This is a scream of a film! This animated feature from the Rankin Bass stable has gained some cult cache over the years and apart from an airing on UK TV some years ago, Mad Monster Party remains a hard to find oddity.
Rankin Bass, well known in the USA, released mostly animated/stop motion TV specials celebrating seasonal tales and fairy stories in a very unique, very American way. This, their fourth movie, stars Boris Karloff and Phyllis Diller and revolves around a retirement bash organised by Dr Frankenstein with invited guests from the horror canon in attendance causing chaos and grooving out to The Mummy played by Beatle wigged skeletons. This film is supremely entertaining and the animation is simply beautiful. For a relatively unknown production, its influences can be seen all over modern animation in such works as the Tim Burton/ Henry Selick collaborations, The Nightmre Before Christmas and James & The Giant Peach and the Nick Park/Aardman material. Don't just take our word for it - check out this trailer:
Mark Ellis