Something to Lift Your Spirits: Casper’s Halloween Special

By Michael Lyons

You just can’t watch “It’s the The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!” One more time...but what other Halloween TV Specials are out there?  “Garfield’s Halloween Adventure?”  Seen it!  

How do you satisfy the need you may have for marginally animated Halloween fare?  Consider spending half an hour with the Friendly Ghost (“the friendliest ghost you know”).

“Casper’s Halloween Special” debuted forty years ago this month, on October 30, 1979.

A most innocuous special that focuses on Casper helping save Halloween for a group of innocent orphans (yup, you read that correctly) who have their trick or treating threatened by the villainous ghosts Hairey Scarey and Screech Ghost, as well as Winifred Witch.

The show is the perfect vehicle for the character of Casper, the ghost who doesn’t want to scare and just wants to be accepted.

This special comes to us from Hanna-Barbera, during their “Golden Age” as the kings of limited TV animation.  The Studio didn’t invent Casper (he had been around since the late ‘30’s in theatrical short subjects).  Hanna-Barbera obtained the rights to Casper in the late ‘70’s, giving him a “re-boot,” of sorts with a new Saturday Morning series, “Casper and the Angels,” that paired the Friendly Ghost with a “Charlie’s angels”-like group.

During this time, Hanna -Barbera also produced two prime-time Casper specials (there was also “Casper’s First Christmas” that paired him with Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and some other of the HB Stars).

“Casper’s Halloween Special” hasn’t had the lasting cultural impact of “The Great Pumpkin,” the story is VERY simple, the songs somewhat forgettable and the animation is...well...very Hanna-Barbera.

But, even with that, there’s a charm to “Casper’s Halloween Special”; Hanna-Barbera animation from this time period is like TV comfort food. And the basic story of Casper helping kids on Halloween night has a certain “niceness” to it as a reflection of an innocent time gone by (the subtitle of the special is :”He Ain’t Scary, He’s Our Bother,” a riff on a famous ‘60’s song).

Long before he was CGI and hanging out with Christina Ricci, there was “Casper’s Halloween Special.”  Give the ghost a chance this season...then, you can go back to “The Great Pumpkin” for the 1,057th time.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Sources:

Wikipedia

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With a Hip, Hip and a Clippidity Clop: The 70th Anniversary Of “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad!”

By Michael Lyons

In the pantheon of iconic scenes from Disney classics like “Pinocchio,” “Cinderella,” “The Little Mermaid” and “The Lion King” one must reserve space for the kinetically animated sequence in which The Headless Horseman pursues Ichabod Crane.

The sequence has also become synonymous with this Halloween time of the year.  In fact, Disney’s Headless Horseman stands alongside The Great Pumpkin and Michael Myers as a symbol that the season is upon us.

Many who have seen Disney’s take on author Washington Irving’s tale “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” may not realize that it was originally part of a feature film from the Studio called “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.”

Released on October 5, 1949, the film came at the end of what had been a challenging decade for Walt Disney and his Studio.  During this time of financial belt-tightening, Walt kept animation going at the Studio by producing “package films.”  These were feature length films that didn’t essentially have a clear cut story, but instead were a compilation of short subjects.

“The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” was the last of these “package films,” serving as a double feature, in which the first half of the film is an adaptation of author Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind and the Willows” and the second part is an adaption of “Sleepy Hollow.”

Both parts are introduced in the film by the framing device of a library.  “Mr. Toad” (a/k/a “The Wind in the Willows”) is narrated by actor Basil Rathbone, best known at the time for portraying Sherlock Holmes.

He relays the story of J. Thaddeus Toad, who is always looking at the latest fad, in this case a motor car.  This “motor mania” causes him to lose his mansion Toad Hall and he must call upon his put upon friends Mole, Rat, Badger and Cyril Proudbottom the horse, to help him get it back.

The “Mr. Toad” section moves too quickly to emotionally engage the viewer, as other Disney films have, but it is a perfect study in how compelling personalities and fast-paced animation can carry a story.

Toad, with his clueless eccentricity, the kind Moley, the grinning villain Winky and the fast paced Weasels are all so fun to watch.  The culminating chase scene between all of the characters is a masterpiece of frenetic animated staging.

“Mr. Toad” is entertaining Disney story telling at its best, with subtle themes about friendships and how looking to the horizon and “what’s new” can have its pitfalls.

We go back to the library as none other than the world famous crooner Bing Crosby sings and tells the tale of “Ichabod” (a/k/a “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”).

We learn of the gangly schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane, who comes to the small town of Sleepy Hollow in New York, taking the locals by surprise.  He falls for the beautiful Katrina and is the bane of the villain, Brom Bones, the burly bully of the small town.

Then, on Halloween night, at a barn dance, Ichabod learns of the local legend of the Headless Horseman.  And on an dark, eerie horse ride home from the dance, Ichabod comes face to face with the Headless Horseman himself, who tirelessly pursues Ichabod through a terrifying ride that shifts the tone of the film from playful to horrific.

The “Ichabod” section is pure Disney animation magic even before the closing chase scene.  Bing Crosby’s soothing voice and sly commentary adds to the fun and the songs composed by Don Raye and Gene de Paul are some of the most catchy and underrated from the studio, particularly “The Headless Horseman” song, as performed by Brom Bones.

The song not only stays with you, but also sets up the scary segment that’s to come (“With a hip,hip and and a clippity clop/He’s out looking for a top to chop!”)

And that final sequence between Ichabod and the Headless Horseman truly delivers.  Animated by Disney Legend Wolfgang Reitherman, the sequence is a masterpiece of staging;  a horseback ride that turns into a terrifying roller coaster-like attraction with Ichabod tossed around, at one point even riding with the Horseman himself.

With the Horseman’s high pitched cackle and flaming pumpkin in his hand, along with the sequence featuring no dialogue or narration, just sound effects and impactful images (claw shaped clouds close around the full moon), it’s no wonder that this scene has become the stuff of childhood nightmares and so closely associated with Halloween.

In fact, the entire “Ichabod” section just FEELS like Halloween: from scenes of the fall-colored trees lining the river to the corn stalk decor at the barn dance.

It would be decades before the full-length “Ichabod and Mr. Toad” would be seen again, after its initial release, as both segments were edited and shown as short segments on TV and home video.  This was particularly true of “Sleepy Hollow,” which was trotted out each year as part of Disney’s Halloween television specials.

Celebrating its 70th anniversary this month, it’s no wonder that “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” has endured, especially as a perfect Halloween offering, with the Mr. Toad section as a niece bonus.

And, of course, there’s that final sequence with the Headless Horseman, summed up perfectly in the song;

“Don’t try to figure out a plan

You can’t reason with a Headless Man!”

Sources:

“The Disney Villain” by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston

IMDb

Wikipedia

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Drop Dead Fred: The 35th Anniversary of “A Nightmare on Elm Street”

By Michael Lyons

Nightmares are an unsettling and ambiguous part of our nightly sleep patterns that have been examined for centuries.  As such a disturbing part of a good night’s sleep, many times forgotten by morning, they’re an aspect of our life that filmmakers have had challenges capturing on screen...until Wes Craven came along.

The masterful horror film director gave nightmare images a feel, a place and a persona with his 1984 film “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”  Additionally, the film gave the world Freddy Kreuger, who has sliced his way into the zeitgeist and pop culture, becoming one of the horror genres most indelible characters.  

This fall, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” marks its 35th anniversary, making this Halloween Season the perfect time to drift off and look back at what has become a horror movie masterpiece.

The film, borrowing the horror movie/slasher model of such late-70’s and early-80’s films as “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th,” centers on teenager Nancy Thompson (Heather Lagenkamp) who, along with her friends, finds herself having recurring dreams where she is pursued by a badly scarred man, wielding a glove of razor sharp finger knives.  She soon finds that her friends (one of them played by Johnny Depp in his first major film role) are having the same dreams.

Nancy’s mother shares with her that the man is Freddy Kreuger, a brutal child murderer who was burned alive by vigilante parents and now he has come back for the children, coming for them when they sleep, in their nightmares,“picking them off,” one by one.  Nancy then looks for a way to fight back and defeat Freddy.

An original and ingenious film, Craven (who was no stranger to horror films at this point, having already directed 1977’s “The Hills Have Eyes” and 1982’s “Swamp Thing”) found a way to make a disturbing aspect of real-life, even more disturbing - “What if you never woke up from a nightmare?  What if what happened to you in your nightmare was happening while you sleep?”

The images Craven captures in the film are those disturbing visual gems that make a great horror film great:  a grim, unescapable boiler room; feet, literally stuck in the floor, when trying to escape a killer; a chilling nursery rhyme sung hauntingly by children and a room filled with an explosion of blood that is both grotesque and amazing.

Then, there’s the character of Freddy Kreuger.  With his scorched and disfigured face, dirty fedora and sweater, the infamous knife glove and gravelly voice filled with demonic glee, he is played brilliantly by Robert England, who has become pigeonholed as the character and is seemingly more than satisfied by that.  England has become a main stay at “horror cons” and like Freddy himself, a favorite among fans.

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” opened on November 8, 1984 and was quickly a box-office hit, earning back its meager budget easily and inspiring eight sequels and a remake in 2010.  With this success, Freddy has emerged as one of the icons of film horror and an inspiration for parody, cos-players and annual Halloween costumes. 

In fact, thirty Five years later, just the mention of the name Freddy Kreuger immediately conjures up nightmarish images...

“...one, two, Freddy’s coming for you...three, four, better lock your door...”

Pleasant dreams, everyone.

Sources:

IMDb

Wikipedia

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