Mad Monster Party Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Mad Monster Party Blu-ray Movie Review

Monsters-R-Us.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 2, 2012

It may not exactly be the stop motion animation version of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, but Mad Monster Party? (yes, the title has a question mark) is a reunion of classic monsters (many of them made iconic in Universal films) that may remind some people of the popular comedy film from 1948. Rankin-Bass was a production house that has a certain nostalgic cachet for baby boomers. In 1964, the firm exploded into prominence when their television special Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer became an astounding ratings phenomenon. The partnership continued to mine seasonal fare for years afterward, creating several top rated holiday specials that very often were, like Rudolph, culled from pre-existing popular songs (The Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman). Along with their television outings, Rankin-Bass forged a relationship with Joseph E. Levine, cranking out a few moderately budgeted feature films including 1967’s Mad Monster Party?. This is one of those films that some of a certain age are going to remember with rose colored glassed reminiscing, but to those who didn’t grow up with it, the reaction is probably going to be considerably less, well, rosy. The film is sweet and goofy in its own way, but considering it was co-written by Mad Magazine’s Harvey Kurtzman (and the stop motion models utilized in the film are based on original designs by Mad’s great Jack Davis), the film rarely rises to the satiric heights it might have. It’s further hobbled by some pretty awful songs, written by Rankin-Bass regular Maury Laws (if you have a taste for awful albeit kitschy musicals, I highly recommend the 1973 Rankin-Bass oddity Marco!, featuring a pretty horrid score by Laws and two “unforgettable” performances by Desi Arnaz, Jr. as Marco Polo and Zero Mostel as Kublai Khan). Mad Monster Party? features the voice talents of Boris Karloff as Baron von Frankenstein and the recently passed Phyllis Diller as the so-called Monster’s Mate (a convenient pseudonym for the Bride of Frankenstein). Along for the ride are a coterie of famous goblins, ghoulies and man made monsters, including Dr. Jekyll (and Mr. Hyde), the Invisible Man, the Creature (from the Black Lagoon), the Werewolf, Dracula, the Mummy, King Kong (called “It” in the film) and of course Frankenstein’s Monster.

It’s probably impossible for many younger viewers to imagine how relatively innocent life was in the halcyon days of 1967, but in some ways Mad Monster Party? can provide some clues. The biggest thing on television early that year was the Adam West Batman series (though it was already showing signs of its precipitous decline, which would ultimately find it off the air barely two years after it had begun), and Mad Monster Party? mimics the show’s famous “pows” and “zowies” with attendant descriptors hovering around the credits. In other ways the film clearly harkens back to a day when women in media were either harridans (the Phyllis Diller character) or sexpots (the Baron’s voluptuous secretary Francesca who is kind of like the stop motion animation version of a Playboy bunny. The entire film has a sort of naïvete that many will find quaint, even refreshing, while others will wonder where the comedic beef is.

The “plot”, such as it is, of Mad Monster Party? finds the kindly yet deadly Baron having invented a sort of super destructive potion, one he wishes to pass on (with the rest of his nefarious inventions) to his nerdy nephew, Felix Flankin. Felix has no clue who his Uncle actually is, and when he receives an invitation to the Baron’s Island of Evil, Felix thinks he’s about to take a vacation in a sunny seaside resort. Meanwhile a coterie of famous monsters are descending upon Frankenstein’s island in order to help the Baron celebrate his impending retirement. However, once they catch wind of the Baron’s latest invention, and see how spectacularly ill equipped Felix is to handle it, other motives start rearing their monstrously ugly heads.

Mad Monster Party? is a resolutely old fashioned entertainment, and if it’s occasionally tiresome, it’s also often sweet with a somewhat subversive sense of humor. The film is rife with allusions to horror movies of yore, including some oblique ones like one character who is obviously modeled on Peter Lorre. The stop motion animation is quite often very winning, though parts of it look positively rudimentary when compared to more contemporary outings like the Nick Park films or the offerings from Laika, the studio in my hometown of Portland, Oregon (actually Hillsboro, but who’s counting?). The film has an odd patchwork quality at times, with fade outs from business that take a little too long and some gags that frankly just kind of fall flat, but sprinkled into the mix is a generally genial ambience that will probably still be able to speak to kids in particular, even those hugely cynical tykes who are either the children or even grandchildren of the boomers who first loved this film back in the day.

Mad Monster Party Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mad Monster Party? is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. (Some sites, including ours for a while, had this film's original aspect ratio listed at 1.85:1, but that is incorrect. The film was originally exhibited in 1.37:1.) Mad Monster Party?'s negative was badly damaged years ago and all home video releases have been sourced off a 35mm print that is in generally good condition, given certain expectations. While there is still some damage to be seen throughout these elements, they're relegated to occasional scratches and other blemishes and don't really rise to the level of a serious distraction. The biggest issue here is a pallid palette. Colors have obviously faded quite a bit here, and nothing really pops very well as a result. It's a little strange to be talking about fine object detail in a film which consists entirely of puppets, but in fact there is quite a bit of detail on display here, to the point that little molding textures can be quite easily discerned in most of the characters. This isn't a fantastic looking release on purely objective terms, but it's probably the best that could be achieved considering the dearth of decent elements to source this transfer from.

Mad Monster Party Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mad Monster Party?'s original mono soundtrack is offered via a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. The soundtrack has some very minor distortion at times, especially in the midrange when orchestral cues are playing, but on the whole it's about as negligible as the occasional scratches in the video presentation. Generally speaking, fidelity is quite good throughout the feature. Dialogue is easy to hear and the film's many goofy sound effects also sound very good. Dynamic range is a little muted here, but there are a few little blasts of sonic energy along the way that perk up the sonic appeal of the film.

Mad Monster Party Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Mad Monster Party? – The Making of a Cult Classic (SD; 14:48) is a good general overview of how Rankin – Bass came to be, how in 1964 everything exploded for them after Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer aired to gargantuan ratings, and how that helped spark the genesis of this film.


• It's Sheer Animagic! Secrets of Stop-Motion Animation (SD; 9:36) is a good overview of exactly how stop motion is accomplished with on set demonstrations by a couple of practitioners of the art.


• Groovy Ghouls! The Music of Mad Monster Party (SD; 3:45) is a brief homage to the film's composer, Maury Laws.


• Sing-A-Longs (SD; 4:47) presents sing along versions of some of the score, replete with a skull serving in for the bouncing ball hovering over the lyrics.


• Trailer (SD: 1:30)

Mad Monster Party Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mad Monster Party? probably isn't as funny as it could have been, and in fact some of its supposed humor just kind of falls flat. The film is also weirdly paced, and the Laws songs don't especially help matters. But the very oddness of the film is going to appeal to some and no mere curmudgeonly critiques will sway the feelings of baby boomers who grew up with this feature or even those who were born in later generations and were introduced to it on television. The stop motion animation is frequently quite charming, with good character designs, and the voices of Karloff and Diller are welcome, if they also add a bit of wistful nostalgia to the proceedings, especially now that we've only recently lost Diller. Is this some sort of lost masterpiece? Hardly. The Rankin-Bass oeuvre virtually defines "kitsch", and Mad Monster Party? is a prime example of that tendency. It's a weird little movie that has a few laughs but is probably best seen as the decided oddity it is. This Blu-ray suffers from having been sourced from a pretty badly faded print, but it ports over the special features of the most recent DVD release. The cult appeal of this title is going to outweigh any harumphing analyses by a mere critic, and those who love Mad Monster Party? are no doubt going to want to pick this up.