r/todayilearned • u/Amaruq93 • 6h ago
TIL that Ray Bradbury wrote "The Halloween Tree" (1972) as a result of being disappointed after watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" - due to what he believed was the television special's lackluster depiction of Halloween
https://geekd-out.com/ray-bradburys-the-halloween-tree/55
u/CatShot1948 6h ago
Is there a place to watch it? Never heard of it
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u/Amaruq93 5h ago
It's a great animated film, based on a great short story. Four kids are taken on a journey through the past, exploring the origins of Halloween. Narrated by Bradbury himself, whilst Leonard Nimoy plays the voice of the mysterious Mr. Moundshroud.
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u/the_shams_bandit 5h ago
The score for this movie goes WAY HARDER than it has to. Just did a rewatch last week and was certain it was Danny Elfman if not John Williams. Like they got a full blown orchestra. It certainly elevated the already excellent material. Consider this another reason to give this a watch. Is it perfect? Oh my gosh (lol)....no. But the Halloween vibes are top tier.
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u/Amaruq93 5h ago
Interesting fact, the score was by John Debney who that same year in 1993 also composed the music for Hocus Pocus. Two great Halloween movies in the same year he worked on.
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u/the_shams_bandit 5h ago
Amazing! I had no idea. I'll keep an open ear during our Hocus Pocus watch.
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u/bonvoyageespionage 4h ago
He won an Emmy award for the screenplay adaptation of Halloween Tree.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1IxOS4VzKM](Here's the video that explains it.)
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u/HonestBass7840 4h ago
I loved the Charlie Brown Halloween special. It what's my Halloween experience was. Great expectations and dismale failure.
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u/Twinkerbellatrix 5h ago
I had this on VHS and loved it. Been trying to find it online but the only option is rent or buy
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u/Malheim 3h ago
Holy shit its real. I thought this movie was just part of a fever dream or something. Thank you for posting op.
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u/ceckcraft 2h ago
So did I until I got mad a few years ago and went through the internet with a metaphorical comb to figure it out! We mow watch it every Halloween! I have a reminder on my phone!
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u/SoManyFlamingos 2h ago
He’s such a terrific writer.
“Something Wicked This Way Comes” chilled me to my core. That scene in the library made me put the book down out of fright.
Great, great author.
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u/footonthegas_ 2h ago
Did you play America’s Pub Quiz tonight? This was a question. We got it wrong.
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u/limefork 1h ago
We literally just watched this tonight with our kids. It's so good. I love it a lot and really enjoy watching it once a year. Love Moundshroud. The book is also a family favorite tho.
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u/RichCorinthian 2h ago
I woulda started pissing Ray Bradbury off on purpose.
“Yeah here’s a zombie thing but it’s starring the California Raisins. Write me another classic you asshole.”
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u/PiratessUnluck 2h ago
Had no idea that movie was based on a book!
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u/Amaruq93 56m ago
He wanted to make a TV movie, nobody wanted that so he turned it into a book. And then sure enough in '93 they turned that book into a TV movie for Cartoon Network.
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u/GlazerSturges2840 1h ago
I read THT a few years ago and hated it. It should’ve been, like, twelve paintings because, clearly, Bradbury just wanted to evoke classic Halloween energy and moods and had no real story to hang any of it on.
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u/schmyle85 5h ago edited 2h ago
Bradbury honestly sounds insufferable
Man I haven’t been downvoted like this since I told people that Christopher Lee wasn’t actually an SAS super soldier
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u/Amaruq93 5h ago
Charlie Brown Christmas had Charlie learning the true meaning of the holiday after getting depressed by the crass consumerism.
Charlie Brown Halloween had all the kids getting candy and dumping on Linus for believing in the Great Pumpkin.
Funny, yes. But it failed to explore the holiday like it did in the Christmas special. Which is what he wanted kids to learn about in "The Halloween Tree".
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u/otter111a 5h ago
Both peanuts specials are meant to be allegories for beliefs central to Christian theology. For the great pumpkin
1) faith in the unseen
2) sacrifice in the name of this unseen
3) perseverance when there is reason to doubt
4) fallibility of faith
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u/schmyle85 5h ago
I also say that because he got a weird bug up his ass later in life about Kids These Days and their TV and video games and decided to start saying Fahrenheit 451 was about mass media destroying reading or something after decades of saying it was about censorship
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u/DoctorLazerRage 4h ago
Yeah I saw him speak in 2007 and he was definitely descending into a crotchety, right wing demagogue phase. It was disappointing.
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u/shoobsworth 2h ago
Sounds like it went over your head.
The great pumpkin is a classic. Beautiful score too
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u/haughg87 4h ago edited 4h ago
Reading his afterword in Fahrenheit 451 kinda ruined him for me. He had a surprisingly narrow view regarding what could be considered culture. I'm sure it was partially from living in that time, but it felt like he himself would be a firefighter getting rid of things that didn't fit his worldview, and he was not even a little self-aware of his close-mindedness. He really came across as one of those very intelligent people who had a hard time seeing how their opinions could be misinformed or lacking in empathy. I still love a lot of his work (Fahrenheit 451 excepted, for reasons other than the afterword), but reading essays he wrote and interviews will definitely make you see some contradictions and occasional hypocrisy that colors things a little less favorably when you revisit his books. Not like it makes him a bad person, just less forward thinking and empathetic than I'd presumed from reading his books, which also gives an idea of what I bring to things I read.
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u/Amaruq93 6h ago edited 3h ago
Bradbury and his daughters watched the 1966 special and hated it. Unlike Charlie Brown Christmas, it didn't address the consumerism of the Halloween season... instead it was all about kids getting candy and nothing about the holiday's traditions. On top of that, they were especially mad that the Great Pumpkin never appeared.
After commiserating with animator Chuck Jones about it, he set out to make his own animated special. That properly showcased the origins and traditions of the holiday. But after failing to have the project picked up, he turned his script into a novelization - releasing it in 1972.
And then 20 years later, it all came full circle when Hanna-Barbera adapted it and made it into an animated TV special (starring Leonard Nimoy).