Sunday 18 October 2015

Frankenstein: Maximum Voltage

Although first published nearly 200 years ago, the popularity of Mary Shelley's novel refuses to diminish.

Told through the eyes of Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) with James McAvoy as the Doctor, the delayed Victor Frankenstein is out in November.

The Frankenstein Chronicles is coming soon to a television screen near you.

Perpetuated by the evils of popular culture, Doctor's creation is largely slapped with erroneous name tag.

Hitting ignition.

Frank (Kevin James) is Mavis's uncle in successful 2012 fangtasy comedy Hotel Transylvania.

Seriously, watch out for fire.  Fire bad.
To everybody apart from best bud Drac, he's Frankenstein

On recently viewing slapstick-filled, but toothless sequel, I make the following observations.

1. After delivering unconvincing scare, strangers say something like "Hey look, it's Frankenstein."
2. When introducing himself to Drac's father Vlad (Mel Brooks), he claims Frankenstein, but then states 'technically' Frankenstein's Monster.
3. As per original, credits again state Frankenstein.

What the fuck ever.

Towards the end of festive Bottom episode Holy, Richie finds a baby dumped on his doorstep.  Feeling sorry for the 'not' abandoned little blighter, Spudgun and 'Little' Dave Hedgehog give their presents of Terry's All Gold and bottle of aftershave Grrr.

Eddie completes the Three Kings parody.

"He can have my Frankenstein mask I was gonna scare the shit out of Richie with later."
Red Dwarf was ruined after Series VI.

Hopefully I'll be proved wrong, but it's already certain new episodes will be awful.

Anyway...

Lister's pet cat Frankenstein is referenced during Series I and II.

Cat is worried about looking like the 'Bride of Frankenstein' in Series IV episode DNA.

When Rimmer condemns the crew to Quarantine in Series V, Cat's goof is this time corrected by Kryten.

"It won't be the waste disposal Frankenstein, this time I'm gonna unscrew your neck bolts and microwave your head."

Moving off topic, fun was sporadically made of the Lemming suicide myth and narcissistic feline used to call Lister a 'monkey'.

To be fair, his character is universally dumb so I'll let that one slide.

Different principle, but the same error was somehow inexplicably made in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, as one human labels Koba a stupid 'monkey'.

Steam-rolling on.

Treehouse of Horror XX begins with bullies Dolph, Jimbo and Kearney taunting classic movie monsters, including somebody in green make-up...
Fred Gwyne's Herman from classic TV show The Munsters was based on Boris Karloff. 
Garbage Pail Kid Undead Jed aka Frank N. Stein, is represented as a zombie.
When Krang is revived inside his new body, Turtles episode Shredder and Splintered pays direct homage to Colin Clive's iconic exclamation of triumph.

"It's alive!"

"IT'S ALIVE!"
Very clever.

Gene Wilder and Kenneth Branagh do the same in Young Frankenstein and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein respectively.

Robert De Niro gives a commanding performance as Creature/Sharp Featured Man.
This reaction from cyber punk cross-genre SNES classic Shadowrun is rather subtle.



If they meant it of course.

The Creature has been a recurring Castlevania pest as far back as the Belmont ancestry cares to remember.

Ignoring regular enemy, here's a few boss examples.

In PS1 'reverse castle' epic Symphony of the Night, he looks beyond ridiculous.


Not sure about purple blazer, but Portrait of Ruin's iteration was great.


Order of Ecclesia added muscle (and preposterous nukes), for altered persona Goliath.


My final example is Data East's zombie infested 1993 arcade exclusive scrolling brawler Night Slashers.


Frankenstein's Monster was an Atari 2600 game and PC/Saturn Myst lookalike Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster incorporated Tim Curry as the Doctor.

Along with clones and variations, Frankenstein's Monster has been a Marvel mainstay for decades.

However, the DC equivalent is strangely just called Frankenstein.

Zoinks! I nearly forgot to mention Scooby-Doo.

We all do stupid things when pissed, and giving Monster Brawl the time of day is one such example.

Fights end with fatalities so Voice of God (Lance Henriksen) giving Mortal Kombat style commentary shouldn't surprise.

Undead Heavyweight division boasts Frankenstein:


Oh dear!

A quote from 1987 classic The Monster Squad is of particular relevance.

"Is Frankenstein the name of the monster, or the guy who made him?"

"The guy."

Give those scriptwriters a well-informed high five.

However, things go downhill...

Tom Noonan as 'Frank' or 'Frankie'.
Oops!

To compound blunder further.


Based on Brian Aldiss' novel of same name, Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound shows how it's supposed to be done.


Probably influenced by Castlevania, Van Helsing typifies absurd popcorn entertainment.

Shuler Hensley as Frankenstein's Monster
Recruited only for fantastic reference, antagonist Gunther from Tobe Hooper's 1981 slasher The Funhouse uses a certain mask to hide horrific disfigurement.


Attractive.

The NES conversion of spooky house point-and-click Uninvited features Doctor Frankenstein's laboratory.


Hip hip fucking hooray.

Egor's objective in 1992 C64 arcade adventure Frankenstein is to retrieve body parts.


The Amiga version made task 'cuter'.


Years before Fahrenheit, note the 'Emotion' meter...
CRL's 1987 graphic text adventure Frankenstein was slapped with a 15 certificate for gory imagery.

Remarkably, you assumed the role of Doctor and Monster.
Here's Dr. Franken on Game Boy.


Notice the problem yet?

Known as The Adventures of Dr. Franken in North America, the 'Doctor' is too uncool for SNES school.


OH MY GOD!

Newspaper headline displaying embarrassing King Kong joke will push laughometer over the edge.


Monster Goes Ape?

That's right, but we're playing the Doctor.

I give up.

Ending shows the result of girlfriend Bitsy (honestly) pieced back together.
Er yeah, definitely a head scratcher.

Bandai brought Castlevania-esque North American NES exclusive Frankenstein in 1990.


Hang on, I thought this was subbed The Monster Returns?

(Sigh).

'Super' Frankenstein prepares to curl one out...
Bride of Frankenstein should be most famous for "We belong dead."

Interestingly, ambiguous title could be referring to Valerie Hobson (Doctor's wife) or Elsa Lanchester (The Bride), because Colin Clive's Henry and Boris Karloff's Monster are both at some point referred to as 'Frankenstein'.

52 years later, Ariloasoft ignored everything 1935 classic stood for (apart from unlicensed title), and challenged lady pants to find heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and brain.

You've gotta love artist's impression of Elsa Lanchester.


Representing player as salad dodging fitness junkie?
Awesome idea.
When all organs are got...
Like Nosferatu and Dracula, could Frankenstein Jnr. be an unauthorised adaptation of Son of Frankenstein?


Yeah, what a load of shit.

Viz Design surely hacked latter game and inserted new sprite.


As 'guy with the chin' is clearly the offspring of 'Monster', box art is made redundant.

Franken Zombie is a boss from first Ghost 'n Goblins remake Makaimura on Wonderswan.
Most combatants in Capcom's original Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors moonlight as movie beastie.

Morrigan (Succubus), Anakaris (Mummy), Demitri (Vampire) etc etc.

Not forgetting Victor (character) as Frankenstein (type).


WRONG!

Before running out of charge, cue music.

Frankenstein are tracks by New York Dolls and Lenny Kravitz.

Wayne's World features Alice Cooper performing Feed My Frankenstein.

The video of Queen's Bicycle Race contains a glaring visual error.

"I don't believe in Peter Pan, Frankenstein or Superman."
Space and Female of the Species also screwed up.

"Frankenstein and Dracula have nothing on you.  Jekyll and Hyde join the back of the queue."

As Frankenstein's Monster wouldn't fit music, how about replacing creator with 'Karloff' for revised lyrics.

Go on, don't be boring...

Whatever, journey over.

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