Mad Monster Party? (1967)

Pretty Good

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Let me come straight to the point with this one and admit that "Mad Monster Party?" nearly wasn't as good or as much fun as I hoped it would be. The actual plot is rather weak, the film is overlong, a large amount of the gags entirely miss their effect and there's way too much singing and dancing going on. What the hell was that about? Someone really ought to add the tag "musical" to the genre description here on the film's IMDb page! But on the other hand, I can't possibly be too harsh or overly critical about a movie that pays so much tribute to my all-time favorite genre of cinema and all of its legendary contributors! All minor defaults and shortcomings aside, "Mad Monster Party?" is a warm-spirited, enthusiast and freshly inventive ode to (classic) horror from the 1930's to the 1960's. As a European kid born in the 80's, I'm not too familiar with the works of Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass, and I never watched any of the "Frosty the Snowman" or "Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer" cartoons as child. But the simple fact that these men managed to cast the awesome Boris Karloff himself in order to voice the Baron Von Frankenstein pivot character more than enough proves to me that they know and respect a great deal of the horror genre. Up in the tower of his castle on the remote Isle of Evil, Baron Von Frankenstein just finished his latest and greatest invention; an all-destructive liquid in a tube! In order to celebrate his invention, and primarily also to make an important announcement, he invites all of his monster friends over to the island. And oh yes, all the protagonists from the brilliant horror milestones (Universal and others) attend the monster mash: Count Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Frankenstein's creature and his bride, the Mummy, The Invisible Man, the Creature from Black Lagoon, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and an uninvited mystery guest referred to as "it". However, the party turns sour and hostile when the monsters learn that Baron Von Frankenstein will announce his retirement and that he will hand over all of his secret formulas to a nerdy outsider – his nephew – instead of to one of them. The newly added character of Francesca, the Baron's voluptuous and sly secretary, is still original, but other side-characters like butler Yetch (with a voice reminiscent of Peter Lorre), Chef Machiavelli and even Felix Flanken are quite redundant. Instead of giving lines and lyrics to them, I personally would have much preferred that the parts of the familiar monster favorites were a bit more extended. Most of them don't have anything to do, except to howl and groan occasionally. The Claymation is inarguably wonderful and still very admirable even by today's high standards. I bet that even nowadays clay-wizards like Adam Elliot ("Mary and Max") or Peter Lord ("Wallace & Gromit") are big fans of these designs and that they couldn't do a better job.

In his Caribbean island castle, wise old Boris von Frankenstein (voiced by Boris Karloff) discovers the secret of total destruction. The famous Baron, who discovered the secret of creation with his "Frankenstein" monster, decides to celebrate his latest discovery with a "Mad Monster Party". Frankenstein, Dracula, The Werewolf, The Mummy, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The Creature (from the Black Lagoon), The Hunchback of Notre Dame, "It" (King Kong) and the Invisible Man are among those attending. For this appearance, the Frankenstein monster's fright-wigged mate (voiced by Phyllis Diller) sings "You're Different" and stands by her man...Also invited is the Baron's nerdy pharmacist nephew Felix Flankin (voiced by Allen Swift). Sounding like Jimmy Stewart, "Felix" is chosen to inherit his uncle's fortune. However, the Baron's busty assistant Francesca (voiced by Gale Garnett) covets the estate for herself. This is a visually appealing "stop-action" animation (aka "Claymation") film by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass. The classic figures are nicely done. Mr. Swift does well impersonating most of the characters, including a butler patterned after Peter Lorre. But after the party begins, the novelty begins to wear thin. The story gets lost searching for things to fit the running time.***** Mad Monster Party? (3/8/67) Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr. ~ Allen Swift, Boris Karloff, Phyllis Diller, Gale Garnett

In theory, MAD MONSTER PARTY has everything required to blast you into your childhood past: the voices of Boris Karloff and Phyllis Diller; characters that are riffs on Universal horror classics; and animated by Rankin-Bass, which created such memorable holiday television specials as Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. But at ninety minutes, MAD MONSTER PARTY is much, much too long for the very slight story it has to tell.The story, as such: Dr. Frankenstein, who earlier discovered the secret of life, has now discovered the secret of destruction. He invites all the monsters under his control to his remote island, there to announce his discovery--and his retirement and plans to pass his secrets onto his klutzy and inept nephew. The monsters are not pleased and decide to off said nephew and use the new discovery to suit themselves.The premise is okay, but the actual result is remarkably tedious. The script is dull, the occasional song atrocious. The pace is very, very slow. The character designs are uninspired. As for the famed Rankin-Bass animation... let us be generous here and say that in this instance it has not dated very well. This is essentially stop-motion animation, the same process so memorably used by Ray Harryhouser in such memorable films as THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD and Tim Burton in THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE Christmas--but without the same budgets.If you are considering a purchase for "family film purposes," you can do a lot better than this. If you yourself recall the movie fondly from your childhood, do yourself a favor and don't return to it, for you will almost certainly be disappointed; some nostalgia really is better left in the past. The only people likely to find the film of interest are hardcore collectors of stop-motion animation--and even then the interest is more likely to be technical than anything else. Such fans excepted, not recommended.GFT, Amazon Reviewer

MAD MONSTER PARTY? (1969) **** (VOICES OF: Boris Karloff, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett, Phyllis Diller, Ethel Ennis) Fantastically inventive stop-animated fare for all ages perfect for Halloween and/or a dark and stormy night from the Bass-Rankin Studios featuring classic monsters - The Frankenstein Monster, Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The Creature (implied from The Black Lagoon), a hunchback and, yup, King Kong (!) - invited to a groovy soirée thrown by, who else, Dr. Frankenstein (Karloff in a kitsch-perfect valentine to his ol' iconic shock flick), with a distant relative Felix Flankin (Swift who is a veteran of practically every Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon, doing a mean riff on Jimmy Stewart replete with boyishly charming stutter), a poindexter romanced by the Baron's latest creation, mega-hottie Francesca (Garnett) - think a 3-D version of Jessica Rabbit; there ya go- you're welcome - one of the more underrated femme fatales of the genre. Diller is a stitch as The Monster's Mate with her comic schtick blending to the cryptic cocktail that will go down as smooth as witches' brew. Trick or treat!!!