What was your introduction to the Universal Monsters?

[HHN Maddux]

With the opening of Epic Universe, and of course with it Dark Universe, something I haven't seen talked about nearly enough: That land and Monsters Unchained will be the first introduction to the Universal Monsters for this generation and many more to come, a great one at that! The ride (as much as I do wish it pushed its scare factor more), manages to find a great balance between being thematically intense while staying lighthearted enough to not scare off any potential young fans permanently (or at least for a very long time!), and I find that beautiful to think about, especially with how important the monsters are to film history and pop culture.

Combine that with us now marking 10 years since Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue was shuttered and Dark Universe marking the return of the monsters having a prominent presence in the parks since then, I wanted to have a cool lil thread here just to talk about what our introductions to the monsters were, as I'm sure for many (myself included), they were also an introduction to horror period.

For me? It was my 4th birthday, which was a surprise trip to USF, and is actually my first full conscious memory! I still remember us going into Graveyard Revue, and Beetlejuice interacting with me in the pre-show, making me laugh. Once the show proper began and the monsters first came out, I was spooked, that's a scary dude in a cape, big scary green guy! But then, the Ghost with the Most worked his magic and transformed them into rockstars, and from there I saw them as just fun silly cartoon characters brought to life, and wanted to see the show again the next day! Still got scared before they were transformed, but I loved them, and that was my introduction to the Universal Monsters, and horror in general!

Let's hear your stories!

 

[bdubsCEO]

Don’t remember. They’ve just been part of my life as long as I can remember. If I had to guess, the Frankenstein episode of the Super Mario Brothers Super Show?

 

[TheUniC6]

IIRC, my first visit to UOR back in 2012 is what got me familiar with the Universal Monsters.

 

[Jerroddragon]

I'd assume seeing the Monsters at USH, then watching Frankenstein and young Frankenstein

I'd say Mummy also was a part of it (1999) and then Van Helsing

 

[Cwoolboy]

Probably watching the OGs as a kid (elementary school).

 

[belloq87]

My earliest memory of encountering the Universal Monsters was in kindergarten (so probably 1992ish); during one of our designated library periods, I expressed frustration to the librarian that there was nothing in the section designated for really young kids that interested me, so she asked what sort of stuff I enjoyed, and I guess I answered something to the effect of "monsters." She then took me to a different section of the library where these books were:

I checked out the Dracula, Wolf Man, and King Kong books to start, and when I brought them home, both my parents were pretty amused (they obviously already knew what kind of a kid I was). The books really hooked me, so pretty quickly after that, my parents took me to one of the mom-and-pop video stores in town (shout-out Just For Fun Video!), which had this entire line of VHS tapes...

From that point on, I was a Classic Monsters (and classic horror, in general) fan for life!

 

[Mad Dog]

You're all young ins ....Me.....Watching Dracula and Frankenstein movies on TV in the 50's and 60's. And the
fav was Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein (and the Wolfman).

 

[TheGentTrent]

There were a couple of crossover films with Alvin and the Chipmunks that aired frequently on Cartoon Network during the early 2000’s. That’s probably my earliest introduction to the characters.

 

[DOOMBOT]

Probably the Monster Mash? haha The UCM didn't really factor into my early childhood in any meaningful ways besides listening to that song around Halloween, so that's probably the very first time I encountered them.

Later though getting older with early Youtube, AVGN James Rolfe's Monster Madness videos got me familiar with a lot of classic horror films, Godzilla movies, etc. Those early seasons of that show were pretty entertaining at the time, and his passion for everything definitely made a big impression. Even with films I still haven't seen, I remember a good bit about them to this day, simply through his reviews and commentary.

As a younger person without a lot of direct access to older media like retro video games or classic film, Youtube was the primary way I learned about that stuff. It's been a broad, ongoing goal of mine to go back and properly experience for myself a lot of this media that I've learned about and grown attached to through cultural osmosis. Watching stuff like James' early work is a very major reason why I'm so passionate about this stuff today.