So what the hell is my point? I am pissed off at the television channels that quit airing the old classic specials or movies and start airing the newer cartoon shit that doesn't even apply to the older generation. When they stop airing the shows that we look forward to every year, they erase any chance that that particular show will be liked by someone new, or that it could turn into a tradition like 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.' But alas, some of those old shows never got there. Here is a short list of TV specials and movies that I wish would get put back on the air:
![]() For all those who know me, I am very opinionated when it comes to Halloween on TV and in society life. I know I'm not the only one who has been cheated from seeing my favorite specials on my favorite day. I realize that the shows that appeared when I was a child aren't as popular with today's generation of kids, but they should still be made available for today's older kids.
So if you are a youngster (well, younger than me- I was born in 1980) who doesn't recognize many of the titles or names here- YOU DON'T BELONG HERE! *hehehe*
I also grade these shows not just on how good they are, but how easy it is to buy them on VHS or DVD, or finding them elsewhere.
![]() ![]()
Search and download torrents from your favourite bittorrent tracker using Ruby 1.9 - oleander/Torrents. UMG (on behalf of Walt Disney Records); LatinAutor - Warner Chappell, Rumblefish (Publishing), UMPG Publishing, LatinAutor, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA - UBEM, Walt Disney Music Company.
1. A Disney Halloween (1983) - This was a staple on Disney for years until about 1998. You all should remember this one. This was a compilation of Disney shorts and excerpts from some of their classic movies like 'Fantasia,' 'The Aristocats,' and 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,' just to name a few. It also explored classic Disney villains (with the help of the Magic Mirror, who narrates this portion), Halloween superstitions, and about all things that go bump in the night. I recorded this show many times, but all of my copies have been lost/destroyed/recorded over.
An interesting tidbit of information for ya- Did you know that there were two versions? The other version, with the more familiar title 'Disney's Halloween Treat', was released in 1982 and shown on the Disney Channel only a few times. Basically most of the clips are the same, but the layout and the 'hosts' are different. In DHT, the show is hosted by a talking pumpkin and is more kiddie-friendly. This is the only version that is sold on VHS. While both versions are enjoyable, older kids would like 'A Disney Halloween' (the Magic Mirror version) a lot better. In my opinion, they need to release both versions on DVD on the same disc so the viewer can choose which version they'd like to see, plus some vintage Disney scary cartoons like 'The Skeleton Dance' or 'Lonesome Ghosts'.
Entertaining: A Available on VHS only, but at high prices because of its rarity. Also available when you search Ebay! Disney's Halloween Treat @ The Big Cartoon DataBase Read my review of DHT at Amazon SIGN MY PETITION: Release 'Disney's Halloween Treat' and other old Disney Channel Favorites onto DVD!
ATTENTION DISNEY'S HALLOWEEN TREAT SEEKERS!
You can find both versions of this show online through various torrent sites. You'll need the program BitTorrent to download them. The quality of these aren't so good, as they were obviously ripped from old VHS recordings. Click on the links below to get them: Disney's Halloween Treat (1982) | A Disney Halloween (1983)
2. Witch's Night Out (1978) - An odd little rarity in Halloween cartoons! This was another gem that the Disney Channel used to show every year. A 'washed up witch' (voiced by the late great Gilda Radner) makes wishes come true for Small and Tender, two local kids who only wanted to have fun and scare people on Halloween. Their babysitter Bazooey gets caught up in the mix, and a witchhunt of sorts ensue when their plan works all too well! The animation here is unlike any conventional cartoon, and there is a lot of sarcastic humor too.
Entertaining: A Available in VHS only. Is occasionally found on bootleg DVDs on various websites, usually paired with 'The Night Dracula Saved the World' and other Halloween themed toons. The quality isn't bad either, so keep an eye out!
3. Frankenweenie (1984) - This was Tim Burton's first and only film for Disney. They fired him because they considered this too scary for family viewing and a 'waste' of their resources. When Burton became famous, however, this did not stop Disney from releasing a cut version onto VHS or showing it on the Disney Channel for several years. A young boy brings his beloved dog back to life after it is accidentally killed. Things are semi-back to normal, except when the townspeople mistake the dog for a monster and rallies a mob to kill it. But when it saves a boy from a burning house and dies again, the town realizes that it isn't a monster after all, and they band together to revive the dog. There is a happy ending!
Entertaining: B Available in VHS and is included (along with Burton's short toon 'Vincent') on the Collector's Edition of 'Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas'.
4. Garfield's Halloween Adventure (1985) - In his quest for 'candycandycandycandy!' Garfield takes Odie trick-or-treating and hilarity ensues. There are some cute song numbers here, and typical Garfield humor. This used to be on CBS for a long time.
Entertaining: A Available on DVD as part of a Garfield holiday collection, which can be found in retail stores as well as online.
5. The Legend of Hell House (1973) - You can sometimes catch this on video or TV, but not often. On the week of Christmas, an old and wealthy man hires two mediums and one physicist to discover once and for all if there really is such a thing as survival after death. Roddy McDowall (my favorite actor of all-time) and Pamela Franklin star as the two mediums who trek to 'the Mt. Everest of haunted houses' to find real proof of 'survival' and thus begins the battle within the house. Clive Revill is the stubborn and arrogant physicist determined to prove that electric magnetic radiation (EMR) is the true cause of Hell House's apparitions and phenomena, while Gayle Hunnicutt plays Revill's wife who gets tangled in the house's twisted and horrible past. It is based on Richard Matheson's very scary novel 'Hell House,' which is a must-buy for anyone (older than 17 due to sexual content) who loves a good read. This has a great story with lots of twists and chills...but it has somewhat departed from the original story so that it may be seen by a younger audience, as the book is definitely an 'adult' horror story. I can easily see this as being remade for today's audiences, but more faithful to the book. A Halloween staple at my house!
Entertaining: A+ Available in both DVD and VHS.
6. The Worst Witch (1986) - Not the TV show...this is the original movie with Fairuza Balk, Tim Curry, Diana Rigg, and Charlotte Rae. Mildred Hubble goes to a prestigious academy for witches, but is failing miserably. To top it all off, the headmaster Ms. Hardbroom and the top student Ethel Hallow make trouble for her constantly. After being expelled from school, she runs away and inadvertantly uncovers a plot by the principal's evil twin sister to rule the world. So she finally summons up her real powers and turns them into snails. Their plot is ruined when she takes them to the school and turns them back into people, much to the chagrin of Hardbroom. Her heroism is celebrated, and again there is a happy ending. This is a very cute movie for young girls- again another Disney staple for a few years. It is seldom that you see it on TV these days.
Entertaining: B- Available on both VHS and DVD.
7. Grinch Night (1977) - Also known as 'Halloween is Grinch Night', this is one of the few Dr. Seuss cartoons which didn't become a traditional TV favorite. It used to be shown on TV years ago, but it is another forgotten classic. The Grinch returns again to rule another holiday, this time it's Halloween! For Halloween is Grinch Night, after all. But it's up to a young Who, Euchariah, to stop the Grinch from wreaking havoc. The incomparable Hans Conried voices the Grinch and is also the narrator, much like Boris Karloff was for 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas.' This is a delightful romp for the senses, lots of great animation, and it does have the Dr. Seuss charm...but some of the graphics might be too 'scary' for really young children and parents should use common sense and good judgement.
Entertaining: B+ Available in VHS and on DVD as part of 'Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs & Ham (and other favorites)'.
8. The Night Dracula Saved the World (aka The Halloween That Almost Wasn't) (1979) - Who remembers this one? Judd Hirsch plays a delightfully annoyed Dracula who calls a meeting of the world's greatest monsters (including the Witch, the Wolf Man, the Mummy and Frankenstein's Monster) when a rumor is running rampant that Halloween will no longer be celebrated. The Count is furious that his fellow monsters have sold out to the commercial industries and have no longer become scary. In the meantime, the Witch has decided she's fed up with being reviled and disrespected, so she quits! Can Dracula and the other monsters convince her to fly over the moon on her broomstick at midnight? Or will Halloween be no more? This is a cute little short film which also features Henry Gibson as Igor and Mariette Hartley as the Witch. There is a hilarious disco scene at the end.
Entertaining: B Available in VHS only. Is occasionally found on bootleg DVDs on various websites, usually paired with 'Witch's Night Out' and other Halloween themed toons. The quality isn't bad either, so keep an eye out!
9. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949) - This may not be so forgotten, but you'd be surprised at who hasn't seen this classic Disney cartoon. Based on the story by Washington Irving, Bing Crosby narrates, sings and gives voices to almost all of the characters. Clips of this can be found on the previously mentioned A Disney Halloween/Disney's Halloween Treat, and pretty much any decent Halloween compilation special. Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow' pays a small homage to it in an early scene.
Entertaining: A Available on DVD as part of 'The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad'.
See any selections that you agree with me about? Write or email the TV Networks that used to show these wonderful classics and demand they be put back on the air. With enough demand, they may finally supply. With the crappy and pitiful shows they have been putting on, kids these days need to know what a REAL Halloween show is, don't you think?
'Disney's Halloween Treat' is a 1982 Halloween-themed episode of Walt Disney which originally aired on October 30, 1982.
Synopsis[edit]
The episode is narrated by a jack-o'-lantern puppet (voiced by Hal Douglas) and features a compilation of Disney short cartoons involving spooky or supernatural themes as well as excerpted segments of various villains from Disney feature films. The opening and closing credits feature an orange colorized version of the 1929 Silly Symphony short The Skeleton Dance as well as its own title theme song, sung in the opening and closing credits. The lyrics were written by Galen R. Brandt with music by John Debney.
Another similar special titled 'A Disney Halloween' aired in 1983 which incorporated segments from both 'Disney's Halloween Treat' and 'Disney's Greatest Villains' (1977). 'Disney's Halloween Treat' was rebroadcast throughout the 1980s up until the mid-1990s. It was also released on VHS in 1984. As of today, it has not been released on DVD or Blu-ray.
Featured segments[edit]
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Disney%27s_Halloween_Treat&oldid=902579246'
![]() Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2022
Categories |