Disney's Halloween Treat (1982)

Here's Disney's Halloween Treat, first released on October 30, 1982.

It contains memorable scenes from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Fantasia," "Lady and the Tramp," "Peter Pan," "One Hundred and One Dalmatians," and "The Sword in the Stone."

This is the full movie, from a playlist.

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island finds Scooby and the gang on Zombie Island, where they are menaced by the ghost of Moonscar the Pirate and the island's most infamous inhabits - Zombies!!

This is the full movie, from a playlist.

The Halloween Tree (1993)

Last year I posted an entry about Ray Bradbury's novel "The Halloween Tree", in which eight children learn the origins of Halloween customs while trying to save the life of their friend.


Here's the movie adaptation from 1993. It won Ray Bradbury a Daytime Emmy Award in 1994 for Ouststanding Writing in an Animated Program. This is the full movie, from a playlist.

Vincent (1982)

Vincent was written and directed by Tim Burton. It was narrated by Vincent Price.

A transcript of the poem can be read here.

When Vincent Price was asked what he thought of the short, he said that it was "the most gratifying thing that ever happened. It was immortality - better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard."

An early form of Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) can be seen in the upper-left corner of the screen at 4:45.


Young Vincent Malloy dreams of being just like Vincent Price and loses himself in macabre daydreams which annoys his mother.

Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)

Bambi Meets Godzilla was written, directed and (as you'll see) everything else by Marv Newland.

This cartoon prefaced Godzilla 1985 on New World Pictures' VHS release, but was omitted when that film was licensed to Starmaker.

For those interested, the background music is "Ranz Des Vaches", from Gioacchino Rossini's William Tell. The loud, elongated piano chord is the final note of "A Day in the Life" from "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by The Beatles.

Yellow Submarine (1968)

On this day in 1964 the Beatles arrived at JFK International Airport to begin their first tour of the United States.

Which brings to mind their movie, Yellow Submarine.

What does this have to do with horror? The Blue Meanies!!!

Weapons and species of Meanie (SPOILER ALERT)

• The Common Blue Meanies: These, it seems, are a sub-species of their Chief's origin. They wear navy blue woolly coats, domino masks, and Mickey Mouse-ear-like hats (with the exception of the Chief Blue Meanie himself and his sidekick "Max", whose hats look more like Goofy's ears). They have six claws on each hand, and wear yellow-and-orange striped tights (again, the Chief and Max are the exceptions here, as they both wear jackboots with spurs: light blue boot on the right foot, navy blue on the left). They are also able to make their eyes glow so that they can see in the dark, which makes the head resemble a video projector. These particular Meanies carry guns that fire pale-blue jagged arrows which, on contact, drain the victim's colour and petrifies him or her - although it seems to varying degrees or only temporarily, because several victims in the film are seen to cry, smile, or look up, and several natives of Pepperland are seen to back off at the sight of the Flying Glove (see below).
  
  
• The Apple Bonkers: These are tall, thin Meanies who can walk from hill to hill at a stride. Their weapons of choice are giant Baldwin apples, which they drop on people's heads and which have the same effect of the jagged arrows. If one can reach high enough, they too can be knocked out by such weapons, as the Beatles later discover. When seen closely, their faces bear a near striking resemblance to Abraham Lincoln.
  
  
• The Butterfly Stompers: These are wide, bullying Meanies with cat-like faces. They each carry a number on their chest, and for whatever reason they find it entertaining to destroy butterflies. One of them also stomps upon Max's head at the Chief's behest.
  
  
• The Countdown Clowns: These are tall, fat Meanies whose heads can spin round and round, and who shriek very loudly when ready to attack, or when they feel the need to alert other Meanies. If their noses are pressed, wherever they look there will appear an explosion. They have no hands or arms themselves, however, and so another Meanie has to press their noses for them, often needing to prop a ladder up against them, or sit up on their shoulders when doing so, because they are tall. When the Meanies' spell is broken, they end up simply producing positive words such as "Yes" and "OK" in block capitals when they try to cause an explosion.
  
  
• The Hidden-Persuader Men: These are large, fat Meanies who are constantly smoking cigars and carrying martinis which appear to have eyes on the glass. These men appear to be harmless, but upon closer inspection, they have an extra hand inside their shoes, which typically wields a pistol and shoots whenever the toe of the shoe is raised. If the shoe is closed at the right time, however, they can be made, quite literally, to shoot themselves in the foot. They are one of the rarest seen Meanies. When the Meanies' spell is broken, we see them proposing toasts to each other and using their third hands to shake.
  
  
• The Snapping-Turtle Turks: Possibly the most pettily cruel of the Meanies, and dressed like stereotypical Turkish men (though otherwise incomparable). These are comparatively short Meanies, but are fat, and their stomachs are in fact oversized, predatory faces whose sharp-toothed mouths consume objects. We see one of these eating a little girl's paper windmill on purpose to make her cry.
  
  
• The Jack-the-Nippers: These are tall, muscular Meanies who wear green tail-coats and sunglasses and have reptilian heads for hands. Much like the Snapping-Turtle Turks' stomachs, these hands are used for fierce biting, but if startled can bite their own tongues, causing extreme pain. They are the least frequently seen of all the Meanies. The name is a play on Jack the Ripper.
  
  
• The Four-Headed Bulldog: There is possibly just one of these, but that hardly matters, as it has four heads, each with very sharp teeth. It is extremely strong, and its handler is no match for it if it wishes to walk in a particular direction. It is ultimately defeated when the Beatles and their doubles, the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, sing "Hey Bulldog" and run in opposite directions to disorientate it.
  
  
• The Dreadful Flying Glove: The Chief's fiercest and strongest fighter. Though there is only one glove, it is a force to be reckoned with; crushing, squashing, or "o-blue-terating" whoever or whatever its master directs it to attack. It has a stylized face, with the thumbnail acting as the eye and the index finger as the nose. As it clenches itself into a fist, it covers up its eye, temporarily blinding it. It is ultimately defeated when John sings "All You Need is Love" and covers it with the letters of all the words that spring from his mouth as he sings.

The Beatles agree to accompany Captain Fred in his Yellow Submarine and go to Pepperland to free it from the music hating Blue Meanies.






Some source material from this Wikipedia article.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, written by Dr. Seuss and animated by Chuck Jones, is appropriate for this blog for two reasons:

First of all - The narrator and voice of the Grinch is Boris Karloff.

Second of all - The Grinch! A vile, foul monster! Remember?

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch / You have termites in your smile / You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile / Mr. Grinch / Given the choice between the two of you, I'd take the... seasick crocodile.

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch / You're a nasty, wasty skunk / Your mind is filled with unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk / Mr. Grinch / The words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote: Stink, stank, stunk!

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch / Your heart's an empty hole / Your brain is full of spiders, you have garlic in your soul / Mr. Grinch / I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

Your soul is an apalling dung-heap, overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots.

The famous Grinch song was sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, perhaps better known as the voice of Tony the Tiger in the TV commercials. He received no screen credit for his singing, an oversight Dr. Seuss attempted to rectify by sending letters to every major columnist in America identifying Ravenscroft as the singer on "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". He is also part of the chorus on the other two songs.

Hey Hey Hey

It's the Fat Albert Halloween Special from 1977!

Scaredy Cat (1948)

Here's a Saturday morning cartoon with some comical horror.

Scaredy Cat is a 1948 Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Chuck Jones and produced and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. It's the first film in which Sylvester received his now-official name.

In Scaredy Cat, Porky and Sylvester spend the night in an old dark house, whose horrors only Sylvester sees. His repeated attempts to save Porky from the ghoulish doings of the killer mice infesting the place (one wearing an executioner's hood and carrying an axe) only make the skeptical Porky all the more convinced of Sylvester's cowardice.

This is the uncut/unedited version.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

Since it's October, it's time for the yearly showing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. While not exactly horror per se, it is Halloween themed, and what's more - at 1:32 into the tale Lucy approaches Linus clutching a butcher knife in her fist.