When I was young, I lived for Disney specials. You know, the ones that came on the Disney Channel? They were not highlight shows necessarily, but rather, a collection of clips put together around one theme. Over time, we become more and more thankful for media sharing services where we may be able to find these classics we grew up on and watch them for nostalgia purposes or even to pass onto our kids. And since we are a few days from Halloween, I thought we’d try something different this weekend:
Welcome to a special Halloween Believe Vacations article where this week, I’ll review the special Disney’s Halloween Treat. For this article, try to find this special on a media sharing site and watch with me. I’ll provide some stream of conscious thoughts as we go and hopefully, you’ll enjoy this trip down memory land with me. So let’s get going:
Always loved the WordArt font logo for this special.
Dancing Skeletons will never get old! I have to see them at least once a year, like the movie Halloween.
Throughout the show, they show clips of movies. Always liked this idea and wish it was updated to feature some of the movies that have come out since the mid 80s!
Madam Mim
Man, if there was ever someone who needed a live action remake, it’s her!
Sword in the Stone was a little bleh in my mind but the Wizard’s Duel was one of the best scenes in Disney movie history.
“Pink Dragons” = This is important later!
Rewatching this, was the point really to kill each other? Thought it was just for fun?
AHHHH, they cut out the dragon part! Scratch what I said about “This is important later.”
Night on Bald Mountain
Ah, the ghosts who travel in circles. Inspiration for the Haunted Mansion no doubt!
As a kid, this scene was scary but as an adult, it’ll truly give you appreciation for early animation and putting it together with an amazing score!
Jeez, the appearance of Chernabog is still scary.
Man, they cut this short, too?!!! This is criminal!
A Few Random Shorts
Boy, the humor in the Mickey short has not aged well at all.
I always enjoyed the classic “Donald Duck and the Gorilla” short. One of the better Huey, Dewey and Louie appearances.
Boy, the humor in the Gorilla short is still pretty darn funny!
Not sure why there was a random Pluto and cats short because it had nothing scary (or funny actually) about it at all! I guess to feature one of the classic 5?
OOOOOHHHHHH, now this Pluto cartoon got pretty dark real quick! I retract my previous statement.
….And, what was the point of the Asian Straw Hat look?
Villain Scenes
Random scene from Peter Pan is random. Guess to feature how bad Captain Hook is capturing kids and trying to blow up Pan?
Now Cruella was a bad woman! This was a good choice for a scary scene as she truly was nuts and freaky! Unrelated, but I’m always a sucker for sidekick imbecile goons like Jasper and Horace.
Eke, the old hag/evil queen still wins for scariest of all time! That iconic look and voice and laugh is spooky. And maybe her death was the worst ever?
Oof, the siamese cats. Not evil and has not aged at all! Skip!
Ah yeah, Ichabod Crane! Very underrated when it comes to cool characters, songs and scariness. Man, how awesome are the visuals and sounds in the scene with Ichabod riding through the woods and coming face to….well, non-face and meeting the Headless Horseman?
Wow, that ends….abruptly?
Conclusion
So unfortunately, this was much better as a kid. It just hasn’t aged well at all. Granted, it’s not the worst special to watch and take a trip down memory lane and maybe show your own kids, but don’t expect to be entertained. Let’s just put this in the “Leave the memories alone” column and rely on your own nostalgia for this one. But definitely go back and watch the Headless Horseman scene at some point this Halloween!
