Q & A with Matthew Hahn, author of The Animated Universal Classic Monsters
What is the book about?
I have attempted to catalogue every cartoon featuring an animated caricature of a Universal Classic Monster. There are seven main monsters—Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Wolfman, the 1943 Phantom of the Opera, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon—plus the Bride. There was a total of approximately forty classic monsters, and we cover about a dozen of them in animation.
What do you mean by “animated caricatures”?
In the 1930s-50s, no movie show was complete without a cartoon, and exhibitors preferred ones with either an established character, like Bugs Bunny, or an exaggerated likeness of a celebrity, or preferably both. This tradition continues today in television shows such as The Simpsons and Family Guy. The Universal Classic Monsters, coincidentally, were at their apex at this time, and not surprisingly, they frequently filled the bill.
I’m still confused. Is this a picture book? Did you do the animations?
It has pictures, but it is not a coffee table book. Its value is documenting all known animations featuring the monsters, including theatrical cartoons, TV, games, music videos, commercials, and fan films. The animations are done by some of the greatest of all time, including Walt Disney, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Frank Tashlin, Walter Lantz, Dave Fleischer, and Matt Groening.
How did the book come to be?
In 2017, I wrote The Animated Marx Brothers, and I followed it up in 2019 with The Animated Peter Lorre. My publisher, Ben Ohmart, started calling it a “series.” I was casting around for a subject for my next installment, and I had several ideas. But when I went to the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention to promote the Lorre book, Ricou Browning, the original Creature from the Black Lagoon, was the guest of honor and I saw the love people had for him and for all the monsters. It was a no-brainer for my next one. And there’s no dearth of material. I completed the first two in less than a year each, but this book has more cartoons than the other two put together, and is longer, too. It is in ten point type because it otherwise would have been two volumes!
What is the audience for this book?
Everybody knows the monsters, even children. Ask a four-year old to imitate Dracula or Frankenstein’s Monster, and he’ll pretend to bite your neck or stomp around with his arms out in front of him. They are part of the zeitgeist. That kid doubtlessly learned about the monsters from cartoons, as did I, and probably you, too. Everybody loves cartoons. Even if you’re not a monster kid re-living his childhood, there is enough background on the monsters, the actors, and Universal to make the book clear. I also give the availability of the toons so you can watch along as you read, even with your kids. Many, perhaps most, are on the internet!