“The Big Scream” Cartoon

Monday, March 8th, 2010 — No Comments

A MIMP cartoon was announced in the Monster Mailer newsletter to premiere on ABC on Halloween morning–Saturday, October 31, 1992. Whether the cartoon ever actually aired or not is uncertain–most of the ABC Saturday morning children’s programming block was preempted by sports coverage that day.

The pilot episode (most likely the only episode produced) was made available on home video by Kidmark Video in 1993. Included with some videos was a 100 point Super Scary figure–in some cases Thunderdell, in others Hanuman or Charun–which was visible through a little cut-out window on the front of the box, which was designed to look like a pocket.

The cartoon itself was animated by Hanna-Barbera studios and features the voiceover work of Paxton Whitehead, Frank Welker and April Winchell, among others.

The story is very similar to that of the comic books, except that in this case Vampire is the leader of the bad monsters and Invisible Man the good, and the good monsters are sent to a young girl’s house rather than a young boy’s. The story follows the good monsters–Invisible Man (Dr. Davenport), the Monster (Big Ed), Werewolf (Wolf Mon) and Mummy)–as they try to find a permanent cure for their small stature. The bad monsters–Vampire, Medusa and Swamp Beast–who are responsible for shrinking the monsters make it their mission to seek out the good monsters and get them back for trapping them in Monster Mountain in the first place. They discover that the sound of a person’s scream charges their powers and makes them temporarily regain their size, so they seek out an actress from an old horror film and try to kidnap her to grow permanently large again.

There was a tie-in with Bob’s Big Boy restaurants where kids could pick up a fun pack with games, stickers and trading cards based on the cartoon as well as a rare series 3 monster (Abominable Snowman) with the purchase of a kid’s meal.

Related entries:

• Comic Books