Monster Mash (2000 film)

Monster Mash (Italian: Chi ha paura?) is a 2000 Italian-American direct-to-video animated musical comedy horror film co-produced by DIC Entertainment, L.P. and Rai Fiction. It is an original story, based on the lore of Frankenstein, the Wolfman, and Count Dracula.

Monster Mash
Directed byGuido Manuli
Written by
Produced by
Starring
Narrated byPhil Trainer
Edited by
  • Tom King
  • Ian Bartell
Music byJohn Carnochan
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Studios Home Video (North America)
RAI Trade[1] (International)
Release date
  • August 29, 2000 (2000-08-29)
Running time
60 minutes
Countries
  • Italy
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million

Plot

Drac, Frank and Wolf were the scariest monsters around, until they became associated with fun and other things happening like Drac no longer having his fangs and Wolf going bald. They end up summoned by the Superior Court of Horrors, where the judge orders them to prove that they are still scary by the end of 24 hours or they will be sentenced to an eternity entertaining at children's parties. Drac, Frank, and Wolf are assigned to scare the Tinklemeister family.

The Tinklemeisters soon end up assisting Drac, Frank, and Wolf into proving that they are still scary, even when the Grim Reaper Prosecutor sends three new monsters-Freddie de Spaghetti: King of Carbohydrates (a humanoid spaghetti monster based on Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees), Chicky the Doll of Destruction (a wind-up toy based on Chucky) and the Alien Eater-to make sure that they all fail in their mission.

Cast

Production

The film was originally titled Who's Afraid?, until the then-Disney-owned DIC Entertainment picked up the project from RAI as part of a four-year on-and-off deal between both companies. The movie's title was changed after DIC acquired the rights to the "Monster Mash" song, and brought along Judy Rothman Rofé to modify the script to suit American audiences. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment was originally intended to distribute the film, but backed out of the deal, with PolyGram Video acquiring home video rights, while Buena Vista Television held television distribution rights. The film has a $2 million budget.[2]

Songs
  • "Monster Mash" (Robert Pickett)
  • "Waiting for Spike to Speak" (Matt McGuire) – Mom, Dad and Stella
  • "The Heebe Jeebe" (McGuire, Karen Guthery)
  • "When We Were Bad" (Sandy Howell, Geoff Levin) – Frank, Drac and Wolf
  • "Monster Mash"
    • Funk Groove arrangement by David Pavlovitch
    • Country arrangement by Matt McGuire
    • Alternative Angst arrangement by Jason Michas

Release

Monster Mash was released on VHS on August 29, 2000, in the United States and Canada by Universal Studios Home Video as part of the Haunted House of Fun promotion.

The film saw a VHS and DVD release in Italy in October 2003 by Alfadedis Entertainment and Medusa Video.

In the United States and Canada, the feature was bundled alongside Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein, Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman and four episodes of Archie's Weird Mysteries as part of the Monster Bash Fun Pack DVD on September 7, 2004.

A standalone DVD was released by NCircle Entertainment in 2007, although it removes a metafictional moment towards the end of the film, as well as the "Monster Mash" music video, due to copyright issues with Universal.

References
  1. "Studios playing it safe in the pick-up game". Kidscreen.com. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  2. "Kidscreen >> Archive >> what's developing in kids production". Kidscreen. January 31, 1999. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  1. Animation outsourced to Phoenix Korea Animation.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.