented insults, and repelling them with his stench. He's not malicious, just an antisocial guy who prefers quiet and solitude. But as he is the first to admit, ogres are like onions, with many layers. Not even he realizes at first that he not only secretly yearns for companionship and love, but is worthy of them as well. (Indeed, it takes him four movies to acknowledge this about himself.) He's flummoxed by the enthusiastic, unconditional friendship of Donkey, and he can't imagine himself as heroic or chivalrous, despite his rescue of Princess Fiona.



The great joke of the budding Shrek-Fiona romance isn't that she's secretly a part-time ogre, it's that he can see past her beautiful exterior to fall in love with the inner monster that is her true self. The real villains in the Shrek saga turn out to be not the monsters but the seemingly normal and attractive people like Lord Farquaad (say his name fast) and Prince Charming, who turn out to be totalitarians at heart. Still, in the land of Far, Far Away, even kings turn out to be monsters and misfits. Nobody need feel like a freak in a world where everyone is a little freaky.



niennunb ## Monsters vs. Aliens 
Who's really a monster is a matter of perspective. The hideous creatures in this cartoon – most of them lab experiments gone horribly wrong — may indeed be monsters, but they're our monsters, and since they're on our side against an invading alien army, they're the good guys. Indeed, the line between the monsters and the rest of us is awfully thin, as a woman named Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) learns on her wedding day, when a meteorite's radiation transforms her into a giant.



The government whisks her away to a compound where it has imprisoned other monsters, but when aliens invade, the feds free the monsters and forms them into a fighting force against the intergalactic threat. The monsters – which include a half-man/half-cockroach, a gelatinous blob, a Missing Link (half-fish/half-primate), and a dinosaur-sized bug — frighten Susan's neighbors at a backyard barbecue, but they prove an effective team against the arrogant aliens. Susan figures out how to revert to normal size, but she decides she prefers to be a monster among her new monster pals. niennunb ## Warm Bodies 
Some monsters are more than lovable; they're Love-able. From Beauty and the Beast to the Twilight movies, certain vampires and werewolves and misshapen creatures only look scary, but they're actually viable romantic prospects, waiting to be redeemed by the love of a good woman, a princess who can transform the frog with her kiss. In Warm Bodies, which grafts the Romeo and Juliet plot onto the zombie apocalypse scenario, the object of affection is a zombie named R (he can't remember the rest of his name).



He develops an affection for still-living Julie after he eats her boyfriend's brain and absorbs his memories. In a reverse of the typical viral-zombie process, his acquisition of human qualities — empathy, protectiveness toward living humans, a blood-pumping heart, and the ability to dream — begins to spread among the undead. As is often the case, it's the humans, with their shoot-first-ask-questions-later policy, who are as much a threat to the peace as the flesh-eating undead. They have to learn to trust R and his band of increasingly lively zombies. Meanwhile, Julie learns to smear blood on her face and walk around in a daze in order to hide among the zombies. As both sides become more like each other, Warm Bodies, like other well-executed friendly-monster movies, forces viewers to ponder what it really means to be human. niennunb ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118498/ghoul-friends-10-friendly-monster-movies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118498/ghoul-friends-10-friendly-monster-movies/"},"headline":"Ghoul Friends: 10 Friendly-Monster Movies","datePublished":"2013-06-24T09:45:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T05:38:19.197Z","description":"'Monsters University' inspires a lesson on the history of freakish yet lovable creatures on film","url":"https://time.com/archive/7118498/ghoul-friends-10-friendly-monster-movies/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c4d2a898e534c20/698a8eac16d88460e7c443c5/23.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Gary Susman","url":"https://time.com/author/gary-susman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c4d2a898e534c20/698a8eac16d88460e7c443c5/23.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Harry and the Hendersons","caption":"","creditText":"Universal Pictures","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118498/ghoul-friends-10-friendly-monster-movies/","name":"Ghoul Friends: 10 Friendly-Monster Movies"}}]}] ```