In the 1960s, the iconic Universal horror films from the 1930s and 40s lived on through television and all the kids saw them and knew about them. So, a fresh stop-motion animation tribute to it all from Rankin-Bass (coming off a hit with their Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special that still plays today) was an idea made from solid gold. Boris Karloff is Dr. Frankenstein, in voice and in sculpted puppet likeness, and he’s the head of “The Worldwide Organization of Monsters”. He’s also about to retire and pass on everything to his milquetoast nephew, who’s played as a Jimmy Stewart tribute. That means that all of the other monsters have to get this interloper out of the way so they can take the Frankenstein castle and all of the man’s scientific advances for themselves. The gang’s all here, from a Bela Lugosi-impersonation Dracula to The Wolf Man to The Invisible Man to all of the others. They even throw in a Peter Lorre zombie for good measure. It’s lighter than air, it’s silly, it’s non-essential, it’s the 1940s ultimate monster mash-up musical-comedy that never was.