Think About It Halloween Party: Trick-Or-Treat with Garfield and the Peanuts gang
With only a few weeks to go until Halloween, this seemed like a perfect time to look back at two of the cartoons that have best exemplified the season over the years, both of which burst from the newspaper comic strip page. I'm talking, of course, about It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Garfield in Disguise. (And special thanks to my old college chum Rachel for the suggestion that launched this piece.)
Now I can't imagine any carbon-based lifeform that doesn't see A Charlie Brown Christmas as the best Peanuts special, but The Great Pumpkin is a close second. As everyone in the nameless, All-American land of the Peanuts gang is getting ready for "Tricks or Treats," Linus is planning a lonely vigil in the most sincere pumpkin patch he can find. Once a year, he believes, the Great Pumpkin will come rising out of the pumpkin patch, delivering toys to all the good little children. Linus isn't alone this year, though -- Charlie Brown's little sister Sally is joining him -- less for the prospect of presents and more for the opportunity to spend the evening with her "Sweet Baboo."
To me, the fantastic thing about this special is how it really adds a new dimension to Linus. Most of the time, he's the sage voice of reason, wise beyond his years, and occasionally bordering on being a real know-it-all. Then you reach Halloween, and somehow the kid who can quote Bible versus like he was reciting the alphabet has made a fundamental error in his understandings of Halloween and Christmas. That little, lovable error allows you to forgive him, and he becomes a much more relatable character as a result.
Sally gets more depth as well, as the cartoon shows us exactly how far her infatuation with Linus will take her. She'll follow him just about anywhere, but watch out of you cheat her out of tricks or treats. Linus may not be able to reference Hell directly, but he knows the fury of a woman scorned.
As this goes on, the rest of the gang takes part in their annual Halloween festivities -- trick or treating and then off to the Halloween party. Usually I'd call this the "B Plot," but there's not really much of a plot here, just a series of connected gags. Keep in mind, these are classic gags. Charlie Brown's ineptitude with a pair of scissors has inspired countless last-minute Halloween costumes. Having his head turned into a Jack-O-Lantern prototype is the sort of standard humiliation that defines his life. And one of the greatest cartoon lines of all time -- "I got a rock" -- comes from this very series of vignettes. Brilliance. Sheer brilliance.
Further down the comic page from the Peanuts gang is the tubby tabby named Garfield. Now let's be honest here - Garfield, as a comic strip, lost some zing a while back. It's become very homogenized, very repetitious. So it's easy to forget that the early strips were funny, and the cartoons were great.
In this yarn, a serendipitous Binky the Clown show clues Garfield in on Halloween -- that magical night where you simply have to put on a costume and go from house to house and you come home with a sack full of candy. Garfield -- enterprising feline that he is -- cracks a scheme to get even more candy: bring Odie along, tempting him with a whole piece of candy of his very own.
After a full evening of trick-or-treating, Garfield sees a way to get still more loot (this cat can eat). He and Odie steal a boat to get to the houses across the river. Instead, though, they wind up on the shore of a tiny island with a spooky house inhabited by a creepy old man who weaves a tale of pirates from a century past who vowed to return from the grave and reclaim their treasure... and of course, in standard cartoon fashion, it's happening tonight.
This cartoon hits on all cylinders. It's funny, first of all -- the musical sequence where Garfield and Odie try on various costumes cracks me up, as does Garfield's maniacal repetition of "Candycandycandycandy..." The music works and the voice acting is great. Then, when the ghosts finally turn up... these aren't any cutesy cartoon ghosts. You won't see them playing tiddlywinks with Casper and Nearly Headless Nick. These are genuinely creepy ghosts -- the sort of thing that will leave your average six-year-old looking for a new pair of shorts.
Even now, as I pretend to be an adult, I love these two cartoons. I watch 'em every year. Both of them are available on DVD -- It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown comes with a double-feature of You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown (they've made like four more Peanuts Christmas specials, but it never occurred to them to give Halloween another try), while Garfield in Disguise -- sometimes called Garfield's Halloween Adventure -- is available on the Garfield Holiday Celebrations DVD, which also includes his Thanksgiving and Christmas specials. No matter how old I get, it's just not Halloween until I've seen these fantastic toons.
Now I can't imagine any carbon-based lifeform that doesn't see A Charlie Brown Christmas as the best Peanuts special, but The Great Pumpkin is a close second. As everyone in the nameless, All-American land of the Peanuts gang is getting ready for "Tricks or Treats," Linus is planning a lonely vigil in the most sincere pumpkin patch he can find. Once a year, he believes, the Great Pumpkin will come rising out of the pumpkin patch, delivering toys to all the good little children. Linus isn't alone this year, though -- Charlie Brown's little sister Sally is joining him -- less for the prospect of presents and more for the opportunity to spend the evening with her "Sweet Baboo."
To me, the fantastic thing about this special is how it really adds a new dimension to Linus. Most of the time, he's the sage voice of reason, wise beyond his years, and occasionally bordering on being a real know-it-all. Then you reach Halloween, and somehow the kid who can quote Bible versus like he was reciting the alphabet has made a fundamental error in his understandings of Halloween and Christmas. That little, lovable error allows you to forgive him, and he becomes a much more relatable character as a result.
Sally gets more depth as well, as the cartoon shows us exactly how far her infatuation with Linus will take her. She'll follow him just about anywhere, but watch out of you cheat her out of tricks or treats. Linus may not be able to reference Hell directly, but he knows the fury of a woman scorned.
As this goes on, the rest of the gang takes part in their annual Halloween festivities -- trick or treating and then off to the Halloween party. Usually I'd call this the "B Plot," but there's not really much of a plot here, just a series of connected gags. Keep in mind, these are classic gags. Charlie Brown's ineptitude with a pair of scissors has inspired countless last-minute Halloween costumes. Having his head turned into a Jack-O-Lantern prototype is the sort of standard humiliation that defines his life. And one of the greatest cartoon lines of all time -- "I got a rock" -- comes from this very series of vignettes. Brilliance. Sheer brilliance.
Further down the comic page from the Peanuts gang is the tubby tabby named Garfield. Now let's be honest here - Garfield, as a comic strip, lost some zing a while back. It's become very homogenized, very repetitious. So it's easy to forget that the early strips were funny, and the cartoons were great.
In this yarn, a serendipitous Binky the Clown show clues Garfield in on Halloween -- that magical night where you simply have to put on a costume and go from house to house and you come home with a sack full of candy. Garfield -- enterprising feline that he is -- cracks a scheme to get even more candy: bring Odie along, tempting him with a whole piece of candy of his very own.
After a full evening of trick-or-treating, Garfield sees a way to get still more loot (this cat can eat). He and Odie steal a boat to get to the houses across the river. Instead, though, they wind up on the shore of a tiny island with a spooky house inhabited by a creepy old man who weaves a tale of pirates from a century past who vowed to return from the grave and reclaim their treasure... and of course, in standard cartoon fashion, it's happening tonight.
This cartoon hits on all cylinders. It's funny, first of all -- the musical sequence where Garfield and Odie try on various costumes cracks me up, as does Garfield's maniacal repetition of "Candycandycandycandy..." The music works and the voice acting is great. Then, when the ghosts finally turn up... these aren't any cutesy cartoon ghosts. You won't see them playing tiddlywinks with Casper and Nearly Headless Nick. These are genuinely creepy ghosts -- the sort of thing that will leave your average six-year-old looking for a new pair of shorts.
Even now, as I pretend to be an adult, I love these two cartoons. I watch 'em every year. Both of them are available on DVD -- It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown comes with a double-feature of You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown (they've made like four more Peanuts Christmas specials, but it never occurred to them to give Halloween another try), while Garfield in Disguise -- sometimes called Garfield's Halloween Adventure -- is available on the Garfield Holiday Celebrations DVD, which also includes his Thanksgiving and Christmas specials. No matter how old I get, it's just not Halloween until I've seen these fantastic toons.