The Halloween Tree (film)

The 1993 television film *The Halloween Tree* is an animated fantasy-drama from Hanna-Barbera, adapted from Ray Bradbury's 1972 novel. It centers on a group of children out trick-or-treating whose friend is taken by mysterious forces, leading them to discover Halloween's history and influences. Bradbury himself narrates the film and wrote the screenplay, which won an Emmy. Leonard Nimoy provides the voice of Mr. Moundshroud, the children's guide. The animation was handled overseas by Fil-Cartoons in the Philippines. It first aired on TBS and in syndication on October 30, 1993, and is frequently shown on Cartoon Network during Halloween. The film alters the novel's original group of eight boys to three boys and one girl. A longer "author's preferred text" edition of the novel, which includes the screenplay, was released in 2005.

The story begins with the narrator describing a small American town's Halloween preparations. Four friends—Jenny (a witch), Ralph (a mummy), Wally (a monster), and Tom Skelton (a skeleton)—get ready to meet their best friend, Joe "Pip" Pipkin, but he doesn't show up. They find Pip being taken to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy, leaving a note telling them to celebrate without him. Unwilling to start Halloween without him, they follow the ambulance. Tom suggests a shortcut through a spooky ravine, where they see what appears to be Pip's translucent form running ahead. They chase him to a dark mansion, where a man named Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud greets them. He is disappointed they don't know what their costumes mean and reveals he is after Pip's ghost. Pip steals a jack-o'-lantern from Moundshroud's Halloween Tree. Tom begs Moundshroud to let them help bring Pip back; Moundshroud agrees on the condition they keep up with him before dawn, learning about their costumes and Halloween's origins along the way. They pursue Pip through time by tearing down circus posters to build a giant October Kite, hanging on as its tail.

Their first stop is Ancient Egypt, for the Feast of the Ghosts. They learn about mummification in a pyramid, where Ralph finds a weak Pip and scares off priests by pretending to be a mummy. Pip escapes using his pumpkin's magic. Next, they arrive at Stonehenge during the Dark Ages, witnessing Celtic druid rituals. Pip briefly appears as a black cat.