Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Cartoon Halloween Specials

I’ve been thinking about cartoons and Halloween this month. It’s easy to find Christmas specials. Not only do you have things like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but most cartoons do some sort of special where they present A Christmas Carol. Halloween is different. Halloween often gets overlooked in the cartoon world, and when it doesn’t, few of the Halloween specials are memorable. . . save one: The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” episodes.

I think the reason the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes resonate, whereas other Halloween specials don’t, is that the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes are a different animal than your average Halloween special.

When most cartoons do Halloween specials, they are typically just the characters doing one of their standard episodes while they are dressed in costumes. If they really want to be daring, the writers may inject something “spooky” like cartoon witch who has cast a spell over one of the characters or something along those lines. This is rarely very interesting or memorable because it’s basically just another episode or, even worse, it’s just a fake episode. Moreover, at no point does it really get into the spirit of Halloween except at the very childish trick-or-treat level: “Gee, Scooby, let’s go trick or treating! Oh no, a witch has cursed us and if we can’t get enough candy by midnight then we’ll turn into frogs!” Hmm. Yawn.
The “Treehouse of Horror” episodes are different. These are really clever little parodies of famous horror films using the Simpsons’s characters. Because of this, their stories are more sophisticated. They tend to be more adult as well. And they tread much closer to horror than other cartoons dare to go, yet they are lampooning the horror, so they are still accessible to children.

Further, these aren’t just parodies in the Scary Movie sense. These are still social commentaries as well and that lifts them above just being a cartoon. For example, in the episode where Lisa wishes for world peace and everyone throws away their guns, Kang and Kodos enslave humanity. Then Mo get angry and attacks them with a plank with a nail in it. Soon Kang and Kodos are on the run, but the story ends with Kang and Kodos prophesizing that: “They’ll make bigger boards and bigger nails, and soon, they will make a board with a nail so big it will destroy them all!”

That’s a pretty laughable idea, but it also touches upon things like the silliness of disarming the good guys, the futility of gun control, and the part of human nature that often gets us ahead of ourselves. And that gives this episode the kind of depth that makes it memorable, both through the combination of the parodying images which remind us of other films we know and love and the addition of the commentary which gives us something to think about and talk about later. An episode about a witch hypnotizing someone who is trick-or-treating just can’t compete with that.

This is why “Treehouse of Horror” episodes are so memorable and so little else is.

Thoughts? What are some of your favorite Halloween episodes?

22 comments:

Kit said...

Their Shining parody remains genius. And I've never seen The Shining!

Kit said...

No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy. No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy.

AndrewPrice said...

Kit, It is. I can quote half of that episode and I haven't seen it in 10 years, it's that memorable. And in terms of you never having seen "The Shining," yet knowing what they are talking about, that just shows how iconic that film is and how well they chose the moments to parody.

Tennessee Jed said...

the one that comes to mind is Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. I assume that was a special

AndrewPrice said...

That's a good one Jed! That may be the single most memorable special.

Rustbelt said...

Andrew, I can only agree with you partway about 'Treehouse of Horror.' True, this series-within-a-series started off great and was something to look forward to. Nowadays, I don't care that I've missed several years' worth of episodes.
Like Kit, I can't get enough of the "The Shinning." (Though my favorite episode would have to be "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace.") Unfortunately, this series peaked around episodes IV through VII.
After that is what I call the mediocre period. Instead of witty and clever writing, the writers seemed more interested in sight gags ("The Island of Doctor Hibbert," "I've Grown a Costume on Your Face"), pointless/lousy celebrity cameos- Lucy Lawless ("Desperately Xeeking Xena"), Tom Arnold ("Life's a Glitch, Then You Die"), Pierce Brosnan ("House of Wacks"), and Dennis Rodman (the aforementioned "I've Grown a Costume on Your Face"), etc.- and just plain stupidity ("The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms").
Then came 2006 and the writers let the liberal cat out of the bag. Episode XVII ended with "The Day the Earth Looked Stupid," where Kang and Kodos invade in a 'War of the Worlds' parody, only to end with Kang complaing that they were supposed to be welcomed as liberators. Nice way to be subtle about the politics. That was the last episode I watched.
Then came 2008 when Homer goes to vote. (I saw this on the news.) He pulls for Obama and it comes up McCain. Homer complains about the system being rigged against his candidate. Matt Groening tried to explain it as parodying irregularities with voting. Yeah, right.
Then, just last week, I read the synopsis for episode XXII (2011). IN "Dial For Diddly," Ned Flanders kills people believing God tells him to do so. It turns out its Homer, who tells Ned there is no God; only for God to actually show up, but tell everyone that Satan runs Earth; and its revealed that Ned's dead wife, Maude, is 'involved' with the devil.
That did for me. This episode isn't funny. It's about bullies going after easy targets- an attack job, if you will, by writers with an ax to grind that reaches levels of Seth MacFarlane-esque anger and mean-spiritedness. (One critic even said this episode was a strong argument for cancelling 'The Simpsons' altogether.)
So, from genius to mediocre to liberal tool to anger outlet. How the mighty have fallen.

AndrewPrice said...

Rustbelt, In truth, I agree with you and I probably should have mentioned "early" Simpsons. I stopped watching the new ones some years back and don't really think about the new ones because every time I've seen a new one, it's a waste of time.

Rustbelt said...

But just so you know that I'm not just a grumpy critic, here are some Halloween Specials I do like. Hey, this is one of my favorite times of the year!

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow- Classic Disney version with the most memorable Headless Horseman to date.

Halloween is Grinch Night- Looks like that whole "grew three sizes that day" didn't last very long.

When Halloween Was Forever
Peter: Don't you just love it how they light up the trees at Christmas?
Ray: I don't know. I mean, every year earlier and earlier, I- Peter! It's NOT Christmas!
Peter: Uh, then we're in serious trouble, aren't we? (proton packs fire)

The Halloween Door- Another Real Ghostbusters episode. I remember this one airing in primetime when I was a kid.

Lonesome Ghosts- Who ya' gonna call? Why, Mickey, Goofy, and Donald, of course!

Rob S. Rice said...

I have a few fond memories, but I'll start with a 'Me too' on 'Halloween is Grinch Night,' to which the movie owed a LOT. I always figured that since Halloween comes before Christmas, so did THAT storyline... I caught last year's 'Treehouse' with a boring and unfunny 'Avatar' poetry, which I suppose reflected 'Avatar...' How about Leonard Nimoy doing the creepy voice of Moundshroud in 1993's 'The Halloween Tree?' Bradbury and Halloween... Two great things that go great together...

AndrewPrice said...

Rustbelt, October is my favorite time of year too... leaves changing, fresh apples, cold nights, and horror films as far as the eye can see! :)

On the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I love those old Disney shorts.

AndrewPrice said...

Rob, I didn't know they'd done a Grinch Halloween story until a few years ago and I enjoyed it very much.

Backthrow said...

Besides It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, my favorite animated Halloween TV special is the already obscure and forgotten Tales from the Far Side, from October 1994. Kind of amazing that it didn't become a network holiday tradition, or that it never got a home video release, considering both the wild popularity of the comic strip panel and the dearth of memorable Halloween cartoon specials out there.

The earlier Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes are great (my all-time fave is the segment in one where Homer invents the 'Time Toaster'), although I think holiday episodes of regular TV series are a slightly different animal than true, stand-alone specials like Charlie Brown and The Grinch. Same deal with holiday-themed theatrical cartoon shorts, such as LONESOME GHOSTS, though of course some from Warner Brothers were re-purposed for thematic TV specials in the 1970s/1980s (which I never liked very much... I likes my Looney Tunes in 'pure' form, with no edits or new bridging animation).

I guess Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow was later re-released as a stand-alone short, and for Halloween editions of The Wonderful World of Disney, but it was done originally as part of the eature ilm, THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD & MR. TOAD. It was truly a high point of Disney's late-1940s output, and easily the stronger half of that film.

tryanmax said...

I didn't know they'd done a Grinch Halloween story until a few minutes ago!

It's funny, I was just thinking about downloading all the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes from Amazon. I like The Simpsons, but those are about the only episodes I'd care to own. In fact, at one time I had all the "Treehouse" episodes (to date) on a three-VHS set. Don't know what happened to those... Anyway, even though they've fallen off, I still enjoy them.

My all-time favorite Halloween special is Garfield's Halloween Adventure. "Candy, candy, candy, candy!"

Finally, I have to second Backthrow's remark about Looney Tunes. Bridging animation stinks. Just run a series of Halloween themed shorts and throw commercials in-between.

AndrewPrice said...

Backthrow, I never even heard of Tales From The Far Side. Thanks for the link! Larson is great. I can't wait to watch this.

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, I haven't see the Garfield special. I can imagine it would be about getting candy though... or lasagna. LOL!

I agree about bridging animation. It turns a cartoon into a clip show, and those stink.

tryanmax said...

Backthrow, FYI, Tales from the Far Side (and the sequel) did get a home video release. I have the VHS tapes to prove it. I need to get them transferred to digital before they go bad. You can find them on Amazon for $70 apiece. But I think they were a little too weird to become an annual tradition. You could probably do a little googling and find them on YouTube or something like that.

tryanmax said...

I should clarify, you can probably find the sequel, as you already did with the original. I think it was creatively titled Tales from the Far Side II.

Backthrow said...

Tryanmax,

Oops, forgot completely about VHS... still, weird that a couple of Far Side specials didn't make the leap to DVD as well. And, as you predicted, here's Tales from the Far Side II on YouTube, just uploaded a few days ago.

Anonymous said...

Halloween isn't really a big (or medium) thing in Australia. In some areas where there are a lot of kids people do it, but mostly it's ignored. So the specials never really stuck with that much.

Scott.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, I had no idea. Halloween is one of those things that I thought had either caught on everywhere or had a local equivalent already.

Anonymous said...

Well unless you visit during that holiday you wouldn't know and we have no local equivalent. Because we get American TV and movies we know about it, it's just celebrated in small pockets. And the Halloween specials don't even get shown here at Halloween (we used to get American Christmas specials months before or after Christmas). It's just the way TV is scheduled.

As a kid I did the trick or treat thing once (I wanted lollies), but we lived in a rough area and I got beaten up by three 12 years old kids (I was about 8) and after that I didn't really celebrate the holiday.

Scott.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, That's unfair. Well, I'm sorry other kids ruined it for you. Americans enjoy Halloween a lot. It's probably our most "fun" holiday because the whole thing is about letting loose and having fun.

In terms of Christmas specials, we get those too pretty much starting the moment Halloween ends.

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