Nothing prepared me for the painful experience of watching Monkeybone. As an admirer of Brendan Fraser’s hilarious performances in George of the Jungle, Bedazzled, and, yes, even Dudley Do-Right, I felt completely let down by his portrayal of Stu Miley, a shy cartoonist who becomes, for a time, the impish monkey from his popular comic strip. Still, Fraser emerges as the best thing in this dreadful movie --- which is like saying poison is better than the guillotine.

I can’t decide what irritated me more, the movie’s many flatulence sight gags or the sequence showing a corpse’s body organs falling from the sky. But, wait! I almost forgot about Whoopi Goldberg’s miscasting as Death, Dave Foley’s ridiculous ranting as a crazed agent, Chris Kattan’s ghoulish turn as a decomposing organ donor, and those awful rubber costumes worn by supposedly scary creatures inhabiting Stu’s nightmarish coma world.

Although it’s customary for a movie review to include something about the film’s plot, Monkeybone’s story is practically unexplainable. But I’ll try. After the cartoonist and his girl friend (Bridget Fonda) survive a car accident, Fraser’s character goes into a life-threatening coma. While in this comatose state, Stu travels to "Downtown," a place where people wait to die or wake up. He also meets Monkeybone (voiced by John Turturro), a mischief-making cartoon character he has endowed with all the aggressive traits lacking in his own personality.

Meanwhile, back in the other world, Stu’s sister (Megan Mullally) wants to pull the plug on him. Just in the nick of time --- and with help from a catlike waitress (Rose McGowan), Stu manages to get an Exit Pass that will return him to his earthly body. Imagine his dismay when that little scamp Monkeybone steals it! Waking up from his coma, Stu is definitely not himself. You guessed it --- he’s Monkeybone. The rest of the film deals with Stu’s efforts to correct this situation.

"I’m never gonna get out of here," Stu complains to his Down-town cellmates (including author Stephen King). That’s exactly what I feared as a member of the audience. Only two things caused me to chuckle in this so-called comedy. When the cartoonist first arrives in Downtown, he sees a sign designating an area for suitcases. It’s cleverly labeled "Psychological Baggage." And when Fraser as Monkeybone woos Fonda with a monkey-mating dance, his silly primitive movements made me laugh --- but just briefly. I suspect the real Brendan Fraser was in there somewhere, longing to be unleashed.

Based on Dark Town, a graphic novel by Kaja Blackley with illustrations by Vanessa Chong, Monkeybone combines live action, stop motion and computer animation from Henry Selick, the director of The Nightmare before Christmas. Sam Hamm (Batman) wrote the screenplay. After adding the character of Monkeybone, Selick and Hamm changed Blackley’s original ominous story into a comedy. Or so they thought. In my opinion, they shouldn’t have monkeyed around with this one --- and neither should viewers.

(Released by 20^th Century Fox and rated "PG-13" for crude humor and some nudity.)