''Mad Monster Party?'' is a 1967

stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

produced by

Rankin/Bass Productions Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment (founded and formerly known as Videocraft International, Ltd. and Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) was an American production company located in New York City. It was known for its seasonal television specials, ...

for

Embassy Pictures Embassy Pictures Corporation (also and later known as Avco Embassy Pictures as well as Embassy Films Associates) was an American independent film production and distribution company, which was active from 1942 to 1986. Embassy was responsible ...

. The film stars the voices of

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), known professionally as Boris Karloff () and occasionally billed as Karloff the Uncanny, was a British actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstei ...

, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett and

Phyllis Diller Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver; July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, Actor, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her Eccentricity (behavior), eccentric stage persona, Self-deprecation, se ...

. It tells the story of a mad scientist who achieves the secret of total destruction as he summons all the monsters to his island home to show it off while planning to retire as the head of the "Worldwide Organization of Monsters". Although less well known than Rankin/Bass's holiday specials, it has become a

cult film A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase, which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in repeated ...

. The film is a camp homage to the classic monster movies of the 1930s-1940s. It was one of Karloff's final projects, and his last film in connection to ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...

''.

Plot

Scientist Baron Boris von Frankenstein achieves his ultimate ambition, the secret of total destruction. Having perfected and tested the formula, he sends out messenger

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s carrying invitations to summon all monsters to the Isle of Evil in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. The Baron intends to inform them of his discovery and also to reveal his imminent retirement as head of the Worldwide Organization of Monsters. Besides his Monster (sometimes referred to as "Fang") and the Monster's more intelligent mate who reside on the Isle of Evil with Boris, the invitees include

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. He is considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been i ...

, the

Mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...

, Quasimodo (referred to as " The Hunchback of Notre-Dame"), the

Werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting, shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting, therianthropic Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid wol ...

The Invisible Man ''The Invisible Man'' is an 1897 science fiction novel by British writer H. G. Wells. Originally serialised in '' Pearson's Weekly'' in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a s ...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is an 1886 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series ...

, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon (referred to as simply "The Creature"). Frankenstein's beautiful assistant Francesca confirms that all invitations have been delivered and inquires about one of the addressees, a Felix Flanken. Frankenstein explains that Felix is his nephew and successor in the monster business. This displeases Francesca, who covets the role for herself. She asks why there was no invitation for "It". Boris replies that "It" was not invited since "It" can be a crushing bore, explaining that "It" even crushed the island's

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

s in his bare hands the last time "It" was invited. Felix Flanken is a drug store pharmacist somewhere in the United States. Incompetent and asthmatic but good-natured, he is a constant burden on the drug store's greedy order Mr. Kronkite. A mailman arrives with Felix's invitation and he joyously accepts. He boards a freighter headed for the Isle alongside the other monsters. The ship's crew are wary of the unusual passengers. Frankenstein has his zombie butler Yetch, Chef Mafia Machiavelli, and the zombie bellhops and servants make preparations for the upcoming party while patrolling the Isle to ensure that "It" does not arrive uninvited. The monsters begin to arrive on the freighter that Felix is also traveling on. During dinner, Frankenstein shows them the formula which he will demonstrate the next day while naming his successor. Francesca secretly meets with Dracula to inform him about Felix, promising to share Frankenstein's secrets when she becomes the successor if Dracula were to get rid of Felix. When they catch the Monster's Mate eavesdropping, she and Francesca begin to cat-fight while the other monsters have an all out food fight. Felix arrives to the island and is greeted by his uncle and Francesca, who takes Felix on a tour of the island where the Mummy, Werewolf and Dracula plan to attack. While the human Felix proves to be unsuitably kind-hearted, the monsters nonetheless plot to eliminate him and gain control of the secret formula, but Felix continually accidentally foils their attempts. Later, Frankenstein tells Felix about his retirement, making his nephew leader of all the monsters in the world. Felix naturally feels reluctant to take the job. Over time, Francesca develops feelings for Felix after he obliviously saves her on multiple occasions. As Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Monster's Mate descend upon Francesca, she sends out a letter (via messenger bat) to an unknown recipient. When the monsters corner Felix upon capturing Francesca, they are frightened at the arrival of "It" (a giant gorilla and knock-off of

King Kong King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...

) who proceeds to rampage since he was not invited. "It" snatches up the monsters and Francesca (on whom "It" develops a crush). Felix rushes to tell his uncle what happened and is instructed to head to the boat. Frankenstein leads the zombies in rescuing Francesca from "It" using biplanes. Boris convinces "It" to let Francesca go and to take him instead. "It" complies. Felix and Francesca manage to escape the island in the boat as Frankenstein and the remainder of the monsters remain in "It"'s clutches. Displeased that the monsters tried to steal the secret for themselves and attempted to kill Felix as well as having to put up with "It", Frankenstein sacrifices himself by dropping the vial of the formula, destroying the Isle of Evil and everything on it. The destruction is witnessed by Felix and Francesca offshore. Felix expresses a desire to begin a family with Francesca, who tearfully admits that she is not human, but in fact a

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

creation of Frankenstein's. Felix responds that " none of us are perfect", mechanically repeating the last two words, indicating that he is also his uncle's robot creation.

Cast

as Baron Boris von Frankenstein * Alan Swift as: ** Felix Flanken **

** Frankenstein's Monster "Fang" ** The

** The Hunchback of Notre-Dame ** The Invisible Man **

** "It" ** Yetch ** A Skeleton ** Chef Mafia Machiavelli ** Mr. Kronkite ** The Freighter Captain ** The First Mate ** The Mailman * Gale Garnett as Francesca *

as The Monster's Mate * Ethel Ennis as the Title Song Singer

Crew

* Directed by

Jules Bass Julius Caesar Bass (; September 16, 1935 – October 25, 2022) was an American director, producer, lyricist, composer and author. Until 1960, he worked at a New York advertising agency, and then co-founded the film production company Videocraft ...

* Produced by Arthur Rankin Jr. * Executive producer – Joseph E. Levine * Associate producer – Larry Roemer * Screenplay by Len Korobkin,

Harvey Kurtzman Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book ''Mad (magazine), Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ...

* Story by Arthur Rankin Jr. * Music and lyrics by Maury Laws, Jules Bass * Characters designed by Jack Davis * Continuity design – Don Duga * "Animagic" technician – Tad Mochinaga * Assistant director – Kizo Nagashima * Choreography by "Killer Joe" Piro * Music composed and scored by Maury Laws * Sound engineers – Eric Tomlinson, Peter Page, Stephen Frohock

Production

The film was created using Rankin/Bass's "Animagic"

animation process, supervised by

Tadahito Mochinaga was a pioneer Japanese stop-motion animator. Having done many stop motion films in Japan, he is best known as the animator for Rankin/Bass' " Animagic" productions at his MOM Production Studio in Tokyo throughout the 1960s. He did this work in a ...

at MOM Productions in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, Japan. The process involved photographing figurines a frame at a time, then re-positioning them, exposing another frame, and so forth. Known as stop-motion animation, it was the same approach used in

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...

' ''

'', Art Clokey's ''

Gumby Gumby and Pokey figures ''Gumby'' is an American cartoon character and associated media franchise created by Art Clokey. He is a blocky green humanoid made of clay. Gumby stars in two television series, '' Gumby: The Movie'', and other medi ...

'' and '' Davey and Goliath'', and many other films, commercials and television specials. Classic monster films were enjoying a resurgence in popularity in the late 1960s, along with more comedy-centered examples, '' The Addams Family'' and ''

The Munsters ''The Munsters'' is an American sitcom about the home life of a family of benign monsters that aired from 1964 to 1966 on CBS. The series stars Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster (Frankenstein's monster),Episodes referring to the fact that Herman is ...

''. This campy film is a spoof of horror themes, complete with musical numbers and inside jokes. '' Mad Magazine'' creator

penned the script (with writer Len Korobkin) and ''Mad'' artist Jack Davis designed many of the characters. Rumors that Forrest J. Ackerman had a hand in the script have never been confirmed and his name never appeared in the on-screen credits or in original promotion for the film at the time of its release. Rankin/Bass historian Rick Goldschmidt, in liner notes accompanying the Anchor Bay DVD release, denied Ackerman was ever involved, at the same time as the DVD packaging promoted Ackerman's name. Goldschmidt repeated his claims on this in a 2006 blog entry, based on his interviews with Korobkin, who claimed to have written the original screenplay, which then was revised by Kurtzman, but never worked with Ackerman. In addition to the famous monsters seen in the film, ''Mad Monster Party?'' also features several celebrity likenesses. Karloff and Diller's characters are both designed to look like the actors portraying them, while Baron Frankenstein's lackey, Yetch, is a physical and vocal caricature of Peter Lorre. Swift also performs impersonations when voicing his characters, such as

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morali ...

when voicing Felix,

Sydney Greenstreet Sydney Hughes Greenstreet (December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954) was a British and American actor. While he did not begin his career in films until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a Hollywood career lasting t ...

as the Invisible Man and Charles Laughton as the Freighter Captain. ''Mad Monster Party?'' was one of several family-friendly projects Karloff lent his voice to in his final years (including the 1966 television adaptation of '' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!''). It was his final involvement in a production connected to the Frankenstein mythos that had propelled him to stardom some three decades earlier.

Music

Although the opening credits identify Ethel Ennis as singing the opening theme song and, in the same frame, a soundtrack being available on

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

, a commercially released soundtrack was never produced in any format. In September 1998, Percepto released the mono RCA recording on CD. Waxworks Records released it on vinyl on October 12, 2016.

Reception

The film holds a 70% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on ten reviews. Howard Thompson of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote that "this party should make everybody chuckle".

Home media

The film has been available on video for years, first on original distributor

' home entertainment unit, and then on other independent labels before

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film & television production and distribution company which is a ...

acquired some rights to the film. Currently,

Lionsgate Lions Gate, Lion Gate or similar terms may refer to: Gates *Lion Gate at Mycenae in Greece *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa, now in Turkey *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the gardens of Hampton Court Pala ...

distributes the film on video under license from StudioCanal. Before Lionsgate's current video release of ''Mad Monster Party?'', almost all video releases have been from 16 mm film and were of very poor color quality. The original film negative was water-damaged some years ago, but

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production company, production and broadcast syndication, distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, California, it is a division o ...

(which now holds the television rights) eventually unearthed an original 35 mm pristine print. This print was digitally remastered, and is the source for the current DVD issue and all subsequent television showings. Anchor Bay released the previous DVD on August 19, 2003, then re-released it on August 23, 2005 with additional features. On September 8, 2009, it was released as a "Special Edition" DVD by Lionsgate. The special features include a documentary including interviews with Rick Goldschmidt, Arthur Rankin Jr., voice artist Allen Swift, storyboard artist Don Duga, musical director Maury Laws and others. The film was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on September 4, 2012. The 2023 Blu-ray release from Umbrella Entertainment saw the film being released in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 for the first time since its original theatrical release.

Comic book adaptation

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

Movie Classic: ''Mad Monster Party'' (September 1967)

Related film

Rankin/Bass produced a related TV special called '' Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters'' from '' The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie'' series, which aired on September 23, 1972. This Halloween special featured many of the same monster characters.

Bob McFadden Robert McFadden (January 19, 1923 – January 7, 2000) was an American singer, impressionist, and voice-over actor perhaps best known for his many contributions to animated cartoons. His most popular television cartoon characters included M ...

did his imitation of Karloff when voicing Baron Henry von Frankenstein (who resembles Baron Boris von Frankenstein). The animation for the special is provided by

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...

Mushi Production or Mushi Pro for short, is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Fujimidai, Nerima, Tokyo, Japan. It previously had a headquarters elsewhere in Nerima. The studio was headed by manga artist Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka started it as a rivalry wi ...

with supervision by Steve Nakagawa, who was also known for his work with

Iwao Takamoto Iwao Takamoto (April 29, 1925 – January 8, 2007) was a Japanese-American animator, character designer, television producer, and film director. He began his career as a production and character designer for Walt Disney Animation Studios films ...

at Hanna-Barbera Studios.

References

External links

*
Rankin-Bass ''Mad Monster Party'' site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mad Monster Party 1967 films 1967 animated films 1967 children's films 1960s American animated films 1967 musical comedy films 1960s science fiction comedy films American animated fantasy films American science fiction comedy films American vampire films 1960s English-language films 1960s children's animated films American crossover films Dracula films Films set in the Caribbean Films set on islands Frankenstein films 1960s monster movies Mummy films 1960s stop-motion animated films American werewolf films Films scored by Maury Laws Films with screenplays by Arthur Rankin Jr. Television shows directed by Jules Bass Rankin/Bass Productions films American musical comedy films Films adapted into comics Vampire comedy films Animated films about vampires Gill-man English-language science fiction horror films English-language science fiction comedy films English-language musical comedy films 1967 American animated films