Halloween is hands-down the only holiday that actually matters to me. It is spooky, fun, full of candy: everything a girl could possibly want. But what I also love is the cheesiness and campiness you can find at this time of the year, especially with animated movies. There is a lot that people think about, specifically the ones by Tim Burton or The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I want to pay homage to some of my favorite hidden animated gems that I watch every Halloween.
- Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular (2004)/Revenge of Jimmy (2005)
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One of my top picks will always be Scary Godmother and its sequel The Revenge of Jimmy. Based on the books by Jill Thompson, the specials follow a little girl named Hannah-Marie who meets her “scary godmother” after being pranked by her cousin. The specials show her interactions with other monsters, as well as show how her cousin is more afraid than she is.
I will be honest, I know it is not a perfect special by any means and the CGI definitely has aged, but it has been an annual treat for me to watch this every year (and sometimes not in October). It played all the time on Cartoon Network when I was little, so it has a special place in my heart.
The characters, though they do not all get fully developed, are charming and have given off that cheesy vibe I see in a lot of old Halloween movies. The jokes do not always hit, but the ones that do can really make me laugh, particularly when one of the vampires is telling a story and says, “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?” I did not understand it as a child, but it makes me laugh way too much now.
Though meant for kids, I highly recommend both specials to anyone who loves nostalgia and a good cheese factor.
- Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein (1999)/Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman (2000)
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I find recent incarnations of Alvin and the Chipmunks to be highly annoying and terrible. I don’t enjoy any of the films at all and find their covers to be even worse than the already bad original pop songs they rip off of. That being said, the animated movies where they meet Frankenstein and the Wolfman have to be some of the greatest forgotten treasures from my childhood.
The stories are both very basic. In the Frankenstein film, they find Frankenstein’s monster and keep him as a friend, eventually having Dr. Frankenstein as an antagonist. In the one with the Wolfman, Alvin has nightmares that he’s going to meet the famous monster only to find his fears becoming reality later on. Neither are specifically memorable in that aspect, but there is something about them that kept my attention.
The comedy in the movie is actually pretty well done and the animation is surprisingly nice, but the best part is that the movies do not rely on covering pop songs. They both feature original music which makes the chipmunks’ annoying squeaky voices actually entertaining to hear. They aren’t relying on the fame of their songs to carry them through the films, and even with music, they do not even sing that often.
If I recommended one over the other, I would go with the one with the Wolfman because it has the Chippettes in it, and they add some good development for the film. This is a definite blast from the past that is worth looking into.
- Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)
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I love Scooby-Doo, but I especially love their older movies. I was going to go with Witch’s Ghost because it has Tim Curry and the introduction of the Hex Girls, but I literally watched Scooby-Doo Meets the Ghoul School on VHS every day when I was seven for a year. It remains one of my top 10 favorite animated movies of all time.
This is one of the “red shirt-Shaggy” films, which means it only features Shaggy, Scooby, and his nephew Scrappy. The three find themselves as gym teachers for a school called Miss Grimwood’s School for Girls, which features the daughters of the world’s most famous monsters. These include the daughters of Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster and the Phantom.
Though initially afraid of them, Shaggy and Scooby eventually realize that the five girls are actually kindhearted and fun children who, despite their love of rotten foods and playing in moats, are pretty normal. The film follows their hijinks around the school and their differences with the human military school next door, but of course, also has a villain who is trying to turn the girls evil.
It sounds a little dumb, but it is actually very entertaining. The girls all are developed enough to make them enjoyable and the villain is actually pretty creepy. I was always sad not to see them in future things, but they were actually featured on an episode of the cartoon O.K. K.O. not too long ago. This shows that people still remember it and that there is still interest.
As some of my favorite films of all time and as stuff that seems to not be in a lot of other peoples’ memories, these need to be watched by a lot more people, even if it is only once.