31 Days of Horror: Animated Halloween!

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list.

Animation often gets relegated to kids' stuff. And sometimes, it is kid's stuff. The real problem isn't that this art form reaches all ages, it's that it's criminally underappreciated for what it can do, and what it is. But if you grew up in the '80s or '90s, you were around for a golden age of animation, from Primetime shows like the Simpsons to classics like Looney Tunes, and to the gamut of Saturday Morning stuff from there on out, like Animaniacs, Gargoyles, GI Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... the list goes on.

Animation doesn't get its due for lots of reasons, but it's held a special place in our lives forever, and there's some great Halloween content out there from animation favorites "adult" and otherwise. Let's dive in.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown -

Classics got that way for a reason, and possibly one of the most famous holiday specials of all time is none other than "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Snoopy and the gang were already dominating newspaper funny pages (look it up, younglings)

This brainchild of Charles Schulz first debuted on CBS in October of 1966, making this its sixtieth anniversary. It aired in Canada first, but came to the US just in time for Halloween. It was voiced by real child actors, and it had such an effect on people that it caused people to actually send candy to the studio and Charles Schulz because they felt so bad that Charlie Brown kept getting rocks. This is also where we get things like the football gag, which first appeared here, and Snoopy on two legs instead of all fours.

Also, it was just enough scary to stick with me as a little kid, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's a lot of things - a great story, an incredible piece of art, and an indelible memory for anyone who's grown up with it this past 60 years.

American Dad

From an old classic to a newer wave of animation hits, we get American Dad. This show was a Super Bowl premiere and focuses on Stan Smith, a CIA agent and his very assorted family members, which even include an actual alien from outer space and a tumor. Seth McFarlane has long been loved for his humor, and there's some really classic Halloween bits he's pulled off with this show over the years.

We loved Rabbit Ears, which sees Stan find an old fashioned TV, fall into an alternate universe that's creepy and strange, live as a baby, and ultimately discover nothing is real as it seems. There's also The Best Little Horror House in Langley Hills, where Stan takes making the best haunted house way too far, even pulling in real body parts and real serial killers to make the splash that never really takes shape. Or does it?

There's also Clearview Motel and Witches of Langley Falls, but we'll leave those to you and your streaming services later.

Rick and Morty

If you're looking for the bizarre, gross and supernatural it's always gonna be Rick and Morty that do it to the extreme. But it manages nuance, emotional depth and intellectual humor too, and that's what makes it special. Just stop saying Pickle Rick! all the time, ok?

The Fear Hole's a great horror pick - as anyone who's ever been to a Denny's out in the middle of nowhere knows, trouble can lurk there. In this case, it's a hole in the men's restroom that leads to a pit where you have to confront your deepest fears. The hole consumes fear, so it stays alive based on how freaked out it can make you.

Naturally Morty and Rick have very different journeys here, but it touches on some really deep stuff, and leaves you wondering.

Meanwhile, Night Family is an incredibly creepy episode, where Beth accidentally discover's Rick has a "night person" that he programmed to do stuff for him while he's asleep. It's a monkey's paw sort of situation - of course everyone wants one, and they get one. But it's not as straightforward as all that, and after all the time the night family spends being relegated to mundane and arduous tasks, they become resentful, angry and rebellious. From there, it's a war. A very creepy, don't go to sleep sort of war.

GI Joe - Nightmare Assault

GI Joe was a show that was can't miss for a lot of us growing up, and it was hard to imagine GI Joe as anything but the victor. But when Doctor Mindbender creates a device to let him go into "the Joes" dreams, he ruins their focus and mental alertness and risks their ability to fight off Cobra.

You get a real mix of truly terrifying/depressing things and some silly things, like Leatherneck quipping "Look Cross Country, nobody punches my buddy except me!" at the same time you're hearing this conversation between Lifeline and Low-Light:

"I've read your medical files. You have nightmares. How do you stand having them every night of your life?"

"You make do. You have no choice."

That's dark for Saturday Mornings.

Garfield's Halloween Adventure

We talked about this a little bit before, but it's worth talking about more. This one was originally aired on October 30th of 1985. I was a little young for ...well, everything, but that's part of why this stuck with me. Before I could read well, I'd still look at the comics in the newspaper, and so at 3 years old, Garfield was already a favorite.

I'm not sure if I saw it the first year it aired or not, but I do remember the plot from the perspective of a very young kid. Binky the Clown tells Garfield about trick or treating, where he can get a lot of candy, and being that he's a cat who loves to eat, he's into it.

He recruits Odie to go with him trick-or-treating, so they do, but when trick or treating they keep meeting actual ghosts instead of kids dressed in scary costumes. They run into an actual set of pirate ghosts, which I remember as terrifying (probably because I was between the ages of 3 and 5) and they trap him in the house with them. This features one of the best moments between Odie and Garfield ever, when we get to see that the two are really best friends disguised as enemies, when Odie saves Garfield's life.

It's better the less I say. See if you can track it down.

Treehouse of Horror: All of Them

Whatever you think you did pretty well, The Simpsons probably already did it, and likely did it better.

It's just a fact of life.

The Simpsons didn't make just one Halloween special that re-airs over and over, they made a habit of creating amazing, funny, spooky tales for every single season. And it's not just a regular episode in some pumpkin attire. No. These are often scary, often gruesome, often referential pieces that are among some of the best things out there in the animated world.

You think you all figured out scary versions of your name being a thing? Nope, Treehouse did that in the credits.

Treehouse of Horror is often brilliant and while there's a whole article on it already in our 31 days, it deserves top honors in any animated Halloween special article, too. We will not be taking questions at this time.