Pipkin
@Pipkin
1
The Halloween Tree is a lesser know but very good Halloween movie. The first time I saw it, it was on a VHS tape that came with a thin paperback copy of the novella that the film was based on. My brother and I loved the film and would watch it any time of year.
The name I use here, Pipkin, comes from The Halloween Tree.
In 1966 Ray Bradbury (author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This way Comes) watched the now Classic Holiday special "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown."
And he didn't like it. I know you might be gasping. "An American obsessed with Halloween who doesn't like this seasonal classic?!"
Well, I agree with Ray Bradbury. It's mean spirited. It's cynical. And I feel it lacks real charm or magick.
And to quote Ray Bradbury "The Great Pumpkin never showed up!" This bothered the great scifi and fantasy author more than anything else.
Ray Bradbury came up with an idea for his own holiday special and he came very close to making it with famed animation icon, Chuck Jones.
Those plans fell through and in 1972 Ray Bradbury published his planned holiday special as a novella.
It wouldn't be until 1993 that an animated adaptation of The Halloween Tree would finally be made. It aired on TBS and much like Over The Garden Wall it earned an Emmy award.
It was a full length animated TV movie.
The animated version was narrated by Ray Bradbury, himself. And it is pretty faithful to the novella despite leaving out some characters and streamlining some plot points.
So what is The Halloween Tree about? Spoilers ahead! Well, it begins with a group of teenaged friends each preparing for Halloween trick or treating. They are all eager to meet up with their group leader, Joe Pipkin (known as Pip for short).
The kids arrive at Joe Pipkin's house just in time to see an ambulance leave with their friend whose appendix has apparently ruptured. At first they are very upset but then they see their friend running through the moonlight (which seems to pass right through him). Believing he has pranked them, they give chase and follow him to a spooky old house.
Here the children encounter a man named Mr. Moundshroud (voiced by Leonard Nemoy in the animated movie) who very likely is actually The Grim Reaper.
Behind the house is a great tree with thousands upon thousands of Jack-o-lanterns. Each one representing the life of someone who died within the year.
Joe Pipkin's ghost shows himself and snatches his own Jack-o-lantern and flees into a whirlwind represent a rip in space and time.
The children (Four in the animated version) and Moundshroud give chase to Ancient Egypt, Dark Ages England, Medieval Paris France, and mid-twentieth century Mexico.
One by one the children learn the cultural influences that became modern American Halloween. And they figure out what is really going on with their friend.
They each offer up a year from the end of their lives in exchange for Pipkin to live a full life into old age. Moundshroud is actually moved by the offer since the final years of one's life are the most precious and coveted.
Moundshroud accepts their offer (or seems to. He may have always panned it to turn out this way) and Pipkin makes a full recovery.
I bothered me to no end when a Youtube video review missed the point entirely and thought Moundshroud was The Devil buying the kids souls. (Seriously?!) I wish edgelords would stop tainting good stories with their theories that contradict the canon.
The name I use here, Pipkin, comes from The Halloween Tree.
In 1966 Ray Bradbury (author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This way Comes) watched the now Classic Holiday special "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown."
And he didn't like it. I know you might be gasping. "An American obsessed with Halloween who doesn't like this seasonal classic?!"
Well, I agree with Ray Bradbury. It's mean spirited. It's cynical. And I feel it lacks real charm or magick.
And to quote Ray Bradbury "The Great Pumpkin never showed up!" This bothered the great scifi and fantasy author more than anything else.
Ray Bradbury came up with an idea for his own holiday special and he came very close to making it with famed animation icon, Chuck Jones.
Those plans fell through and in 1972 Ray Bradbury published his planned holiday special as a novella.
It wouldn't be until 1993 that an animated adaptation of The Halloween Tree would finally be made. It aired on TBS and much like Over The Garden Wall it earned an Emmy award.
It was a full length animated TV movie.
The animated version was narrated by Ray Bradbury, himself. And it is pretty faithful to the novella despite leaving out some characters and streamlining some plot points.
So what is The Halloween Tree about? Spoilers ahead! Well, it begins with a group of teenaged friends each preparing for Halloween trick or treating. They are all eager to meet up with their group leader, Joe Pipkin (known as Pip for short).
The kids arrive at Joe Pipkin's house just in time to see an ambulance leave with their friend whose appendix has apparently ruptured. At first they are very upset but then they see their friend running through the moonlight (which seems to pass right through him). Believing he has pranked them, they give chase and follow him to a spooky old house.
Here the children encounter a man named Mr. Moundshroud (voiced by Leonard Nemoy in the animated movie) who very likely is actually The Grim Reaper.
Behind the house is a great tree with thousands upon thousands of Jack-o-lanterns. Each one representing the life of someone who died within the year.
Joe Pipkin's ghost shows himself and snatches his own Jack-o-lantern and flees into a whirlwind represent a rip in space and time.
The children (Four in the animated version) and Moundshroud give chase to Ancient Egypt, Dark Ages England, Medieval Paris France, and mid-twentieth century Mexico.
One by one the children learn the cultural influences that became modern American Halloween. And they figure out what is really going on with their friend.
They each offer up a year from the end of their lives in exchange for Pipkin to live a full life into old age. Moundshroud is actually moved by the offer since the final years of one's life are the most precious and coveted.
Moundshroud accepts their offer (or seems to. He may have always panned it to turn out this way) and Pipkin makes a full recovery.
I bothered me to no end when a Youtube video review missed the point entirely and thought Moundshroud was The Devil buying the kids souls. (Seriously?!) I wish edgelords would stop tainting good stories with their theories that contradict the canon.
