A Fifth of Friday

It's Friday, so that means it's time to kick off this season's first theme weekend: songs from animated horror comedies!  And to start, I'm digging way back in the vault to pull out that cobweb-covered Rankin-Bass opus, Mad Monster Party.

Made by the same folks who made the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman specials that still make an appearance on national TV every year, Mad Monster Party was written by the creator of Mad Magazine and the characters were designed by an artist from Mad.  The cast is star-studded, with the main character (Baron Boris von Frankenstein) played by Boris Karloff and the Monster's Mate played by the late and very great Phyllis Diller.  Even the title song has star appeal -- it's sung by jazz singer Ethel Ennis.
  

The movie was enormously influential on Tim Burton's animation, as we will all be able to see in the full-length version of Frankenweenie that opens this weekend. 

So if you like ghastly puns, classic monsters, and stop-motion animation as much as I do, seek out Mad Monster Party!  Until then, enjoy Phyllis Diller dancing with a mummy to Little Tibia and the Fibias...