December 2, 1967
Rankin & Bass
Musical, Children's, Fantasy
VHS
C-
While I grew up watching this as well as Mad Monster Party? on TV, it has aged even worse, perhaps because it uses flat animation rather than Cinemagic. The look of the film was designed by one of my least favorite MAD Magazine artists, Paul Coker, Jr. None of the characters, with the possible exception of M. Goose herself (designed to look a bit like Rutherford), have individuality or charm. A particular failure is the "beautiful" Princess Harmony. Even as a child, I found her noseless face and disproportionately huge hips strange. It also bugged me (then and now) how often the default facial expression is a smile, even in totally inappropriate situations. The only thing I sort of like in the animation is the landscape.
That said, I think this has a potentially stronger story than MMP, with the way the nursery rhymes are used to build a story. (MMP's plot, such as it is, is that Baron von Frankenstein throws a party to announce his successor, and the monsters scheme against each other.) Unfortunately, the whole thing of Mother Goose being away (beyond the moon, visiting her sister, who's got one of those porch-on-a-planet set-ups like the Blue Fairy and her mom in Pinocchio in Outer Space), and then having to come back as Goosus ex Machina wears thin. I also didn't like the gratuitous sexism of the Jack & Mary "friendship," and how he's heroic and she does nothing but acquire her loyal lamb, who later leads Jack to the rescue. It's as if Dorothy did nothing brave in Wizard of Oz, and Toto did only one brave thing. Why can't they all be heroic?
The music is OK, and the title tune may stay with you, but then it is repeated a couple times. Overall, you're better off watching MMP with low expectations than watching this at all.
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