Boo! Animation for Halloween

Ah, Halloween. Once again, it’s time to put your pumpkin carving skills to the test, stock up a candy before all the good stuff sells out, and curl up with some appropriately themed animation. If you’re puzzling over what spooky toons you should be checking out, fear not! The Ink and Pixel Club has got you covered. Here, in the usual no particular order, are some scary scenes, spooky specials, and other spine-tingling animated goodies to get you in the Halloween spirit.

Pinocchio - Lampwick Turns Into A Donkey

Pinocchio is certainly among Disney’s most frightening films. The film’s puppet protagonist faces a cruel world of characters set on either exploiting or destroying him, none of whom receive any kind of comeuppance. One of the scariest moments in this or any Disney film comes as Pinocchio and his delinquent pal Lampwick discover the price of their misbehavior. The audience has already discovered along with Jiminy Cricket that Pleasure Island is designed to encourage little boys to act so badly that they turn into donkeys. So the scares in this scene come not from the surprise of seeing Lampwick and Pinocchio start to transform, but the terrified reactions of the characters themselves. Lampwick is first tipped off by his own braying laugh. He feels around his face and the realization that his features have changed starts to sink in. When he looks in the mirror and finds his head is now a donkey’s head, the formerly cocky Lampwick goes into full panic mode. He begs Pinocchio to help as, to Pinocchio’s horror and our own, his hands turn into hooves pawing at Pinocchio’s chest. As with many scary scenes, the most frightening elements here are the ones we don’t see. All we get of Lampwick’s final transformation is his shadow on the wall turning from boy to donkey, accompanied by his terrified screams of “Maaaa-maaaaaa!” The last time we see Lampwick, the transformation is complete and he is a panic-stricken donkey, braying and kicking over furniture. It’s a grim reminder of the fate that awaits Pinocchio if he doesn’t escape from Pleasure Island and a scene that gives me chills to this day.

It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

While unlikely to scare anyone and not as tight a story as A Charlie Brown Christmas, this perennial Halloween favorite has everything you would want from a “Peanuts” special: appealing limited animation, charmingly awkward child voice actors, a jazzy Vince Guaraldi score, and a heaping helping of disappointment. Sally’s ending diatribe where she demonstrates “the fury of a woman who’s been cheated out of trick-or-treats,” culminating in a furious “You owe me restitution!”, is still a joy to behold.

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

The Mystery Inc. gang and their cowardly Great Dane have starred in numerous direct-to-video and DVD movies, but the first one remains the best. The film reunites the five characters as they try to track down a real monster after years of chasing crooks in costumes. A trip to the Louisiana bayou puts our heroes face to face with real zombies as they try to solve the mystery of Moonscar Island. The movie combines an entertaining story, some in-jokes for fans of the franchise, and something previous unknown to the world of Scooby-Doo: interesting shot composition and camera angles. With some genuine scares Zombie Island is arguably the most frightening Scooby-Doo story ever (unless you count episodes where Scooby’s extended family shows up.)

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Like the intro to Thundercats in my list of the best animated TV show intros, this one almost goes without saying. The story of the year Jack Skellington and the citizens of Halloweentown decided to take over Christmas has become a cult classic. The movie successfully brought the world of Tim Burton’s mind to life with just the right balance of creepiness, humor, and heart and prioed that puppet animation could still attract an audience. Every shot is so packed with detail that you can literally watch the movie dozens of times and keep noticing something you missed before.

The Tell-Tale Heart

Again? Yes. This is one of the scariest animated shorts I’ve ever seen. Visuals, music, and narration combine perfectly to trap the audience inside the mind of a murderer more effectively than any film before or since.

The Great Mouse Detective - Ratigan Loses It

During the climax of this film, which takes place in and around London’s Big Ben, the heroic Basil has his final confrontation with his archnemesis, Professor Ratigan. As Basil escapes after having foiled Ratigan’s scheme to become king of the mice of England, Ratigan’s mind snaps, as we see in three quick cuts that go in closer and closer on his eyes blazing with rage. He leaps between the clocks massive gears in pursuit of his enemy. His clothes, symbols of his civility are torn in the process and by the time he lunges at Basil, much of his fur is visible and standing on end, reflecting his anger. Throughout the movie, Ratigan has been denying that he is a rat, claiming instead that he is a rather large mouse. Ratigan seems to associate his identifying as a mouse with civility and the upper class privilege he feels himself entitled to. Like many good frightening moments, a lot of the fear here comes from the psychological implications of the moment: Ratigan has finally become the savage animal he so adamantly claimed not to be.

The Adventures of Mark Twain - The Mysterious Stranger

Will Vinton’s nearly forgotten clay animated feature film follows the titular writer and his creations Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Fin, and Becky Thatcher as they pursue Haley’s Comet. Along the way, they witness and interact with various scenes from Twain’s works, including his unfinished novel, The Mysterious Stranger. Tom, Huck, and Becky encounter an “angel” named Satan, a figure with a lower body former from the clay of the floating island he lives on, a fully-formed upper body, and a shapeshifting talking mask on a stick in place of a head. Satan invites the children to make little clay people and then brings them to life. Satan quickly grown agitated when two of the little figures start squabbling over an ox and kills them both. He then destroys the entire village and its inhabitants through natural disasters. The little people are barely more than clay blobs and their dialogue is gibberish, but their beautifully animated body language clearly communicates their terror and despair as they perish. Satan’s claim that “I can do no wrong, for I do not know what it is” makes for a truly horrifying take on the nature of evil.

Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron - “Upstairs With The Baby”

There hasn’t yet been a perfect translation of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics to film. But in my opinion, the direct-to-DVD Hellboy Animated movies come much closer to the source material than the live-action ones do. This second of two films produced has the agents of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense investigating a house that is being haunted by the ghosts of the victims of Erzsebet Ondrushko, a vampire who bathed in the blood of her victims in order to stay young. (She is based on the historical Countess Elizabeth Báthory, a serial killer who later stories and legends linked with the fictional Count Dracula.) Professor Bruttenholm, Hellboy’s mentor and father figure, has battled Erzsebet before, as we see in a series of flashbacks. One of the film’s most frightening moments comes in one of these flashbacks, where Erzsebet meets her next victim at the dress shop where the young woman has come to claim her wedding gown. To explain the absence of the dressmaker, Erzsebet tells the woman that she is “upstairs with the baby.” Oh, that’s nice.



Oh wait, no. No, it isn’t.

As with the scene from Pinocchio, what isn’t shown is even more terrifying than what is. Marie the seamstress is clearly dead; we’ve seen the same blank eyes on Erzsebet’s other victims. But just what happened to the baby is left up to the viewer imagination, which is always far scarier than anything the animators could actually show.

The Night of the Headless Horseman

The Disney version of Washington Irving’s classic tale – originally shown as half of the feature The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - is more well known than this one and a few friends mentioned it to me as something that scared them as kids that still holds up well today. But this 1999 computer animated version is just as scary, if not more so. It isn’t so much that it does a better job of telling the story. What’s truly frightening about this version of the tale is the animation itself, which remains some of the ugliest I have ever seen.



Horrible character design and stiff animation that looked terrible even ten years ago make this movie a true nightmare for any animation fan. Some of the voice work, provided by the likes of Clancy Brown, Mark Hamill, and William H. Macy, is actually pretty decent, so if you close your eyes and ignore the visuals, you may be able to enjoy it as a radio play. The whole movie is available on Hulu, so you can go ahead and watch it, if you dare.


So that’s my list of animated treats (and one rather ugly trick). If I left out any of your favorites, feel free to share. Happy Halloween!

All images are copyright their respective owners.

Let The Show Begin: The Best Animated TV Show Intros

The opening titles are possibly the most important piece of animation created for an animated television show. Not only does it need to be able to run in front of every episode of the show without the audience getting sick of it, an intro has to sell the show to potential viewers in roughly one minute. A successful intro grabs the attention of the viewers, makes them pause in their channel surfing. It showcases the characters and concepts at their most exciting and doles out just enough information to get its intended audience interested and leave them hungry for more. Like the cover of a book, the intro is a quick and direct advertisement for the show.

Some animated TV series put their openings together from existing clips from the show, combined with a catchy or compelling theme song. These can make for really fun and exciting intros, but the ones I am going to be talking about today feature original animation created specifically for the openings of their respective shows. With this method, the show’s creators don’t have to rely on available clip and can construct all new animation that highlights all of the strengths of the series. The following are some – though by no means all – of the very best opening titles in television animation, in no particular order.

The Ink and Pixel Club will not be held responsible for any theme songs that get stuck in your head as a result of viewing these clips.


Thundercats





This one is so obvious that I almost feel silly including it. Thundercats is an action cartoon and is widely recognized as having one of the best openings ever. With dramatic camera angles, energy bursts and explosions all over the place, and pretty much everyone and everything in near constant motion, this intro barely gives you a second to catch your breath as it introduces you to the heroes and villains of the show. The theme song has become a little dated and there are a few sounds effects that strike me as cheesy. But just watch as the camera follows the crack of Tigra’s whip or the Thunder Tank comes crashing through a wall of stone and tell me you aren’t pumped for the next adventure of Lion-O and his friends.


Bionic Six





What do you get when you cross Fantastic Four with The Six Million Dollar Man? Evidently, you get Bionic Six, the story of a family given bionic superpowers which they use to battle evil. I think I’ve only seen one episode of the show which I barely remember, and I can’t decide if I want to see any more because I would be really disappointed if the actual show isn’t as good as the intro. Theme songs are always a matter of personal taste, but for me, this one has a lot of charm. The animation is full of dynamic action and promises the viewer plenty of exciting adventures with the six very appealing (and very consistently drawn) members of this “super future family.”


C.O.P.S.





Speaking of shows that didn’t live up to the promise of their intros, C.O.P.S. - Central Organization of Police Specialists – had a really fun intro that used fast action and stylish animation to get viewers ready for some good old fashioned cops and robbers stories in a futuristic setting. Unfortunately, the animation in the show never came near the quality seen in the intro and the writing just didn’t capture the potential and fun of the core concept. But the opening remains one of the best examples of 80s cartoon intros.

Batman: The Animated Series





Another no-brainer, this one practically rewrote the rules for what an animated intro could be. Rather than presenting numerous quick vignettes of Batman doing what he does best, the series kicks off every episode with a short, self-contained story of our hero saving the day, er, night. The heavy black shadows, blood red sky, and moody music borrowed from the live-action “Batman” films sets viewers up for both the look and tone of the show to come. Unlike most openings, the beginning of Batman never actually displays the name of the show. As the creators of the series have pointed out, it would have been redundant. No matter what language you may speak, the visuals of the intro say “Batman.” After such a strong start, it’s a pity that none of the subsequent animated shows set in the DC universe featured intros that really measured up to the granddaddy of them all.


Men In Black: The Series





Based on the movie of the same name, Men In Black: The Series followed Agents J and K as they worked to keep humanity unaware of the aliens in their midst. The intro reflects the show’s focus on the world of the most secret of agents with its whispery instrumental theme and shots of J and K donning their shades and looking ready to take on any intergalactic menace that comes their way. Though many intros rely on fast action and quick cuts to cram the maximum amount of information and impact into their short running time, the Men In Black intro takes it time with shots focusing on various aspects of each scene, reflecting the laid back, smooth pace of the music. The combined effect strikes the exact right note for the series, including just a touch of humor.


Cowboy Bebop





Another vision of cool, with the pace kicked up a bit, the opening to Cowboy Bebop takes a page from Saul Bass and other film title designers of the 50s and 60s. The result is a fast paced mix of text elements, geometric graphics, stark color fields, and monochromatic figures moving in and out of silhouette. The show’s theme music – “Tank!” - is certainly up there among the best and most immediately recognizable pieces of opening music for any TV show, with its jazzy bass leading into driving horns. Rather than really introducing viewers to the spacefaring cast of the show and their world of planet hopping bounty hunting, this intro whets your appetite for stories and animation that just about define “cool.”

That’s my list, though it is by no means complete and it grows constantly as I see more and more animated TV shows. So what do you think? Do you agree with my picks? Are there favorites of yours that I left out? I’m waiting eagerly to hear your choices for the all time best animated TV intros, so let me know what’s on your list.