Mad Monster Party (1967) Review

Director: Jules Bass
Stars: Boris Karloff, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett, Phyllis Diller
Genre: Family, Musical, Horror

What a perfect film to watch for the Halloween season. It's from Rankin/Bass Productions, the same guys that did those stop-motion Christmas films, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman. Mad Monster Party was their take on Halloween, and though it's not a very popular film, it frequently comes up in horror fan's favorites.

In this film, for some reason, Doctor Frankenstein is the leader of all the monsters. I have no idea why...but he is. He is voiced by legendary horror star, Boris Karloff, so I suppose it kind of makes sense. Yes, that's right, legendary horror star Boris Karloff is in this. 

Anyway, Doctor Frankenstein wants to retire his leadership, and he wants to let his nephew, who knows nothing of his experiments and dealings with monsters, take over as leader. So he gathers all his monster friends to his castle, and I do mean all of them. There's Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Frankenstein's monster, Bride of Frankenstein, Quasimodo, The Creature, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and even a King Kong-like creature. Oh, there's also a caricature of Peter Lorre in here, which imitates his appearance and voice. Pretty damn cool.

But, all the monsters don't like the idea of Doctor Frankenstein's nephew taking over, as they all feel the spot is rightfully their own. So what do the monsters do? Well, they try to kill his nephew of course. It's quite a good plot for a film of this nature, and it has a pretty satisfying and intense ending as well.

The animation looks pretty good but what will really stand out is the set design. It is wonderfully creepy, from the dark swamps to the gothic interiors of the castle. It's a great atmosphere and nails the Halloween/Gothic Horror feel perfectly. The theme and atmosphere are definitely one of the film's strongest points. Each scene is beautiful.

Plus there's an extremely well done and highly memorable soundtrack. And I'm not just talking about the musical song-and-dance parts, the mood setting background music is what really did it for me. The actual songs the monsters sung were alright too, though I've never been much of a fan of musicals. They had a very '60s feel to them, and they were superb, but they kind of didn't fit with the feel of the film.

This film's visual style was actually a direct influence for many of Tim Burton's animated films (Vincent, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie), so any fans of his will probably enjoy this.

The humor here is actually pretty funny. There is some adult humor, and it really is a film that can be enjoyed by all ages. I even laughed out loud a few times. The part I found the funniest, whether it was intentional or not, was when the nephew smacked the girl and then she fell in love with him. It was just so absurd. The script was actually penned by Harvey Kurtzman, the creator of MAD Magazine, so of course you'll get a few laughs.

If I have any complaints it's that some of the monsters didn't get enough screen time. The Creature was hardly shown at all, as with the Invisible Man. The film really focused mostly on Dracula, which I suppose is as good a monster as any to focus on. Just wish some of the monsters didn't feel completely pointless. But it is great seeing all the Universal Monsters on screen, and this film doesn't desecrate the characters like some films, but it rather honors them. Although, I will say that the Bride of Frankenstein was kind of annoying, though she was voiced by the talented Phyllis Diller. Francesca, an original character to the film, who played the femme fatale role, was actually surprisingly enjoyable.

A superb holiday film for the family, with all your favorite monsters and some great visuals and atmosphere. Quite funny at times, and quite enjoyable overall.  

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Frankenweenie (2012) Review

Director: Tim Burton
Stars: Winona Ryder, Charlie Tahan, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau
Genre: Family, Horror, Comedy

Tim Burton's remake of his own 1984 short film of the same name. Not only is this film the first completely black and white film to be shot in IMAX 3D, it is also the first stop-motion one.

It's a re-telling of the Frankenstein story, parodying and paying homage to, about a boy whose dog dies and he then brings back to life with electricity. It's really that simple.

The main character, Victor, plays the part of Doctor Frankenstein, his dog plays the role of Frankenstein's monster, the neighbor's dog plays the part of the Bride of Frankenstein, Edgar Gore is kind of like Igor, and the teacher, to me, reminded me of Vincent Price for some reason.

We have some great actors in here lending their voices, most notable being Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, and Martin Landau. Unfortunately all the voices in here felt pretty monotone and flat to me. I can only guess that this was done purposefully, being that usually these actors are very engaging, maybe to add to the atmosphere or something. To me, it didn't work out so well. It makes all the characters seem very boring and lifeless, which works in only a few scenes, but hurts the film overall. Plus, the dull voices fail to engage the viewer and leaves them bored. Even Edgar Gore, who has a fairly unique voice, sounds kind of dull.

All the characters are good enough, the voices make them a bit forgettable. I liked the teacher, and even Victor. The dog, Sparky, was very lovable, a welcomed improvement from the original short. At parts I even got a little teary eyed, but I have a pretty big soft spot for boy and dog stories.

The film is in black and white, which compliments the atmosphere wonderfully. I couldn't see this film working in color, not as well at least. The film does manage to have a great Gothic theme, and I times evokes feelings of hate, sympathy, sadness, love, hope, hopelessness, etc. So, in that respect, it does a great job. I must also compliment the subtle 3D used rather than gimmicky 3D.

To me, the original short had a better atmosphere. It fused the Gothic world and the suburban world perfectly. While this remake really doesn't do that as well, though it does to an extent. The first short has a very suburban '70s feels to it, and one that made us all feel at home, but it also had a dark and Gothic theme alongside it.

The stop-motion is superb, on par with if not surpassing the stop-motion from this year's earlier ParaNorman. It really is very visually pleasing.

Towards the end of the film things get a bit action packed, with giant sea-monkeys and a kaiju sized turtle that looks an awful lot like Gamera.

I won't spoil anything, but I was disappointed by the ending. Not that I didn't know how it would end, being that I watched the original short. It's just the ending worked better in the short because it presented a different moral, the moral of acceptance and not fearing the unknown. In here, due to the rest of the film, the moral comes out a bit different and the moral presented in the short is not as prominent here. Instead it just feels like a typical happy family ending with no substance. Which leads me to say that this remake should have focused a bit more on the townspeople's fear of Sparky. After all, that is the tale of Frankenstein, is it not? And though I am somewhat saddened to say it, I think (SPOILER) Sparky should have died in the end of this one. It would have been a much more powerful ending, and it would have worked on many more moral viewpoints.

Oh, and at one point in the film the family is watching Chistopher Lee's Dracula. Kind of funny that they went with a Hammer Horror film rather than a Universal Monsters one, being that this film is based on Universal's Frankenstein.

This is one of Tim Burton's better recent films, not his best work, but much better than, let's say, Alice in Wonderland. It's the type of film we've come to expect from Burton. It's a fun film, worth watching. It's hard for me to imagine someone genuinely hating this. A somewhat unnecessary remake, but an enjoyable one. Great for the family.

Pros:

+Good atmosphere

+Visually superb

+Manages to evoke numerous emotions

Cons:

-Dull voice acting

-Boring ending

-Somewhat unnecessary remake

-Doesn't do anything highly original

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