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DJ "Dustin James" Walters is the protagonist of the 2006 computer-animated horror film, Monster House. He is an artistic, clever, and resourceful 12-year-old who has suspicions about Old Man Nebbercracker's house.
Background[]
Development[]
DJ was sculpted by Leo Rijn, animated by Troy Saliba, DJ Hauck, and John J. Meehan, and designed by Chris Appelhans. His voice actor, Mitchel Musso served as his peformance model.
Personality[]
For a 12-year-old, DJ is surprisingly intelligent and mature, which is shown in two instances: his voice cracking when yelling, and when he has an interest in girls, as well as calculating how to deal with Nebbercracker's house. He is considered to be crazy by most people, particularly his parents, and sometimes his best friend Chowder. Thus, nobody takes him seriously most of the time.
He is also shown to be artistic, as he writes down the dates that Horace Nebbercracker, his neighbor across the street, takes something from a kid and what it is he took, and has numerous posters in his room; when first meeting Jenny, he states that posters aren't that interesting, and that he plans to replace them with some real art.
Physical Appearance[]
DJ is a skinny, 12-year-old boy with black hair and brown eyes. For the film, DJ was made to look more expressive. He wears a red-white-and-blue sweater, blue jeans, and blue sneakers throughout the film, while in the GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions of the film's video game adaptation, he is shown to be wearing a white long-sleeved shirt in the intro scene, and a white short-sleeved shirt in the ending scene.
Abilities[]
- Artistic skills: DJ is something of an artist. This is evident when he makes notes of when Nebbercracker takes something from a kid and what it is he takes, as well as when he, Chowder, and Jenny draw a diagram of the neighborhood.
- Intelligence: DJ is shown to be very intelligent, though Jenny’s intelligence is somewhat superior to his.
- Quick thinking: DJ is very good at planning strategies and solving problems.
Appearances[]
Film[]
DJ is first seen after observing Horace Nebbercracker take a tricycle from a little girl. He attempts to tell his parents, who are going away for a dentist’s convention and returning on Halloween night, that he has suspicions about Nebbercracker's house, but they don’t take him seriously. DJ's somewhat immature and comical best friend Chowder arrives with a new basketball. He then asks whether DJ is planning on trick-or-treating, to which DJ replies that he feels that he's too old for that activity.
While playing basketball, Chowder accidentally gets hit in the face, and his ball ends up on Nebbercracker's lawn. Chowder manages to persuade DJ to retrieve it. However, DJ is caught by Nebbercracker, and, after accidentally damaging his lawn, gets an earful from him. He suddenly suffers a heart attack and faints on DJ. Watching Nebbercracker being loaded into an ambulence that arrives on the scene, DJ feels remorseful, as he believes that he just killed him. DJ also notices a golden key on the lawn. DJ's caretaker, Elizabeth "Zee" arrives, and the two immediately squabble.
As DJ goes to sleep, the shadow of Nebbercracker's house expands into his room which turns an ominous orange-red and the second-floor windows open, showing eye-like yellow lights, and the door opens, and a shadowy image of a fat woman's arm comes out and makes a grabbing movement towards DJ, who wakes up, as though he had a bad dream. He then gets a phone call, but when he picks up, he only hears a creepy groaning sound. After hanging up only to get the same phone call, DJ, believing it to be a prank, decides to give the mystery caller a taste of their own medicine; he then finds out that the call is coming from Nebbercracker's house. He is then frightened by Zee and her boyfriend Bones. After a round of teasing from them and telling them what happened with Nebbercracker earlier, DJ spies on the house, and calls Chowder to meet up with him and investigate the house. Sneaking out of the house, DJ overhears Bones telling Zee about how he lost his kite to Nebbercracker, and she tells him that maybe DJ wasn't joking about Nebbercracker dying before throwing him out after he gets a little rough with her.
Meeting up with Chowder at a construction site on an empty lake, the two go to investigate Nebbercracker's house. Chowder dismisses DJ's concerns, and goes up to the house, despite DJ's protests, and rings the doorbell. This causes the house to awaken and attack Chowder, who narrowly escapes, and he and DJ flee back to DJ's house. The two spend the night watching the house.
The next morning, they observe a red-haired girl, Jenny, selling Halloween candy before going towards Nebbercracker's house, and attempt to warn her. She doesn't heed their warnings and turns toward the house, which has now woken up and attempts to eat her. Fortunately, DJ and Chowder save her, and Zee steps outside to tell Chowder his dad is on the phone looking for him, causing the house to go dormant. As Zee leaves to search for Bones, who got eaten by Nebbercracker's house after being tempted by his kite, Jenny talks with DJ, and the two go up to DJ's room, where DJ introduces Jenny to Chowder and they observe the house eating a dog. Deciding that the situation is starting to get serious, the three call the police. However, the police don't believe them due to the house remaining inactive when adults or grown ups are present. Thus, they consult Reginald "Skull" Skullinski, a video game pro who knows a lot about the supernatural; he tells them that the house is a rare form of monster that spawns when a human soul merges with and possesses a man-made structure, and that to destroy it, they have to attack its heart.
Jumping to the conclusion that the furnace is the heart, they make a cold-medicine-filled dummy to feed to the house, putting it to sleep long enough for them to get in and put out the furnace. Unfortunately, the police turn up again and arrest them for theft. Going up to investigate the house themselves, the cops get eaten. The house then grabs the cops' car and eats it, though DJ, Jenny, and Chowder manage to escape. Exploring the house, they find all the toys Nebbercracker confiscated from children in the basement along with a shrine containing the remains of Nebbercracker's deceased wife, Constance, which DJ opens using the key he found earlier. DJ accidentally falls on the remains, causing the house to become aware that they are inside. Chowder and Jenny are caught by the house, while DJ narrowly escapes the basement stairs, which try to grab him. In the entry hallway, DJ and Chowder are nearly eaten, but Jenny saves them by grabbing the house’s uvula, causing it to puke them out. Shortly afterwards, Nebbercracker returns home, and recounts how he met Constance, and explains that since her spirit possessed their house after her death, he pretended to dislike kids to keep them away from his house.
DJ convinces Nebbercracker to let Constance go for the better, because he can’t live the way he is currently living forever. Angered by this, Constance pulls the house out of the ground and chases Nebbercracker, DJ, Jenny, and Chowder. When Nebbercracker attempts to reason with Constance and blow up the house for her own good, only to be grabbed by her, DJ, Jenny, and Chowder save him using an excavator. Nebbercracker then gives DJ a stick of dynamite, asking him for assistance in destroying the house.
While Chowder deals with the house, the house grabs and shakes the excavator, causing Jenny to fall out of the excavator and into the lake, and knocks DJ into the lake as well. DJ instructs Chowder to lure the house under a crane so he can throw the dynamite down the chimney and into the furnace. The house falls apart after tumbling down into the lake, but reassembles itself. DJ and Jenny climb up to the crane, while the house devours the excavator and chases Chowder; at the top, DJ is nervous about his next move, but Jenny encourages him, and they kiss. Using the crane, DJ throws the dynamite down the chimney and into the furnace. DJ swings down and grabs Chowder, and the two take cover in a ditch while the house explodes. After witnessing Nebbercracker sharing a final moment with Constance before she goes on to the afterlife, DJ apologizes to him for the loss of his house and wife; Nebbercracker thanks him, Chowder, and Jenny for freeing him and Constance from being trapped for 45 years.
At the site of Nebbercracker's house, DJ, Chowder, and Jenny help Nebbercracker return the items he took from kids back to their owners. Shortly afterwards, Jenny's mom comes to pick her up; she tells DJ and Chowder that she hopes to see them again soon and hugs them both before leaving. After meeting up with DJ's parents, who have just returned home, DJ and Chowder both acknowledge that they're certainly too old for trick-or-treating. But they decide to do it just for fun, considering everything they've been through recently.
Monster House 2[]
Coming soon in January 22, 2023.
Video Games[]
DJ, along with Chowder and Jenny, is one of the three playable characters in the video game based on the film.
GameCube/PlayStation 2[]
At the start of the game, Jenny and Chowder are separated from DJ, with Jenny getting stuck in the attic, while Chowder finds himself in the greenhouse. DJ, meanwhile, has to explore the first and second floors of the house, finding keys to unlock doors, and moving crates and uncovering secret passages, one of which leads to the basement, where he contacts Skull for information on how to deal with the house.
While exploring the second floor, he finds Jenny trapped in an air vent, and tries to free her, to no avail. After Jenny manages to escape and fights off a huge doll of Constance, getting to the attic, DJ calls up to her from below and tries to get to her, but is caught by a canopy bed in the master bedroom after collecting a key on the bed. DJ and Jenny later meet up in the basement, and decide to just get out of the house.
Reuniting with Chowder in a circus-like room, they find the remains of Constance, and unsuccessfully attempt to douse the furnace, resulting in all three of them being separated again by massive pipes. The three then have to fight their way through the corridors while dealing with more enemies, reuniting again at the entry hallway, where they get the house to spit them out by pulling on the uvula. After a chase to a construction site, where Chowder engages the house with an excavator, DJ swings on a crane and throws a dynamite down the chimney, blowing up the house. As he descends, Jenny and Chowder congratulate DJ.
Nintendo DS/GameBoy Advance[]
Unlike in the GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions of the game, DJ, Chowder, and Jenny don't get separated and are together throughout the game in the DS and GameBoy Advance versions, with the player being able to switch between them as they explore each room and fight off possessed furniture, including the house's uvula and furnace. DJ is shown to be very good at climbing in the GameBoy Advance version of the game.
The game culminates in them dealing with the furnace, which Jenny is initially too scared to do, then trying to escape from the house before it explodes after destroying the furnace (in the GameBoy Advance version). While in the DS version, they end up having to deal with the house directly, with the lawn serving as a battle arena.
Relationships[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the early concept art of DJ's nightmare, DJ is walking through the house's hall where pipes come out from the wall. but it was later cut because it would've been too scary for kids watching the movie.
- In the early draft of the film, DJ and Chowder are bullied by 2 boys named Ryan and Cameron, and lure them to the house on purpose for revenge; it is later cut because it was too dark for kids watching the movie and possibly to teach kids not to make bad choices in real life.
External Links[]
Template:Monster House