Mad Mad Mad Monsters!

Yikes! It's a peeping Frank!

Over the past four decades, the little film Mad Monster Party? has garnered a bit of a cult reputation. A horror-themed film from Rankin-Bass, the creators of numerous stop-motion animated holiday TV specials (most notably Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer), 1967's Mad Monster Party? was a theatrical failure that redeemed itself through frequent airings on television during the '70s. By the '80s, however, it was dumped on video (I can attest that the quality of that particular release is abysmal) and TV airings dried up, leaving the film mostly forgotten. Interest was renewed when Tim Burton cited the film as the inspiration for the cult hit The Nightmare Before Christmas, and it's since had several VHS and DVD releases, including a (not so-) Special Edition.

Igor, if you don't wait until I'm done, it will be deemed necrophilia...

Mad M

onster Party? has been up for a live-action remake for several years but few fans of the film realize it's basically already been remade once in traditional cell animation (though it's also kind of a prequel). Debuting on "The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie," 1972's Mad Mad Mad Monsters uses most of the same characters, virtually the same plot and it's from the same production team. Though the cartoon lacks songs and the charm of the puppets, Mad Mad Mad Monsters is vastly superior in pacing. Don't get me wrong, I adore Monster Party, but it's not aimed at kids with A.D.D. -- it really drags in a lot of spots.Mad Mad Mad Monsters follows the creation of The Monstress through her wedding to The Monster (aka Frankenstein). The Baron orchestrates an elaborate wedding, gathering all of the monsters together -- but his assistant Igor is determined to keep The Monstress for himself. This, naturally, leads to an abduction of The Monstress by... the Abominable Snowman!(?!)Pull my finger!

The Monstress is now a mute sexpot more in the mold of Party's Francesca. But Phyllis Diller (who was "The Monster's Mate" in the previous film) is still quasi-present here, this time as The Invisible Man's invisible wife Nagatha (Diller didn't voice the character, they hired an impersonator). Felix Flanken isn't in the movie, but he has a very similar counterpart in the mailman who delivers the party invitations -- though the mailman switches occupations mid-movie and takes over as the concierge at the hotel where the wedding takes place. And the former concierge bears more than a passing resemblance to Felix's boss.

I just wanted to warn you that the chef goes heavy on the garlic...

Also returning are the usual roster of characters: Dracula (and son!), The Wolfman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, the skeleton band, etc. Perhaps the oddest addition to the movie is the hotel's bellboy. Rankin-Bass had developed a stop-motion project based on the Jerry Lewis film The Bellboy -- the project never got off the ground but it seems they transplanted the character into this movie.

Didn't I see these guys on The Groovie Goolies?

"Mad Mad Mad Monsters" has had numerous releases on cheapo VHS tapes (mine included a sheet of monster tattoos!) and it's currently available on DVD!