The home media release is relegated to a simple VHS or, for anything more, a DVD compilation with Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein, Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman and four episodes of Archie's Weird Mysteries. An independent DVD release was issued by NCircle Entertainment in 2007.
For the live-action film, see Monster Mash (1995). A makeshift soundtrack is available here
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Tropes:
- Ambiguously Jewish: Wolf at one point states that he got his watch for his bar mitzvah, but is never directly stated to be Jewish. (Wait, a werewolf bar mitzvah?)
- Animated Musical: It's an animated film with five musical numbers.
- Ass Kicks You: Drac gets accidentally smacked a couple of times by Mrs. Tinklemeister's bottom during his attempts to scare her.
- Big Fun: Most of the Tinklemeisters are overweight, but very personable and friendly.
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: The original release ended with a music video setting clips of the film and old Universal horror films to the original Bobby "Boris" Pickett version of the titular song. The NCircle release omits the music video because of licensing issues.
- Dem Bones: There are a lot of animate skeletons.
- Dracula: Count Dracula, aka Drac, is one of the main characters.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After years of failing to regain their former glory, being forced to take demeaning jobs as entertainers, and almost being sentenced to an eternity working children’s birthday parties, Frank, Drac, and Wolf, with the help of Tinklemeisters, manage to get reinstated into the Ghoul Guild for life, with a testimonial from Spike on their behalf and get indicted in the monster Hall of Fame by scaring the three monsters that tried to have them thrown out of the Ghoul Guild.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Just before the finale, the three monsters and the Tinklemeisters laugh together.
- Expy: Freddie de Spaghetti is a pastiche of Freddy Kreuger and Jason Voorhees, while Chicky is most likely a reference to Chucky.
- False Teeth Tomfoolery: Drac is established to have false fangs because he never heeded his dentist's advice to "floss between mutilations", with some scenes having his dentures fall out for comic effect.
- The Film of the Song: An animated film based loosely on the song "The Monster Mash".
- Frankenstein's Monster: Frankenstein's monster, here named Frank, is one of the main characters.
- Friend to All Children: Frank is shown to be fond of children, as he is seen befriending a young girl in the opening narration, smiles when a human infant kisses him during the trial, and enjoys playing with Stella and Spike despite his attempts to scare them.
- Goofy Print Underwear: At one point, Mrs. Tinklemeister sucks off Drac's clothes with a vacuum cleaner, leaving him in black boxer shorts decorated with red bats.
- The Grim Reaper: The prosecutor of Drac, Frank and Wolf's trial appears to be the personification of Death, as he dons a shroud and wields a scythe.
- I Should Write a Book About This / Medium Awareness: Near the end, the trio become Hollywood producers and Wolf remarks that they should create an animated musical about their latest exploits.note
- Living Toys: One of the three modern monsters who antagonize Drac, Frank and Wolf is a sentient doll named Chicky.
- Mock Hollywood Sign: The song "Waiting for Spike to Speak" features a scene where the Hollywood sign gets demolished and is altered to read "Holy Cow".
- Monster Mash: The main characters are vampire Drac, Frankenstein's monster Frank, and werewolf Wolf. Opposing them are a trio consisting of a slasher made of sentient pasta named Freddie de Spaghetti, a Xenomorph Xerox called the Alien Eater and a killer doll named Chicky.
- Mummy: At Drac, Frank and Wolf's trial, their defense attorney is a mummy.
- Narrator: The story is narrated by a talking skeleton dog.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Chicky owns a remote control that can warp reality, one example being when she uses it to teleport Drac, Frank, Wolf and the Tinklemeisters into a swamp full of ferocious alligators.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Prosecutor unknowingly gave the monsters the opportunity to prove they still scary by sending the Modern Monsters to attack. With some help from the Tinklemeisters, Frank, Drac, and Wolf are restored to their old selves, and put the three modern monsters in their place. They are reinstated into the Ghoul Guild for managing the scare three fellow monsters.
- Perverse Puppet: One of the modern monsters is an evil wind-up doll named Chicky, the Doll of Destruction. She's a Captain Ersatz of Chucky, only differentiated by her green skin and other gender. She wears her hair in Girlish Pigtails, but one of the tails is the wind-up key. Her weapon of choice is a remote control with which she can change the environment around her.
- Shout-Out: On top of all the horror movie references, there's some other little nods that the kid audience won't understand.
- The monsters as first seen in the opening credits, as well as during "When We Were Bad", pose in a similar manner to Queen's Queen II album cover.
- Suddenly Speaking: At the end, Spike reveals that he can talk, explaining that he responded with whistling because reading about monsters at a young age made him too scared to speak.
- Take That!: Freddie de Spaghetti, the Alien Eater and Chicky are blatant potshots at modern monsters. The Tinklemeisters even remark that they lack the charm of the classic monsters like Drac, Frank and Wolf.
- Vampires Hate Garlic: After slurping up Freddie de Spaghetti, Drac remarks that pasta without garlic is his favorite kind.
- Was Once a Man: The prologue tells that Wolf is this, and if the rest of the film is any indication, he can't seem to turn back like werewolves in most other media can.
- Wild Take: Mrs. Tinklemeister's first scene has her eyes bug out in horror at catching a fly tracking dirty footprints on her window. She then intimidates the fly into wiping off his footprints.
- Wolf Man: Wolf is the Wolf Man of Universal Studios in all but name.
- Xenomorph Xerox: The Alien Eater is an obvious pastiche of the Xenomorphs from the Alien film series.
- X-Ray Sparks: Frank's skeleton is visible every time he is electrocuted.
