Horrorfest 2012: Mad Monster Party?

Time for a bit of weirdness thanks the guys at Rankin/Bass with MAD MONSTER PARTY? You might recognize the names Rankin/Bass from the string of stop motion (and traditionally) animated holiday specials that are shown dutifully around Christmastime every year, like RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER and A YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS.

I had never heard of MAD MONSTER PARTY? until just now, and I'm pleased to report that it is actually better than almost all of the more famous Christmas specials these guys put out. I've long decried the shittiness of these specials, each one more tacky and annoying than the last (with the possible exception of RUDOLPH), yet each one loved by those who haven't really watched them since they were 6.

Just what is it about these much-beloved specials that annoys me so much? I guess it's a combination of creepiness with crass commercialism. They each take a religious holiday and reduce it to the broadest, least emotionally meaningful stories possible. Meanwhile, the stop motion animation, while technically probably about as good as can be expected, given the circumstances, renders the supposedly cute subjects of these stories, like Santa Claus, creepy and weird thanks to their lack of timing and inherent jerkiness. You're left with nothing but unpleasantness, when you should be watching something nice.

This is just a long winded way of explaining why MAD MONSTER PARTY? works -- instead of working with cute subjects, Rankin/Bass is working with monsters, here. Instead of working with deeply meaningful faith-based holidays, this is the stuff of Halloween. Granted, some out there may take Halloween as a deeply meaningful faith-based holiday, but I've yet to meet them and if I ever do I'll assume they're full of shit.

So, ironically, MAD MONSTER PARTY? ends up being cute and charming, basically the opposite of every other Rankin/Bass production.

The story concerns Dr. Frankenstein (voiced by none other than Boris Karloff himself) discovering a potion that can destroy matter instantaneously, and holding a monster convention at his castle both to prevent this potion to his peers and to announce his retirement. The usual suspects show up for the convention, including Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, the Werewolf and others, and it isn't long before they're bickering about who gets to take over after Frankenstein retires.

One candidate to take over for Frankenstein is his buxom assistant, Francesca (Gale Garnett). But, not if the Monster's Mate (Phyllis Diller) can help it. Unbeknownst to them, Frankenstein plans to hand his legacy down to his nephew, a naive young pharmacist whose only monstrous quality is his allergies (Allen Swift).

Speaking of Allen Swift, he supplies most of the voices, here, and imbues Frankenstein's nephew with a nice Jimmy Stewart impression and Frankenstein's butler with the voice of Peter Lorre.

The movie starts out charmingly enough with lots of pun-based monster jokes penned by Mad magazine writer Harvey Kurtzman. However, the story often gets bogged down by uninspired song and dance numbers and runs about a half hour longer than it needs to.

Still, it's nice to know Rankin/Bass turned out something worth while inbetween bouts of making Santa Claus seems like a creepy dickhead.