Halloween is great. It is about celebrating past scary movies, enjoying the popular characters of the year (and of all-time), and catering to our primordial love of fright. Loving Disney as much as I do, I have several traditions when it comes to Halloween that you may be interested in.
The first frightening tradition of mine is to watch the Disney double-feature The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad every Halloween:
It is one of the great features produced by Walt. Even though I watch the feature on Halloween because of the scary Ichabod story, I definitely enjoy the hilarious and beautiful Mr. Toad short much more:
The tale of The Wind in the Willows retold using the talents of Frank and Ollie, Ward Kimball, Milt Kahl, and Wolfgang Reitherman is certainly one of my favorite cartoons ever produced. The characters are simply so unique and good at acting that the cartoon is a treat to watch.
The next tradition I have is to just listen to the "Grim Grinning Ghosts" song from the Haunted Mansion. I think that the ride at Disneyland is the epitome of Halloween with its visual tricks, great set design, and very real presence of eerie things. Plus, I don't think you get much better than X Atencio's script:
Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination, hmm…? ...And consider this dismaying observation: this chamber has no windows, and no doors... which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Of course, there's always my way...
I wish that I made it a tradition to go on the Haunted Mansion every Halloween, but that'd be a bit pricey. I suppose I'll have to settle with "Grim Grinning Ghosts" for now:
I hope you enjoyed some of those little Halloween things that Disney has shared with us over the years... Happy Halloween.
