The Halloween Tree

I THINK this was a made-for-TV movie. In any case, it's a movie-lengthed cartoon, based on the book by Ray Bradbury, and featuring the voices of Leonard Nimoy and Ray Bradbury himself.
Like much of Bradbury's work, it veers into hammy nostalgia at times, but quickly gets stranger, as friends of a dying boy, Pip, travel through time, learning the history of the various holidays and customs which are reflected in the modern celebrations of Halloween. Sometimes it's fascinating, sometimes it's scary, and sometimes it's a little bit dull.

It's a shame that it drags a bit in the middle, because it starts out brilliantly, with the best Spooky House on the Edge of Town in the business, and the most genuinely spooky old man residing inside it - finally, a spooky old man who actually DOES turn out to be a creep!

In fact, this probably holds the record for the scariest special. And the most educational, despite the fact that Bradbury doesn't always get the facts right. Don't get pagans started on this one.

For one thing, in paticular, it deserves a lot of credit: the ending (which I won't spoil), is just about the best ending of all the Halloween specials, and certainly the least predictable. Bradbury may have been sentimental, but he certainly didn't pull any punches. Suffice it to say that the ending certainly doesn't involve Moundshroud, the weird old guy in the spooky old house, turning out to be a sweet old man who gives away great Halloween candy, and it certainly doesn't involve a case of disco fever.

This came out a few years too late to be noticed the same way other Halloween specials were - by 1993, most of them were no longer being aired regularly, especially not in prime time. It's a shame, too. This (especially edited down to fit an hourlong format) would have ranked among the best of 'em. Cartoon Network aired it for a while in the late 90s, and probably for a while thereafter.

Hard to find online, but here's a music video tribute: