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Monster Movie Month: Frankenstein and Other Mad Scientists

Why is it that so many people are drawn to the tales of mad scientists? Their obsessions drive them beyond caring about notions of right and wrong; they go far beyond in testing the limits of what it means to create or alter life and humanity. From Victor Frankenstein to Dr. Moreau, mad scientists appear in literature and film again and again, warning us of the dangers of seeking knowledge out of selfishness and arrogance, and giving us visions of the horrors that can emerge from experiments gone awry.

The archetypal mad scientist is Frankenstein- the man, not the monster- who, once he has brought his terrifying creation, stitched together from stolen body parts, to life, abandons his responsibility to the frightened, innocent creature. The story behind the origins of the Frankenstein story is enough to capture the imagination, and since then, it has gone through many incarnations and interpretations. One of the most famous of these is the 1931 Frankenstein produced by Universal Pictures, reviewed here, but there are many more books and movies based on or inspired by Mary Shelley’s original novel. There are also many other resources on Mary Shelley and Frankenstein available.

But Frankenstein is hardly the only mad scientist in the movies. During the same time period that Universal produced Frankenstein, it also released Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man, and The Island of Lost Souls. Since then, audiences and readers have been treated to a variety of mad scientists in both movies and books, and as long as science has the potential to lead to disaster for humanity, that trend seems certain to continue.

For a list of Frankenstein-inspired movies, check out this page from Wikipedia.

For a list of “mad scientist” movies of varying kinds visit this page from Wikpedia

Here’s an entertaining entry on the Mad Scientist trope from TVtropes.com, and here’s a more thoughtful piece from Strange Magazine.

 

For watch-alikes and read-alikes to three great mad scientist movies released by Universal Studios, look below. And note, this is a great way to get someone hooked on the classics, on the screen and on the page.

Frankenstein(1931)

Watch-alikes: Bride of Frankenstein(1935), Son of Frankenstein(1939), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Read-alikes: Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, His Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppell (young adult), Angelmonster (young adult) by Veronica Bennett, The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein (nonfiction)

 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)

Watch alikes: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941),  Mary Reilly(1996), The Invisible Man (1933)

Read-alikes: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin, The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

 

Island of Lost Souls (1933)

Watch-alikes:  The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), The Fly (1986), Jurassic Park (1991)

Read-alikes: The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

 

Enjoy your visit, but don’t stay too long… you might not escape!

 

Posted on July 19, 2012 by , Reply

Monster Kid Request: Move Over, Judy Moody!

If you are a children’s librarian, or a school librarian, or anyone who works with upper elementary aged kids, you are probably familiar with Judy Moody. Judy Moody is one of the less annoying protagonists that appear in series books targeted to girls. She isn’t concerned with looks or popularity, she wants to be a doctor, and her concerns go beyond the superficial. I find her annoying anyway. She rolls her eyes and says “boring” a lot, and she’s not very nice to her younger brother, who she’s nicknamed Stink.

But Stink is now coming into his own. He has his own series of books, with witty cartoons (supposedly drawn by him) and fun stories that even manage to sneak in a little learning. These books are aimed at kids who are a little younger, and my kids, who are 4 and 6,  will sit and listen to me read a Stink book for over an hour. I can’t say I like everything about the books, but they are enjoyable and funny without having nearly as much name calling or gross humor as some other books aimed at kids this age.

What’s really interesting to me, though, is that the Stink Moody website has zoomed in on one particular book (that I haven’t read) and created a whole event kit around the theme. The book is Stink and the Midnight Zombie Walk and the event is… wait for it… Reading Is Undead. The kit even ties in last summer’s movie, Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, which, in addition to Stink’s extensive hunt for the elusive Bigfoot (which resulted in some pretty fun movie tie-in books that we do own, due to the Monster Kid’s obsession with Bigfoot and other cryptids) also has a fairly memorable zombie scene. Now, the Monster Kid is not allowed to watch zombie movies, and we try to tone the whole zombie thing down here, but there it is- another kid his age who gets into monsters, at probably the most age appropriate and non-gory way possible (yes, you may laugh at me now).

I think Stink and his friends could appeal to both girls and boys, especially because of the Judy Moody connection (the series is very popular) but, given how many books are already in the series and how many themes they address, I think it’s crazy fun that Candlewick Press is promoting reading, and the Stink Moody books, with cryptids and zombies. There are so many ways to get kids to read using this promotion, I encourage you to check it out, as well as the other Stink Moody books and resources, available here.

Posted on June 20, 2012 by , 3 comments

I Don’t Like Horror, But…

Barbara Vey at Beyond Her Book has written an interesting post that I quite agree with. It kind of goes along with why people like Stephen King- he’s a fantastic storyteller. And Vey’s premise is that that is the job of both books and movies- to tell a good story. If it’s a good story, even if it’s not “your kind of story”, it’ll capture you. If it’s not, it’s not gonna grab you, and it doesn’t matter if it’s the only kind of story you read, ever. Vey wrote about her experience with two different movies this week. The first, Mirror, Mirror, caught her interest because she’s been sucked into the addictive world of Once Upon A Time (okay, those weren’t exactly her words, but I’m there with her). So she was primed to like it… but found the characters unlikable and shallow, and the movie boring. Moral of that story: even if you want to like it, if the characters and plot can’t grab you, it’s not enough.

She also saw Cabin in the Woods. It’s probably unfortunate that this was billed as a horror film, since there are a lot of people who immediately dismiss a movie labeled “horror”. Vey says she “doesn’t do horror” but the story was good and the characters were interesting. She called it “funny and clever”. The fact that the story is good- that it’s not straight out gore, that the characters are relatable (and also that Joss Whedon is involved) means that even someone who assumes they can’t like horror, may be able to find something that appeals. Heck, even my mom, who is completely unenthusiastic about horror in all of its forms, finally found a movie, The Selling, that she thinks is totally great.

If you want to catch the folks who don’t like horror, you do what Cabin in the Woods, and what Stephen King, have figured out… get past the genre label and tell a fantastic story. And getting fantastic stories, however they’re billed, into the hands of readers, watchers and library lovers of all kinds? That’s what it’s all about.

Posted on April 27, 2012 by , Reply
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