Locke: It was a long process. We started the mix and matches [where they tested us with each other] to see how we looked on camera, and then he'd put me and DJ [alone], then me and Chowder together and see the chemistry. It was a long process.

Lerner: They'd bring us three and then bring in another three, and then us back in. We mixed-and-matched a lot together, and they kept on bringing us back in. We started feeling comfortable in the parts together.

Musso: They had us in for, like, four auditions. It was a good experience for a first audition.

Lerner: We started to feel really comfortable in our parts together because we were at the auditions together so much. Me and Mitchel became like really good friends right at the mix and matches. We came back just for mix and matches, not even auditions. We worked together on a show called Oliver Beane.Why did you think you worked well together and had that good chemistry?

Musso: Everyone put a little something together into their characters, and it worked out well.

Locke: We liked each other.

Lerner: Who knows?You just saw this with an audience for the first time last night. What surprised you when you heard the reactions?

Locke: It's really intense in some parts, but then I asked a little girl behind me—I think she was about 5 [years old]—and I asked "Were you scared?" and she said, "No, I loved it!" It all depends on the kid whether they will be really freaked out or really cool with it.

Musso: I think the one that I was surprised about was the hand that came out—

Lerner: I've seen it four times and I jump every time.

Musso: That was added, it's not part of the storyboard. It's all motion capture, so they just added that. I didn't know it was going to be a part of it. Did you know how characters were going to look?

Lerner: We knew, actually, when we auditioned because there were posters on the wall, and there was really rough animation, little drawings and stuff. When we started shooting they added more and more.

Locke: And more and more.Did you recognize your mannerisms and all that in the animation?

Musso: Yes, especially Sam. I recognized all of his actions, his emotions and expressions. But he doesn't look like Chowder. He's not chubby.

Musso: He brought himself to Chowder. It's like Chowder and Sam are the exact same person. Not now, of course; that was back then.

Locke: You could definitely see the little mannerisms in each of us.Do you have any idea why he was named Chowder?

Lerner: What Gil says is that he was eating something that was chowder, and he was going on a roller coaster, and it's something about what happened when he was on it.

Musso: He gets sick—you don't want to know the details.

What was it like seeing yourself animated?

Musso: Really cool.

Locke: Two years ago we were like: "In two years, they're going to turn this into an animated movie!" How cool is that?

Lerner: We saw it again yesterday, and I had already seen it once before with Spencer, and this was the first time I saw it with Mitchel, and we were like clinging to each other. (Laughter.)Did you get a chance to meet Zemeckis or Spielberg?

Locke: Zemeckis we did meet. He came to the set about three times. I think Spielberg was in another country; he was filming War of the Worlds or something. So we haven't met him yet. Maybe we will soon.Did you see The Polar Express that Zemeckis directed? It sort of used the same kind of animation.

Musso: Yeah, I loved that movie.So you think Tom Hanks's train would beat Monster House in a fight?

Lerner: I gotta give it to Monster House.

Locke: Monster House is bigger.Were you able to add stuff in the script while filming?

Lerner: Yeah, when we were together we came up with some stuff.

Musso: We were just making stuff up. What about with the other cast members?

Locke: Hello, we were with Kevin James and Nick Cannon. They were the funniest guys.

Musso: Oh my God, we just could not stop laughing because they were so funny. Was there a lot of improvising going on the set with the director?

Lerner: A lot of times we would make so many suggestions and he'd be like "Oh, that's good." Then he'd say, "Ooh no, no."

Musso: He was totally cool because he's like a kid at heart. Your co-star Jon Heder, who played Skull, was quoted saying that you guys really got into the makeup process together. That was the red dots for the cameras, right?

Lerner: Yeah, we made a game of it. We had an hour and a half of it every day.

Musso: It was more like two hours.

Lerner: That's just getting the dots glued on your face, that's not even the suit. We didn't love it.

Musso: We wanted to see who could get it done first. We would get it on and just laugh.Was it uncomfortable to wear all that?

Locke: Yes, it was really uncomfortable for me, because I grew two inches while filming. So toward the middle, it was uncomfortable for me. So until I got the new suit it was really uncomfortable.

Lerner: It was really comfortable for me because I wear suits like that all the time. (Laughs.)

Musso: Nah, I think everybody got comfortable with the whole thing after a while.

Locke: After a while you just forgot about it.

Musso: But it was every day.

Spencer Locke, how is it now that you're done with Resident Evil: Extinction?

Locke: That was awesome. About three weeks ago I got back from Mexico filming. It was an amazing experience. It was definitely weird at lunch and looking across the table and seeing a gross undead right there. But it was really very cool. There are some bigtime fans out there. Yeah, I know.Heard it got hot out there.

We shot in the desert in Mexicali and shot there in seven weeks. It was really hot, and one day it was 144 degrees. It was off the charts. It was 125 in the shade. And I had never done a location shoot before, so it was amazing. That was really cool. I think they're still in Mexico City shooting some Alice stuff. And Mitchel Musso, what about doing the voice in Avatar: The Last Airbender? Do you get asked about it a lot?

Musso: Yes, I get asked a couple times, but I tell everybody I only had to shoot the pilot of it, and so I don't talk that much about Nickelodeon. I work for Disney now. Oliver in Hannah, Montana on the Disney Channel.What else do you have coming up?

Musso: I just got done with another animated show that just got picked up for Disney called Phineas and Ferb. I play Ferb. It's for younger audiences. It's Toon Disney for younger kids. All the biggest stars from Disney are in the show. They just put this one together. I'm doing like 16 episodes. It's really fun. Have any of the rest of you done animation work before?

Musso: It is very different. When I went to shoot Avatar, everybody was done with their lines, and I had to say the lines as the mouth is moving.

Lerner: I did a couple of voice-overs on the Cartoon Network.Did you go back in to redo your lines?

Musso: We had to go back and redo the lines, about two years later after puberty hit both of us. We had a lot of hot tea.

Lerner: Every time I went in, I was sick. Imagine being sick and having to talk high, in a really high voice.

Musso: Oh yeah, it wasn't easy. It was different.What were some of your favorite Halloween costumes?

Lerner: This year I was a penguin, the year before I was a cow, and then the year before I was a Twinkie.

Locke: They are always making fun of me, because I was a butterfly one year [and] a princess fairy one year.

Musso: I'm going to go as Sam.Did you do your own stunts?

Lerner: We did do our own stunts.

Musso: Yeah, that's true, before we had to put on all the shoes and garb they brought in the stunt coordinators. We got to do backflips and all sorts of crazy things.

Locke: That was fun.

Musso: Me and Spence got climb up ladders, and on the crane and stuff, and we were up off the ground during all this, so the cameras could shoot under us. And all three of us were in the car, and one day it was roped up so they could shoot underneath and it actually broke.

Lerner: Whoa, I just remembered that, I just remembered that. That was pretty amazing. What are the scariest movies you have seen?

Lerner: Jaws is scary.

Musso: Hostel disturbed me.How are you seeing R-rated movies?

Musso: I never saw that movie. [Laughs.] He told me about it.

Locke: I remember when I was really little I saw The Haunting. It's obviously about the house and it's kind of alive, and I always have had a great imagination and was always creeped out by a two-story house that had a face that looked like him that always creeped me out. That was appropriate training for this movie.Are you worried about it going up against Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest or Superman Returns?

Lerner: We just hope it will do really [well] and don't care what it's going up against. We hope people will go see it; it's a really good movie.Gil Kenan, you're just 29, and you look like you're one of the cast kids, not the director. Do you get that a lot?

Kenan: [mimics baby crying] Wah, wah! [Laughter.] People ask me for coffee a lot. I do get that every once in a while. Can I get you anything? Did the kids every have to rein you in on the set?

Kenan: There definitely was goofing around on the set, but I think part of why I was so successful in working with them is because I was so able to relate to them [as] a non-grownup telling them to "do their homework," but actually understanding what their story is about. I think for me it was so important that the kids and I had a rapport that was not like a parent-child but kind of a sense of play. A little bit. Your movie kept zooming in and out constantly—what's the significance of that?

Kenan: Well, I'm kind of obsessed with Robert Altman's Popeye [laughs]. No one in my life understands why I like the movie, but I really think that there is an emotional power to a zoom. I feel like it adds a lot of strength, and so I don't think I got carried away. ... I think that for some reason in the '80s people started feeling like zoom was a dirty word, and so I'm really happy to be bringing it back. I'm proud! [Laughs.]What kinds of references [do you] have to other films in the movie?

Kenan: It's funny... none of them were spot-on in the movie. For instance, A Nightmare on Elm Street pretty much changed my life when I was a kid. It was one of [my favorites]. I had Neverending Story on Betamax, and then one of my first VHS tapes was Nightmare on Elm Street. I watched it compulsively. It wouldn't be a surprise to me if things were, like ... you know when you leave the pause of the screen too long and there's a burned-in image in there? So I would say that there's probably a few of those in there that are just like hitting in the back of my brain, and they bubble out to the surface uncontrollably. So yeah, I think that movie is amazing.Do think this movie could have that effect on kids?

Kenan: I don't know. I guess all I can do is hope. But you can't think about that when you're making a movie. All you can do is tell a story and I think it's like ... if I thought about that while I was making it, I would either go crazy or make something horrible. So I don't think that that factors into my head. Do you think the movie is too scary for really young kids?

Kenan: It's PG, which I guess surprised me; I didn't really think about rating when I made the movie, but I did think that I wanted this movie to play for kids. Not every kid; I think in order for this movie to make sense for the older kids, it had to scare their toddler brother or sister too much to see the movie. [Laughs.] What is the appropriate age for this film, then?

Kenan: I would say, like 6 is a healthy age, but then again I've been to test screenings over the last few weeks where 4-year-olds are like totally kicking ass and watching the movie the whole way through. I really think that every kid is so different that ... I just haven't met a 6-year-old yet who's been too scared during the movie. So for me, that seems like a really healthy median. It's pretty awesome to see something that I had a hunch confirmed in the screenings: Kids are really brave and really smart, and they have just been, like, pandered to for so long that when something comes along that actually pushes their buttons and challenges them, they totally rise to the occasion. They are so right there with the movie, it's gratifying for me to watch that happen. I knew, as a kid, when a movie didn't baby itself down for me—I knew that those movies were better and cooler. Those were the movies that I always sunk my teeth into. That just hasn't happened in a while. For some reason, we've had this total de-intensification and de-toothing of what a family movie is.So parents like it, too? Do they jump?

Kenan: Yeah. Yeah, that's just like ... an added bonus. [Laughs.] I was just really happy that I was able to make something that doesn't hold back.What does it look like in 3-D? Are the jumps bigger?

Kenan: It's crazy in 3-D. Especially towards the end, as the house starts to uproot in the entire battle. I'm really proud of the 3-D version for a couple of reasons. One, it's a watchable 3-D movie throughout, and it doesn't screw with your head. The other reason is, the more the story gets insane and intense, so does the depth on the screen. So by the end, by the time of the battle, the house feels like it's 100 feet tall and it's totally coming out around the audience and stuff.Obviously your producers, Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, buy into the idea that kids like to get scared in the movies. How involved were they in the process?

Kenan: Well, spiritually in giving me the confidence to know that I could scare the hell out of the kids [laughs], it was really, really important. Both of them, at various points, had given me that confidence, that pat on the back and saying, "Don't hold back, you don't need to baby this, because the kids are going to love it." That meant a lot. So that would be the spiritual involvement. The more practical involvement was like, [when] I had a cut of this thing or whenever I had a question, they were always there for me over the course of the three years. So I would have these really amazing, abstract moments where I'd be screening this rough cut and the lights would come up in theater and it would be me, Robert Zemeckis and Steven Speilberg sitting in a small theater, and we would talk about this crazy little movie that I was making. We'd talk for two hours, and I wanted to pinch myself. Did they ever make you cut back anything that was too scary?

Kenan: No, that didn't happen. It think it really was about, like, they had a lot of really amazing insight about structure and stuff. I feel like I have learned so much ... they really were like mentors on this film. They gave me advice when I asked for it and when I needed it, and when it was time for me to make my movie they gave the elbow room to do it. So I had a dream experience—I just couldn't imagine it being any better. I can't imagine getting structure notes from Steven Spielberg!

Kenan: Whenever they would give me a note, I would pretty much absorb it, and also I would just learn so much from each one. I feel like I really just got the most amazing post-film-school experience [laughs].Is the movie in 2- and 3-D in different theaters?

Kenan: I think the goal was to put it on as many screens as possible in 3-D, and there are 3-D screens "across the nation" [but not every theater will have it in 3-D]. We've gotten I think 80 more than Chicken Little had when it opened a year ago, and it just keeps growing. Now the digital cinema initiative is finally taking hold, so by the next digital release, if Monster House is re-released next Halloween, or the one after that, there will be 1,000 3-D instead of the almost 200 that we have now. Do you really think that 3-D could make a comeback?

Kenan: You know, I don't think [every] movie should be 3-D. It needs to be a movie that's spectacle, that has the whole ride, in order for it to warrant being in 3-D. But I do think that everyone's looking for a reason to go to a movie theater instead of just sitting at home being fed microchip-flavored movies. And so I think that for the movies that really do demand a theatrical experience, and if the 3-D technology is available and the 3-D screens are available, it's an amazing medium. It does give you a different feeling of being in the theater; it does give you less of a feeling of passively watching the screen and more of one that you are a part of the story. So I am a huge fan of 3-D in the right circumstance. I think that Monster House definitely has to be 3-D because it's a monster movie and it's an adventure, and because it's a ride, and you know, I hope to be, as an audience member, watching many more 3-D movies.Please talk about working with your director of photography, Xavier Pérez Grobet.

Kenan: Yes! Javier is a genius. I hired him specifically because I wanted to bring someone into the critical ... Javier was my director of photography. And the reason I brought him on was because he'd shot one of the most beautiful, emotional films, Before Night Falls. It was shot in Mexico and Cuba. One of the reasons I thought his photography was so important for Monster House is because I wanted to bring someone on who shot purely from the heart and wasn't a technical photographer, because I knew that all the technology that I would have to deal with, with the process of motion capture and with the animation process, would be almost a burden that we would have to fight. And so the more firepower and kind of defensive force that I had on the side of humanity and heart, I knew would offset the computer-ness of the process. I think bringing Javier on was really critical, because it meant that I could hold on to the human side of my filmmaking, and he was the face and the soul and the spirit of that.