Before there was Disney's Halloween Treat (or its later incarnation, A Disney Halloween), there was a mid-70s attempt at a Disney anthology Halloween show that aires as an episode of the ongoing "Wonderful World of Disney" show: "Halloween Hall o' Fame." It featured Jonathan Winters, a mainstay of 1970s comedy variety shows, as a security guard patrolling the Disney studios. At the beginning of the special, he and his dog wander into a prop room and Winters does am engaging little prop comedy routine with all the stuff he finds there. It's all fun and games until Winters comes across a crystal ball housing a live action talking pumpkin (which is also Winters, albeit in a pumpkin suit) that reminds me of the moon from that old silent "Voyage to the Moon" flick. Winters seems somewhat unfazed to find such an entity in the prop room. It's Disney, right? You have to take magical stuff in stride when you work for Disney (or, anyway, that's the way I like to imagine it).
This talking pumpkin has some eerie powers and threatens to "turn the place into a vacant lot" if Winters doesn't let him hide out until midnight. After all, it's Halloween, which, the pumpkin describes as "just the dumbest thing I ever saw....there's nothin' scary about it." But in the old days, he says, they had REAL ghosts and goblins.
The debate between Human Winters and Pumpkin Winters acts as a framing device (not the worst in the business, but far from the best) for the Halloween shorts - fully half of the special is taken up by Disney's take on "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," which is shown nearly in its entirety. The other three shorts, "Lonesome Ghosts," "Pluto's Judgement" and the one with Donald Duck and the witch, also appeared in both variations on "Disney's Halloween Treat"
This is one of those specials where, if you loved it as a kid, you'll probably like seeing it again. If not, the prop comedy routine is very funny, but if you want a Disney Halloween anthology, the other two are a better bet. No offense to Jonathan Winters, but there's no shame in coming in second or third when when one of the OTHER narrators in a framing device is a magic mirror voiced by the great Hans Conried.
See also: Monster Memories, which has a shot of Winters getting into makeup (and looking just THRILLED).
1 comments:
This was a pretty good special, mostly because it was my first experience with Donald Duck's "Trick or Treat" cartoon. Winter's performance adds to the spooky feel, especially since it felt vintage when I first saw it in the mid 80's. My only issue was clipping a bit off the Sleepy Hallow segment, which inspired me to get it a few years ago in full format on DVD.
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