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This is a weird one, and unless you know about what the 1960s did to American theatrical animation, it’s probably incomprehensible as well. For over twenty years, virtually no studio dared to challenge Walt Disney’s status as the King of American Animated Features. All of the few attempts to unseat Disney in the feature film market of the 1930s had failed, and so all his competitors had to be satisfied with short subjects. But by the middle 1960s, Uncle Walt was in ill health and seemed to care more about his hit television programs and theme parks. The time was right to challenge Disney and start earning the hearts and minds of kids everywhere (as well as the wallets of their parents!)
How did the studios rise to the challenge? They created truly strange, bizarre oddball kids’ features that are now mostly obscure.
Mad Monster Party is what happens when you combine the stop-motion tabletop animation of Rankin/Bass with the visuals and humor of Mad Magazine. I’m not being poetic. This really is an animated film by Rankin/Bass (the same folks who brought us Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer). And the character designs were done by Jack Davis, a veteran comic book artist who helped establish the visual style of 1950s Mad; co-writer Harvey Kurtzman also helped to found the long-running humor magazine. By the middle of the decade, all the classic Universal horror monster movies were rerun on TV and popular with kids, so it seemed like an obvious idea to spoof the “monster craze” by creating cartoon caricatures of all the Universal oldies. Mad was published by the same comic book company that had also brought us Vault of Horror and Tales From the Crypt, so both Davis and Kurtzman were qualified for the job. Classic horror icon Boris Karloff was still alive, and the producers brought him on board as the voice of “Uncle Boris” von Frankenstein, and gifted impressionist Alan Swift voiced most of the rest of the characters – including a creepy Peter Lorre-inspired zombie. As initially set up, von Frankenstein invites all the best-known monsters to his secret castle (in the Caribbean, no less) as a sort of “retirement” party. He wants to step down as the leader of the Monsters’ organization and would like his unqualified nebbish of a nephew to take over in his place. This doesn’t sit well with the rest of the monsters, particularly The Monster’s Mate (voiced by Phyllis Diller). Along the way, there’s some background music that wouldn’t be out of place in an In Like Flynn sequel, a sexy scheming siren named Francesca (voiced by singer Gale Garnett), a crucial cameo by King Kong (more about that later), several appropriately goofy set pieces and many, many awful puns. The movie makers may have been inspired by Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, but an overlarge cast including Mr. Hyde, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Frankenstein Monster, the Hunchback, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, the Wolfman, and the Frankenstein Monster seems to anticipate the better-regarded Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
I’ve always had mixed feelings regarding Rankin/Bass’ tabletop stop-motion. However, I can’t deny that the jerky movements and doll-like puppets fit in perfectly with childhood fantasies of what it might be like if all the world’s famous monsters got together for a party. In all fairness, the puppets are better articulated and designed than those Rankin/Bass used in their better-remembered TV specials, and the sets are particularly handsome. And, at its best, Mad Monster Party captures the beauty of childhood fantasies in which the surreal mingles with the silly. No one with a heart can truly dislike a movie like this. That said, this isn’t a great movie by any stretch. Mad Monster Party falters dramatically in the second half, as it loses its way and introduces plot elements that contradict earlier premises. Aside from the characters based on Boris Karloff and Phyllis Diller, few of the monsters are fleshed out enough to be either funny or interesting. At just over 90 minutes, the film feels too long – too many scenes fail to live up to their potential and too many sequences simply fade out and limp away. Even the best sequence of the movie – which begins with a skeletal Beatlewigged band playing a “Wooly Bully” knockoff and ends with a food fight – the timing isn’t tight enough and many good jokes are ruined by plodding pacing. There are so many missed opportunities here – you’ll find wittier satire of the “monster craze” in any given late 50s/early 60s issue of Mad than here. Rankin/Bass also added an embarrassing interlude featuring an offensive Italian stereotype simply to pad out the film’s running time; it’s hard to enjoy this sequence (which was usually cut for TV showings) and probably best to skip over it on DVD. This could have been a true classic. Instead, it’s a pleasing movie that never truly rises to the occasion or lives up to its pedigree. It’s worth a viewing for any fans of Tim Burton’s Nightmare before Christmas or Corpse Bride, but it’s not an essential chapter in the history of American animation.
Author’s note: I have absolutely no idea why King Kong is referred to as “It” in this film. Several fansites infer that Rankin/Bass didn’t have the rights to use Kong, as he was a property of RKO films. This doesn’t make sense though. Rankin/Bass created a TV King Kong cartoon in 1966, and coproduced the truly strange King Kong Lives with Toho around the same time. If anyone has any definitive answers, please email me at my contact info on the index page.
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Other NonAnime Reviews Incredibles Review* Corpse Bride Review* Island of Misfit Toys Review Kangaroo Jack Review Finding Nemo Review* |
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