Author: Gerry Maravilla
For college students, it’s customary to get devoured by readings, papers, midterms and finals. Many of us also take it upon ourselves to join clubs, organizations and sports teams. Add in jobs and before you know it, your entire day is planned. It’s in the most stressful times that we forget to notice the calendar inching closer and closer to October 31. Before you know it, it is the night before Halloween and if you actually make the decision to celebrate the holiday, you must scramble for a last minute costume.
When we are kids, Halloween is one of those days we live for. As a kid, I would spend most of late September waiting for stores to haul out Back to School supplies and bring in the Halloween decorations and costumes. I put a lot of thought into my costume and my daydreams for the entire month of October revolved around me trick-or-treating in my prized costume. The day of masked monsters and sugar overloads never got here soon enough.
In the mess of your busy life this month, I would recommend taking some time, even if it is just an hour and half, to enjoy some old Halloween specials from your childhood. As a kid, I would begin October by watching Garfield’s Halloween Adventure, where the orange cat becomes enamored with the idea of free candy and ventures forth on a quest to capture as much of it as he can.
What always stood out to me the most was a scene in which Garfield sings about the troubles of finding a perfect costume, which echoed my own annual struggle. Wandering down the aisles of various stores, I would ponder some of the same question-skeleton or a pirate, Darth Vader or Wolverine, the Wolf man or the Creature form the Black Lagoon? As a child, I could afford these hours of time that I could never dream of wasting now.
Mad Monster Party is an older Halloween film created by the Stop-Animation masters Rankin and Bass in 1969. The film is about Dr. Frankenstein’s retirement party in which he leaves the precious special formula to destroy all matter to his geeky nephew Felix Flankin. This is much to the chagrin of the world’s monsters as Dracula, the Mummy, the Hunchback and more all vie to murder Flankin and claim the formula for their own. This classic features Phyllis Diller as the voice of the Bride of Frankenstein and the late Boris Karloff as the voice of Dr. Frankenstein himself. There are several musical numbers and plenty of puns, gags and physical comedy all acted out by puppets.
Besides the terrific use of stop-motion technology, Mad Monster Party‘s appeal comes from its ability to gather every possible monster you can think of from various cultures, stories and films. The childlike charm of the movie’s style has its roots in Halloween Americana. Watching it, you cannot help but think of classic 60s paper decorations, taste the sweetness of popcorn balls and smell the cheap, stiff plastic of older Halloween costumes, straight from the box.
Mad Monster Party was also one of Tim Burton’s major influences for The Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton’s character design, Henry Selick’s stop-motion direction and Danny Elfman’s score and lyrics have cemented the movie as both a Halloween and Christmas classic. It is practically impossible to not sing along with the clever songs that get stuck in your head so easily. Disney is re-releasing the film this month in 3D at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, so this source of holiday celebration is only a 20-minute drive away.
It would be a crime to talk about Halloween specials without mentioning It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. “I got a rock” is one of the best lines in cartoon history and not a year has gone by where I do not make time to watch this timeless classic. There are not enough words for the wit, humor and endearing sincerity present in this short cartoon.
I may be idealizing Halloween and its traditions, but it’s something that has to be done. If not, we will never make time for silly cartoons, cheap costumes and sugary sweets. A pure childish enjoyment comes from this holiday and without idealization, many of us just won’t find the time for it. Sometime this October, enjoy one if not more of these films, and try to remember what it was like this time of month before papers, midterms and reading became the priority. Halloween is one of life’s small joys and it would be a shame to let a busy life deny you of it.
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