It's The Great Halloween Tree
Why Ray Bradbury Rules, and Charlie Brown...
Last week we shared our favorite spooky reads with you. Did you read Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree yet? No?! Rude. While it might be too late to read the story, you still have time to watch the animated film.
Each family has their own traditions for Halloween, but many families have at one point or another watched It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. First airing in 1966, it has been broadcast every year on television until 2020, when Apple TV bought it and made it an Apple TV+ exclusive (bah, humbug indeed). Ray Bradbury watched it live on television with his two daughters. Despite the general public’s reception to the special as overwhelmingly positive, they were not pleased. Bradbury was disappointed that the Halloween special did not address the consumerism of the holiday, and lacked information about the origins and traditions, unlike A Charlie Brown Christmas which they enjoyed when it aired the year prior. His daughters hated that “the Great Pumpkin” never emerged, and felt let down by the lack of a magical ending. He wrote:
“I thought the Great Pumpkin was just dreadful. So mean. It was dreadfully mean, to anticipate the ‘Great Pumpkin’ arriving for a half hour and when it was over my kids sat there, and they were depressed. And so was I. I thought it was dreadful of Mr. Schulz not to know that you can’t build up this kind of need in people to see the Great Pumpkin, and not have him show up one way or another. It’s a shame. I thought he knew better.”
So feeling inspired, Bradbury painted this oil painting for his daughters, which led to the notion that he himself could create the Halloween animated special that his family desired. Thus The Halloween Tree was born.
MGM agreed to produce the animated special, and animator Chuck Jones loved the idea. However, MGM was forced to close their entire animation department soon after in 1970. Unable to move forward with the animated special, in 1972, Bradbury decided to publish it as a novella instead. Ironically, the cover of The Halloween Tree does not include Bradbury’s original oil painting, but features illustrations from his frequent collaborator Joseph Mugnaini, who designed the covers of many of his novels including Fahrenheit 451.
In 1993, The Halloween Tree was granted new life, when Hanna-Barbera agreed to produce the animated film, with Ray Bradbury narrating and Leonard Nimoy starring as the voice of Mr. Moundshroud. The characters in The Halloween Tree discover the origins of the traditions of Halloween, traveling through ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, visiting Celtic Druids, medieval Paris, and learning about Dia de los Muertos in Mexico. Interestingly, the score was composed by John Debney, who that same year also composed the score for another Halloween classic, Hocus Pocus.
In October 1993, with the release of the Hanna-Barbera animated film, Bradbury wrote:
“Run back with me to the day after Halloween 1966. While sharing drinks with Chuck Jones, creator of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, he described an amazing encounter from the night before.
‘Some kids rang my bell,’ Chuck said, ‘and when I opened the door they cried ‘Trick or Treat!’ I yelled back, ‘Trick!’ which stunned and surprised them. So one little boy ran out on the lawn and stood on his head! In the old days, if I hadn’t handed out treats, they would have soaped my windows or firecrackered my mailbox. I stared at all these kids, dressed up as witches, mummies, and ghosts and asked them why they dressed that way. No one knew. They had no roots in the past!’
“I countered with my own tale. “Every Halloween for years,’ I said, “I go visit my father’s grave. Friends protest, ‘Don’t you have any respect for the dead?’ To which I reply, ‘It’s because I do respect the dead that I go.’ That’s what Halloween is, but we have forgotten.
‘Shucks,’ said Chuck, ‘why don’t we make a cartoon to teach people why they wear bones and sneeze mummy dust?’ So we started work on a half hour television special about the history of Halloween.”
On the 35th Anniversary of the novella, Disney honored the then 87-year-old Bradbury by debuting “The Halloween Tree” at Disneyland California, near the Golden Horseshoe in Frontierland. At the dedication ceremony, Bradbury exclaimed:
“I belong here in Disneyland, ever since I came here fifty years ago. I’m glad I’m going to be a permanent part of the spirit of Halloween at Disneyland.”
Ray Bradbury and Walt Disney were friends, with Bradbury serving as consultant for the ride “Spaceship Earth” in Epcot. Disney would later produce two of his screenplays Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1999). Bradbury credited his love of Halloween to Disney’s 1929 Silly Symphony short The Skeleton Dance, which he watched as a child. Bradbury was able to visit the tree for several Halloweens before his death in 2012. “The Halloween Tree” at Disneyland has remained an annual tradition.
Despite Bradbury winning a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program, most people have not seen the animated film The Halloween Tree, and it has yet to amount to Bradbury’s vision as a holiday classic and true rival to It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I propose we change this. So tonight, as all the little goblins and ghoulies and witches are counting their saccharine bounties, take a break from Charlie and discover what spooky season is truly about.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!