Happy Halloween! A day for eating candy, dressing up in costumes, and watching your favorite spooky movies.
Walt Disney loved both a good laugh and a good scare, and Disney movies and rides have been shaping America’s Halloween celebrations and entertainment for many years, from his early cartoon shorts to his company’s more recent movie blockbusters. From dancing skeletons to lonesome ghosts to the terrifying Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, there’s plenty of options for scary and silly entertainment this Oct. 31. And if you didn’t have these animated classics already in your Halloween viewing lineup, as the Haunted Mansion ghost host would say, there’s always room for one more.
Its animation is more simplistic than later Walt Disney masterpieces, but it still shows the attention to comedic detail and an original approach to animation that would always characterize Disney animation. You can see hints of future Disney work too — such as the howling dog with a head like Pluto and the idea of silly spooks jumping out of graves (Haunted Mansion-style). The short was released in 1929, only the year after Mickey Mouse was invented, as one of Disney’s “Silly Symphonies,” closely harmonizing characters’ movements with music.
The eight-minute Technicolor short was produced by Walt Disney, directed by Burt Gillett, and animated by Izzy Klein, Ed Love, Milt Kahl, Marvin Woodward, Bob Wickersham, Clyde Geronimi, Dick Huemer, Dick Williams, Art Babbitt and Rex Cox. The vocal cast included [legendary voice talents] Walt Disney, Clarence Nash, Pinto Colvig and Billy Bletcher… Many children of the 1960s and ’70s became fans of this cartoon after it was sold in an edited and silent version as a cartridge for the Fisher-Price Movie Viewer, a small crank-operated toy.
Related: Washington Irving, the American Revolution, and the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow
Finally, last but most certainly not least, is Disney’s most iconic spook: the Headless Horseman. This eerie equestrian was originally a character in Washington Irving’s classic ghost story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Irving mixed history and fantasy in his tale, claiming the horseman was the Hessian soldier beheaded by an American cannonball at the 1776 Battle of White Plains. The “galloping Hessian of the Hollow,” who haunted the very churchyard you can visit today (I have), was re-popularized by Walt Disney’s “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.”
“Three of the world’s great storytellers – Walt Disney, Bing Crosby, Basil Rathbone – bring you two of the most fabulous characters ever screened!” The 1949 theatrical trailer told moviegoers. And 75 years later, the film’s second half, the story of Ichabod Crane as narrated and sung by megastar Bing Crosby, is an iconic Halloween favorite.
There are numerous other spooky Disney toons and live-action films to enjoy this year, from Mickey’s 1920s “Haunted House” onwards. But make some time this year to celebrate Halloween with the dancing skeletons, lonesome ghosts, and fearsome Headless Horseman who have been scaring and entertaining Americans for almost a century! Happy Halloween!