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.

Plot

Drac, Frank and Wolf were the scariest monsters around and became a inspiration to monsters everywhere, but as the years go by, they lose their ability to scare in which they became associated with fun and other things happening like Drac losing his fangs resorting to wearing false fangs, Frank becoming soft around children and Wolf going bald. They all 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. The trio are assigned to scare the suburban Tinklemeister family.

However, the Tinklemeisters soon end up assisting the monster trio into proving that they are still scary, even when the Grim Reaper Prosecutor sends three modern monsters – Freddie de Spaghetti: King of Carbohydrates (a humanoid spaghetti monster based on Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees), Chicky: the Doll of Destruction (a reality warping wind-up toy based on Chucky) and the Alien Eater (a creature from another dimension based on the Xenomorph) – to make sure that they all fail in their mission.

Cast

• French Tickner as Drac, the king of vampires and leader of the group
• Scott McNeil as Wolf, the howling rockstar of the group
• David Sobolov as Frank, the stitched up muscle of the group
  • Sobolov also voices Alien Eater, a dimwitted big lipped alien from another dimension
• Janyse Jaud as Spike Tinklemeister, the youngest and smartest of the family who only communicates through whistling
  • Jaud also voices Mrs. Tinklemeister, the matriarch of the family who is obsessed with cleaning up messes
• Robert O. Smith as Mr. Tinklemeister, the patriarch of the family who is a professional dog groomer
• Patricia Drake as Stella Tinklemeister, Spike's fun loving older sister
• Phil Trainer as Yorick, a talking skeleton dog who is the narrator of the story
• Dave "Squatch" Ward as Freddie de Spaghetti, a hockey mask wearing monster that is made of pasta
• Tabitha St. Germain as Chicky, a possessed wind-up doll that can warp reality with her remote
• Phil Hayes as The Judge, the skeletal 'ogre' of the Ghoul Guild who likes to play basketball with his own head
• Jim Byrnes as The Prosecutor, the cloaked lawyer who wants to win the case against the main trio
• Ian James Corlett as The Mummy, the bandaged defense attorney of the main trio

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, alongside Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman and Archie's Weird Mysteries: Archie and the Riverdale Vampires.

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. This release of the film removes a metafictional moment towards the end of the film, as well as the "Monster Mash" music video, due to copyright restrictions with the song cover.

References

External links

• Monster Mash at IMDb
• Monster Mash at Rotten Tomatoes