Monster Mash

I'd say this was the worst Halloween special ever made, except nobody ever saw it, and if they did, it was so forgettable that they probably didn't remember seeing it. The animation is low quality, often re-using animation. The songs are terrible, with the only one that was bearable being the titular song, and they do admittedly try to add a new touch to it by remixing it as a dance song, but it has no connection with the story itself. The characters have no character, especially the main family. The big running joke with them is that they're fat (hyuk, hyuk!) and all their personalities are stereotypes. Meanwhile, it sucks away all the dignity of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman, while completely misunderstanding the original stories (Frankenstein didn't WANT to scare people; it's like they've never even seen the original movie). The only characters that were likable were the villains, based on the Alien from Alien, Chucky from Child's Play, and one who was a combination of Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees; only problem is, they never get any development in it. The slapstick isn't funny, with its sloppy movement and predictable and corny jokes and gags making me believe that its creators need to take a lesson from Tom and Jerry. The voice acting is hilariously bad, taking talented voice actors such as Scott McNeil and Tabitha St. Germain and forcing them to read such bad dialogue with silly voices. But the worst part is the script, which at the end decides to deliver a heavy-handed message about how the old movie monsters are better and scarier than the new ones. No, after delivering such juvenile entertainment, you do not have the right to put a message like that. And it's a contrived one, too; the old monsters aren't better, they were scary for their time but then became less so, and then they were replaced but then those monsters became less scary, and then they were replaced afterwards, etc. By the year it was released (2000), the characters who the villains were based on had already decayed, so this movie was obsolete even at the time it was released. It's quite forgettable, and I think DIC Entertainment wants the audience to forget they ever saw it. They shoved it on the same DVD as two much more entertaining Halloween specials (from Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Archie), and it's quite short, just barely over an hour long. I guess it was intended for really little kids, but all I can say is, I feel sorry for the parents who have to watch it with them.