Countdown To Halloween, Day 27: The Mad Doctor (1933 - Disney)

Another Walt Disney gem, from 1933, featuring Mickey Mouse!

Countown To Halloween, Day 26: Trick Or Treat (Disney)

This classic Walt Disney cartoon features Donald Duck in his usual cranky mode, refusing to give treats to his nephews, instead playing tricks on them, until a friendly witch decides to show him a thing or two. One of my favorite Disney shorts. I hope you like it!

Countdown To Halloween, Day 25: The Headless Horseman of Halloween ( Scooby Doo)

2 of my favorites...The Headless Horseman and Scooby Doo! I love this cartoon, how can you go wrong with Scooby and Shaggy!

Countdown To Halloween, Day 23: Fat Albert's Halloween Special

When I was a kid, way back before the days of DVDs or even VHS tapes, we'd have to wait for certain times of the year to catch our favorite movies and shows. We'd have to wait for Christmas to watch the Grinch, and we'd have to wait for Halloween to watch "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", among many other Halloween favorites. One of my favorites was the Fat Albert Halloween Special. I grew up watching the Fat Albert cartoon series, and when they made a Halloween special, well, I was incredibly excited. I dunno, I just really liked it. It was definitely a silly cartoon, with some spooky moments, and as usual, a moral to the story in true Fat Albert fashion. If you've never watched it, give it a view and tell me what you think!

Countdown To Halloween, Day 22: Skeleton Frolic (1937)

The 1937 cartoon short, Skeleton Frolic, directer by Ub Iwerks and released by Colombia pictures, can be considered by most as a follow-up to Disney's famous Black and White cartoon short "The Skeleton Dance". As much as I love the original Disney cartoon, I have to admit I prefer Skeleton Frolic more, for several reasons. The obvious being the color. Secondly, the animation seems to be a bit better, the background images are wonderful, and it's just a better made cartoon all around, of course, in my opinion. Although both are incredibly similar in theme, and both featured the work of Ub Iwerks, Skeleton Frolic seems to have the upper hand.
Check out Skeleton Frolic, then compare it to Disney's Skeleton Dance (which I posted earlier this month) and tell me which one you prefer!

Countdown To Halloween, Day 17: Betty Boop, Hallowe'en Party

This animated short was released in 1933, and is considered one of the Max Fleisher banned cartoons, although for what reason I have no idea. Another classic vintage cartoon for the Halloween season!

Countdown To Halloween, Day 12: Halloween by Kay Lande and Wade Denning

This is a very cool stop-motion animation, created by Jason Willis using his iPhone and accompanied by the Halloween classic tunes "Halloween" by Wade Denning and Kay Lande. I've always loved this song, ever since I was a little boy, and this animated short is perfect for it, well done Jason!

Countdown To Halloween, Day 11: Season's Greetings

Here is a short animated film by Michael Dougherty, the man who eventually made the instant Halloween classic Trick 'R Treat. Here is the short film that inspired not only the film, but it's main central character, Sam. Enjoy!

Countdown To Halloween, Day 5: Lonesome Ghosts (1937)

When there's something strange in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call?....MICKEY MOUSE! This wonderful animated short released in 1937 is the undisputed original Ghostbusters! Check out Mickey, Donald and Goofy as they investigate an old haunted mansion for ghosts! Truly a classic!! (p.s. check out the shot of the interior of the haunted house...for those Haunted Mansion attraction fans out there, you'll catch it right away!)

Countdown To Halloween, Day 4: Scrappy's Ghost Story (1935)

Scrappy was a cartoon character created by Dick Huemer for Charles Mintz's Krazy Kat Studio. A little round-headed boy, Scrappy often found himself involved in off-beat neighborhood adventures. One of all-time favorite cartoons, "Scrappy's Ghost Story" was released May 24, 1935. Scrappy was a very popular cartoon character during the 1930's, spawning many animated shorts.

I hope you enjoy "Scrappy's Ghost Story" as much as I do!

OCTOBER IS HERE...LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN! COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN, DAY 1!

Hell-o Boils and Ghouls, welcome to the Countdown To Halloween! Thanks to the gang over at Countdown To Halloween for organizing a spooky list for your trick or treat delights! Everything you'll need for your Halloween season can be found over at the Countdown To Halloween blog! Just click the badge below and all your Halloween nightmares will come true!

In the meantime, here's my little treat for all the kiddies on this, the first day of the Countdown To Halloween! A neat little video featuring the Groovie Goolies, set to the music of Bobby "Boris" Pickett's classic Halloween tune, The Monster Mash! Enjoy!

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN Day 30: It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Yep, that's right, the classic Peanuts cartoon, you better make sure you play this cartoon this Halloween season, or you'll end up just like Charlie Brown in this famous clip from It's The Great Pumkpin Charlie Brown!

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN Day 25: Milton The Monster

Here is an episode from the animated series Milton The Monster, which ran on ABC during the mid-sixties. Milton, who was a Frankenstein-type monster, would get into all kinds of wacky hijinks. Check out more episodes on YouTube if you enjoy this one!

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN Day 24: Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters

Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters was released by Rankin/Bass Studios in 1972, as an unofficial sequel to Mad Monster Party, featuring most of the same characters featured in Mad Monster Party, using traditional animation, as opposed to the stop-motion style used before. This was an entertaining cartoon, with fun characters and silly jokes. I hope you enjoy it!

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN Day 17: The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

Here is one of my personal favorite Halloween time cartoons to watch. It's the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, from Disney's 1949 film The Adventures Of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. This is Disney at it's spooky best!!! The embedding is disabled on these videos but click the links below and it will take you to the youtube pages.

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - PART ONE

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - PART TWO

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - PART THREE

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - PART FOUR

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN Day 13: Trick Or Treat (1952)

This classic Walt Disney cartoon features Donald Duck in his usual cranky mode, refusing to give treats to his nephews, instead playing tricks on them, until a friendly witch decides to show him a thing or two. One of my favorite Disney shorts. I hope you like it!

COUTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN Day 12: Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party (1933)

Today's treat is a little cartoon from 1933 from the Fleischer Studios, featuring Betty Boop. A gatecrashing gorilla tries to ruin Betty's Hallowe'en party, but Betty and her friends ruin his plans. I hope you like it!

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN Day 3: SCRAPPY'S GHOST STORY - 1935

Check out this neat little spooky cartoon by Charles Mintz, 1935!

Countdown, Day 22: SPOOKS and WOT A NIGHT cartoons

Here we have 2 different spooky cartoons, both made during the 1930's. The first cartoon, Spooks, features Flip the Frog, a character drawn and created by Ub Iwerks, who worked on the Disney classic "Skeleton Dance" as well as "Skeleton Frolic" (both featured in my Halloween countdown). In Spooks, Flip finds himself caught in a storm and decides to seek shelter in a creepy old house. There he comes across a seemingly friendly skeleton host who invites him to dinner, unaware that his host has more sinister plans for poor 'ol Flip.



Next we have Wot A Night, filmed in 1931, featuring Tom and Jerry (not the cat and mouse, but 2 characters created by the Van Beuren Studios, many years before MGM did their cat and mouse cartoons). Tom and Jerry are 2 taxi drivers who pick up a couple of odd, bearded men and give them a ride to a creepy old castle. There, our heroes find themselves surrounded by spooks and musical skeletons.



These cartoons are both great finds and perfect examples of how spooky themes were so prevalent even back in the 1930s. You have to remember some of the greatest classic monster films came from the 1930s, Dracula, Frankenstein, King Kong as well as many others. I hope you enjoy the cartoons!

Countdown, Day 19: Fat Albert's Halloween special

When I was a kid, way back before the days of DVDs or even VHS tapes, we'd have to wait for certain times of the year to catch our favorite movies and shows. We'd have to wait for Christmas to watch the Grinch, and we'd have to wait for Halloween to watch "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", among many other Halloween favorites. One of my favorites was the Fat Albert Halloween Special. I grew up watching the Fat Albert cartoon series, and when they made a Halloween special, well, I was incredibly excited. I dunno, I just really liked it. It was definitely a silly cartoon, with some spooky moments, and as usual, a moral to the story in true Fat Albert fashion. If you've never watched it, give it a view and tell me what you think!