GamerTab
That was an excellent one.
Cooktopi
The acting in this movie is really good.
Taha Avalos
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Eric Stevenson
Rankin Bass became famous for the stop motion Santa Claus specials they did in the 1970's. Normally, those kinds of people go for movies later on but this is actually before their most famous works. Their later stuff is obviously much better. While by no means awful, this wasn't that good. For a film titled "Mad Monster Party?" it actually barely features a party at all. Still, the stop motion effects are pretty good.I actually did end up liking the main character, Felix. I admit the ending is kind of too weird and seemed like a cop out, but it's still not bad. The voices were quite good, especially Boris Karloff's. Now I can fully go into Book Month with the end of this year. The monsters probably needed more personality. They just seemed to be causing trouble for no reason. **1/2
re-animatresse
a feature-length, stop-motion animated Halloween musical from Rankin/Bass, the studio which produced most of the animated Christmas classics (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, etc.), as well as The Hobbit (1977) the film features Boris Karloff as the voice of Baron Boris von Frankenstein and Allen Swift as virtually every other character. some character designs and voices are better than others, my favourites being Dracula, Mummy and Jekyll & Hyde. the set pieces are creative and detailed i don't particularly care for the song-and-dance numbers, although the tap-dancing Dracula is amusing, but the jazzy, brass-driven score by Maury Laws in itself makes this a film worth watching. the story is interesting but ends rather abruptly, and the final product could probably have been cut down to about an hour without sacrificing anything crucial imagine Bobby Pickett's Halloween novelty Monster Mash album transmuted into cinema, and you'll have a pretty decent idea of what to expect
Coventry
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.
MartinHafer
I hadn't seen this since I was a kid back in the 1960s. I remember enjoying it and I decided to see it again for old times sake. Well, this is a great example of the phrase "you can't go back", as now I couldn't stand the film. It surprised me, as some other Rankin-Bass productions from my childhood STILL make me smile. Whenever "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" or "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" come on TV, I still watch and enjoy them--perhaps not quite as much as when I was little, but still quite a lot. Even the poor Rankin-Bass specials (you know, the lame-o ones no one ever liked) are better than this. I'd love to see "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" or "The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town " 100 times than see "Mad Monster Party" even once more!So what is it about this DVD release did I dislike? Well, first, unlike the wonderful voice talent for the best Rankin-Bass animated films, this one (aside from Boris Karloff) had voices that just seemed like cheap knockoffs of people such as Peter Lorre. Kids nowadays have no idea who Lorre was and adults will realize that it's a really crappy impersonation--as are most of the rest. The other problem is that the film is just boring and really irritating when it comes to the plot and dialog. Even kids now will probably be bored to tears by the thing...even if it does have monsters. And, since it is about double the length of a typical film by these folks, the time just seems to drag. By the end, I just wanted all the monsters and the Doctor's nephew to just go away...go away and die (permanently--after all, some were already dead).Tough to take and not nearly the quality of the better Rankin-Bass productions.
