I picked this up as a 2-pack (bundled with "...meet the Wolfman") at my local video store for a bit of Halloween in July. I'd watched the Wolfman cartoon a few days prior and was impressed with the quality -- It was a monster movie made for kids, and it didn't feel the need to lower the spook-factor for their sake -- and I was hoping the Frankenstein feature would be up to the same par.
Looking for some Franken-fun, I popped the DVD back in tonight to watch this film. Unfortunately, on this DVD 2-pack, if the Wolfman feature was the treat, this one was definitely the trick. Whew boy, just minutes into this film and I could tell it was going to be a stinker. Rather than feeling like a monster movie, this one was a poorly-crafted movie that happened to have a monster in it at times. It took a horribly cliché moral lesson that would take only 30 minutes to tell, maximum, and stretched it into a feature length movie, filling the extra time with diversions that lacked any focus whatsoever. The entire story felt disjointed because the film's creators thought that they had to go on wild, manic tangents that had nothing to do with the movie just to keep the kids' attention. Unfortunately, all this did was diminish any interest the audience may have had in its already-weak story.
I understand that it may sound like I'm forgetting that this was aimed at kids, and I may have looked past all of these shortcomings if the other Chipmunk monster movie weren't such a solid film.
Looking for some Franken-fun, I popped the DVD back in tonight to watch this film. Unfortunately, on this DVD 2-pack, if the Wolfman feature was the treat, this one was definitely the trick. Whew boy, just minutes into this film and I could tell it was going to be a stinker. Rather than feeling like a monster movie, this one was a poorly-crafted movie that happened to have a monster in it at times. It took a horribly cliché moral lesson that would take only 30 minutes to tell, maximum, and stretched it into a feature length movie, filling the extra time with diversions that lacked any focus whatsoever. The entire story felt disjointed because the film's creators thought that they had to go on wild, manic tangents that had nothing to do with the movie just to keep the kids' attention. Unfortunately, all this did was diminish any interest the audience may have had in its already-weak story.
I understand that it may sound like I'm forgetting that this was aimed at kids, and I may have looked past all of these shortcomings if the other Chipmunk monster movie weren't such a solid film.