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Category:    Home > Reviews > Horror > Comedy > Musical > Stop Motion AnimationSoundtrack > Mad Monster Party (FSM CD + Anchor Bay DVD)

Mad Monster Party  (CD Soundtrack + DVD)

 

CD Sound: B     Music: B     DVD Picture: B-     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: B

 

 

Though known initially as Videocraft International, a sort of American stop-motion equivalent to Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Century 21 productions and their Super-Marionettes, the company went on to be known as Rankin-Bass.  Though they are best known for their Christmas specials, like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, it turns out they also produced some feature film projects.  Mad Monster Party (1967) may be the most influential, if not as well known as it should be.

 

The stop-motion “Animagic” animated film offers Boris Karloff as Dr. Frankenstein, the fine vocalist Gale Garnett (of “We’ll Sing In The Sunshine” fame) as Francesca, Phyllis Diller as the Frankenstein Monster’s Mate, and Allen Swift as the voice of a parade of classic monsters and nephew of the ready-to-retire doctor.  The soundtrack was issued in 1998 on this CD for the first time ever, making up for the three decades parents, children and fans tried to hunt down a supposed RCA vinyl copy that was only struck for producer Bass!

 

The title song, with Jules Bass’ own lyrics, is performed by Jazz singer Ethel Ennis in a Shirley Bassey/Goldfinger style that is amusing.  Maury Laws did the score for the film, running 14 tracks here, including a great moment for Diller singing on “You’re Different”, Karloff doing spoken word on “One Step Ahead” without getting credit for inspiring Vincent Price’s “rap” on Michael Jackson’s ever-obnoxious “Thriller”.  Garnett, still hot at the time, is given two songs:  Our Time To Shine” and “Never Was A Love Like Mine”.  Though the instrumentals serve the film well and stand out well on their own, the big winner is “The Mummy”.  This is a hilarious track where a monster rock band plays their tune and ode to the most famous bandaged character in probably all of pop culture.

 

Rivaled only by the fascinating animation at the drugstore in the opening of the film, the Mummy dance sequence is pure animation brilliance.  It is hilarious, functional, has every joke & observation we will ever have about the entombed one, and is just entertaining as this stuff can get.  The song alone is a hoot, but add the footage and the joke is complete.  What would Brendan Frazier think?

 

The music was supposedly mixed for stereo, but neither the PCM tracks on the CD or Dolby Digital 2.0 on the DVD are stereophonic.  Either way, they both sound fine-but-dated, with the CD offering better fidelity due to less compression.  The sound level drops a bit on the DVD when the songs kick in some very slight, yet noticeable way.  This is not severe, but all the tracks show their age somewhat.

 

The picture on the DVD is full-screen, and in color, though not as vibrant as Pathé color processing could be at the time.  Animation fans want to see the full frame shot, but I had to wonder watching if Director Bass was thinking at least 1.66 X1 for the film.  Too bad the DVD does not have that as an anamorphic option.

 

The extras include nicely illustrated booklets for the CD and DVD that go beyond the usual.  Both have text written by Rick Goldschmidt, currently the caretaker of Rankin-Bass and its catalog of intellectual properties.  They offer generous illustrations and stills of the film, plus other nicely reproduced photos.  The DVD also has the original theatrical trailer, and two sets of still galleries.  One set offers production art, while the other has posters, promo stills, and even a picture of the cover of the CD!

 

Besides the remarkable animation and puppet work, much credit must be given to screenplay writers Len Korobkin, Harvey Kurtzman, and the legendary genre film fan Forrest J. Ackerman for a script that truly loves the characters and material.  Ackerman created the greatest Sci-Fi/Horror collection ever assembled, launched Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, and was naturally a world scholar on the subject.  There are some politically incorrect moments in the way a Peter Lorre-like character is treated, and much more disturbing way Francesca allows herself to be hit across the face a few times by the Jimmy Stewart clone, the Doctor’s Nephew.  It seems little moments like this haunt many Rankin-Bass works, but they have to be acknowledged enough so viewers can make choices of whether they find this appropriate for their children.

 

The monsters featured include It (which could be several characters), Dracula, Frankenstein, The Werewolf/Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, King Kong, some zombies, that monster Rock band, Dr, Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Mad Monster Party has been imitated in Halloween items often since, and has an influence that will go on for decades to come, especially now that it is being slowly rediscovered.  Add how legalities (not because these monsters are too highly paid, but their estates expect said big bucks), we may never see these characters together again all at once, so the low-budget gem is now something that the highest-budgeted production could not afford, ironically.  How cool is that?

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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