Original New York Times review

Mad Monster Party (1968) Screen: 'Monster Party':Local Theaters Show Animated Feature By HOWARD THOMPSON Published: March 8, 1969 MOST of the so-called kiddie movies unloaded on weekends at neighborhood theaters are absurdly awful. But "Mad Monster Party," which Avco Embassy is showing today and tomorrow, at matinees only, is another matter entirely. In this peppery and contagiously droll little color package, a collection of animated puppets scamper across some clever miniature sets, exchanging sass and barbs and occasionally warbling some sprightly tunes. The rubbery-faced puppets themselves are modeled after the best-known movie "monsters," including the Wolf Man, Dr. Jekyll, Quasimodo, Yetch (Peter Lorre), Dracula, and Frankenstein's Monster. What a party list for a weekend on a Caribbean isle, where Baron Frankenstein has summoned his old pals to name his successor. This is his nephew, an All-American boy who soon yearns for his uncle's secretary, a delectable doll of a redhead. The jealous monsters then cook up some intrigue. The picture clips along breezily in a flow of wise-cracks and slapstick. And the voices applied to the animated figures—Boris Karloff and Phyllis Diller are credited with their own—are a riot. So are a banquet scene and a kitchen tour when the chef (Mafia Machiavelli) ticks off the menu. Add a red-hot rock quartet of beatle-mop skeletons. King Kong drops by for the finale, a takeoff on that monster classic, complete with toy airplanes. But the two funniest party guests are Count Dracula ("Time for my coffin break") and Miss Diller) "Boy, do you need a manicure!" she tells the Wolf Man, after he kisses her hand) As directed by Jules Bass and produced by Arthur Rankin Jr. with some gifted technicians, this party should make everybody chuckle, the tots and their escorts, and even the monsters at heart. The Program MAD MONSTER PARTY, directed by Jules Bass; produced by Arthur Rankin Jr.; a Rankin-Bass Production, presented by Avco Embassy. At neighborhood theaters. Running time: 93 minutes.