I grew up with the Rankin & Bass Christmas specials (Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman) and some of their feature films (The Last Unicorn, The Hobbit), and I always enjoyed them. I had always been interested in seeing their Halloween movie, Mad Monster Party. Unfortunately, it's kind of a dud. Perhaps their cheapy stop motion just cannot sustain a feature film. It gets old pretty quick here (really, I think it's cheaper than something like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, although it's probably been quite a while since I've last seen that). The story revolves around Dr. Frankenstein, who holds the position of master of the board of monsters. He wants to give up his position to his nephew Felix, which draws the ire and jealousy of the other monsters, who then try to dispatch him. Felix is a hopeless clutz, but with the help of Frankenstein's sexy assistant Francesca, perhaps he can survive the monsters' attacks. Boris Karloff voices Dr. Frankenstein. Gale Garnett does Francesca and Allen Swift does Felix and all of the monster characters (his Jimmy Stewart impression for Felix is particularly grating), with the one exception of the Bride of Frankenstein, who is voiced by Phyllis Diller. Diller's presence is particularly painful. Instead of making the Bride look like the iconic one from James Whale's 1935 film (there may have been rights issues, judging from their depiction of the Creature from the Black Lagoon), they just make her a Phyllis Diller puppet, complete with Phyllis Diller's terrible comedy. I would die a happy man if I never heard puns as bad as the ones so frequently used in this film.
Review of Mad Monster Party?
