Before VanHelsing, there was... (can anyone id this show?)

[Eirik]

I'm remembering a TV special from when I was a kid (1970s)...  It was claymation and I forget the plot beyond the idea that all the monsters of the world were going to a castle on an island (possibly dracula's).  I distinctly remember the wolfman paddling a raft to the island.  The mummy, frankenstein, dracula, and many other monsters were in it.  I think the protagonists were a couple of kids.  Again, it was claymation, and no I am not mis-remembering the scene in "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" where the Easter Bunny goes to Halloween.  Anyone?

[odinn7]

Sounds like a nightmare episode of Davey and Goliath...

[Darkautumn]

Probably was 1967's "Mad Monster Party" made by the same people who did all those claymation holiday specials, Rankin Bass productions. The Wolf Man paddling the raft bit is definitely that movie. It was actually a theatrical release, not a TV special. It's available on VHS and, I think, DVD.

[JohnL]

I was thinking Mad Monster Party too, but it was puppets, not claymation.

Mad Monster Party

[BoyScoutKevin]

I, too, remember it as "Mad Monster Party." Interestingly enough, at www.imdb.com,,  some of the plot keywords used for the film are stop-motion, clay-animation, and claymation.  If it featured the voices of Boris Karloff and Phyllis diller, then we are all thinking of the same film.

[shibumi]

The Misfits used part of the movie for their video "Monster Mash" I think you can still down load the video off their website and it also tell you where to buy the movie.

[Lars]

Through the first six or seven minutes of this movie I kept waiting for a Goobers pitch. Go buy 'em in the lobby. Then I realized that the movie had started. It just never got any better.

Hugh Jackman fans may attend but they'll be dissapointed that he doesn't remove his shirt untill the last few minutes of this bad joke of a film. This does qualify as a "so bad it's good" flick if one goes to pot head home movie parties.

I want my money back!

Lars

[Darkautumn]

Yeah, Karloff was the voice of "Baron Frankenstein" and Diller was "The Monster's Bride." It seems everyone (myself included) refers to this film and all those holiday specials as "claymation" even though they were all technically stop-motion animation. Weird, huh?

[Mitch McAfee]

well actually, Rankin/Bass called their stop motion process ANIMAGIC.

[Eirik]

Thanks everyone!  

The people on this board have NEVER failed me.