To me, this movie is perfection.

Simply A Masterpiece

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

When Dr Frankenstein (Boris Karloff) decides to retire from the monster-making business, he calls an international roster of monsters to a creepy convention to elect his successor.Being a fan of Rankin and Bass from their Christmas specials, I thought this would have a lot of potential. Especially because I am huge in the horror community, and love its rich history. And yet, I was not terribly thrilled by the film.The characters were alright, and the animation we all love looks great. But I feel like it just has not aged well, primarily because of the music. The Christmas songs are classics, but the songs here are not terribly memorable. In fact, some are not even good.

Let me start by saying that I am a HUGE Boris Karloff and a cartoonist and animator as well'When I saw.the names of Harvey Kurtzman AS ND Jack Davis I knew I'm was in for a treat and was not disappointed. . You see, Harvey Kurtzman is co-creator of Mad in its comic book days and Jack Davis was one of their best artists. So when you look at the exceptional character design, you are looking at their work It is just as much fun as reading a Mad Magazine with its off-the-wall humor. Great fun and even my teenage son liked it which is AMAZING! My only complaint was the bizarre casting of Phylis Diller'Fun for kids, classic horror fans and Boris Karloff.

As a huge monster fan growing up (my first magazine subscription was Forry Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland), this movie was as Halloween as candy corn and sweaty plastic masks with cheap rubber bands; and I loved it! The plot involves a retiring Dr. Frankenstein (voiced by Boris Karloff; really!) having a monster bash on his island retreat to announce both his retirement and his last, great discovery (the ability to "destroy matter"...which looks like an A-bomb to us, but just go with it). His nerdy nephew Felix stands to inherit everything, and some of the monster "guests" want to muscle in on the action. Along the way, Felix falls for his uncle's Ann Margaret-ish lab assistant, Francesca. That's the story. Watching it as an adult, it's flaws are far more acute. Phyllis Diller as the "Bride of Frankenstein" has horrible dialog and is too obnoxious to bear, even for a kiddie film. The pacing is very uneven and too much time is wasted on set pieces that do nothing to advance the story. I think most kids today (esp. those who love the brilliant Nightmare Before Christmas; a film that was largely inspired by Mad Monster Party) won't have the patience for this. But....for me, a forty-something raised on this film, it was a VITAL part of Halloween memories; right up there with Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin! And I ate this film up; from the skeletal, Beatles-like band singing "Do the Mummy" to the Peter Lorre-inspired manservant. And the sheer joy of having living, "toy versions" of all the Universal classic monsters in one film (Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and even King Kong; though Kong is called "It" for legal reasons). These kinds of references will no doubt be lost on kids who've never heard of the Black Lagoon, Phyllis Diller or Peter Lorre, turning this into movie equivalent of the toy on the shelf that kids have outgrown and don't play with anymore. It's rather sad, because the character designs, the terrific color and lighting used, and the fond memories this film inspires really make it a keeper; if only for overly-sentimental forty-somethings who STILL think Halloween is the single greatest day of the year. Don't buy this one for the kids; if you grew up with it, buy it for yourself, look past its sometimes glaring flaws and prepare to immerse yourself in unabashed nostalgia. Trick or Treat!

Self-consciously cute, sometimes funny and sometimes just forced and silly, decidedly overlong all-star creature feature in Animagic from Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass, the folks who brought us the most enjoyable "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" around the same time. "Mad Monster Party?" (I never got the use of the question mark at the end of the title) certainly has its moments, but after the first third or so, we've got the idea and aren't necessarily hankering after another hour's worth of more or less the same. Possibly the length of "MMP?"--that of the typical live-action feature--is part of the joke, but I doubt it. The cutest and funniest character is Francesca, the husky-voiced, scarlet-haired vamp who has the movie's best lines. Edited by about fifteen minutes, it could have quite possibly earned 7 or even 8 stars (since I tend to be generous with puppets as it is); the way it stands, it's more than a curiosity but short of a classic. By all means worth a look, especially if you love the Bumble from "Rudolf" or that special's deformed inhabitants of the Isle of Misfit Toys, but just don't bring a set of high expectations, or you'll bound to feel a bit of a let-down...the way I did.