Trick or Treat

This was a fun bouncy animation in all its Halloween shlock that can only come from Disney during that period and in any other context outside of a Disney Cartoon, would be utterly horrifying. It's a great little story that progresses smoothly with some enjoyable Halloween imagery.

The delightful voice talent of June Foray (the original Granny from Loony Tunes, Cindy Loo Who from The Grinch, Lucifer from Cinderella, and Rocky the Flying Squirrel, just to name a few) who owned the part of Hazel and made this fun character delightfully colorful, was the heart of this little number.

Over all a non-serious goofy little number with some standard fare music, great voice talent, and fun Halloween visuals.

After Donald Duck plays a cruel Halloween prank on his pants-hating nephews, the three team-up with Witch Hazel and her broom to teach him a lesson about 'tricks and treats.' As of this writing (2017), this short is now 65 years old. And it holds up 100%, both for its animation and its music. Far too many movies or cartoons become dated, but this one is truly timeless. In a mere eight minutes, Disney found a way to show us the spirit of Halloween, and throw in a real witch just for fun.

If there is anything at all dated about the short (and this is a big maybe), it is the use of the devil costume. Although Halloween has probably gotten more gory and creepy since this cartoon came out, I feel like actual devil imagery has decreased and perhaps become even taboo.

On Halloween night, a witch is seen getting into the Halloween spirit, scaring things, but is scared of a jack-o-lantern. Hiding, she observes Huey, Dewey, and Louie, in costume, trick-or-treating. However, the house they go to is their Uncle Donald's, who decides to hoard all the candy he has for himself and play mean tricks on his own nephews, like giving them firecrackers and pouring water on the poor lads (and this was back when kids watching these short cartoon knew better than to do the slapstick they see on them). Thankfully, the witch, Hazel, feels bad about what she witnessed and meets the three ducklings and happy to see they believe in witches, befriends them and decides to help them get back at their uncle, as Hazel and the three team up to pull the greatest trick on Donald.

This is a neat classic Donald Duck cartoon. This is one of the few that actually has the witch as the hero instead of a bad guy like most literature and media poses them as. Also, the short has a good song to go with it "Trick Or Treat For Halloween" which explains the moral the episode teaches about not being stingy, especially with trick-or-treaters, as if you are going to trick them, you better be prepared to be tricked back.

With it being that time of year, I thought it was a perfect night to watch this Donald Duck cartoon taking place on Halloween. He sees his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie knocking on his door and saying, "Trick or treat" but instead of giving them candy, he gives them firecrackers which explode and has a pail above pour water on them! So a Witch Hazel appears to them and offers her services to exact revenge. And does she ever! It's often funny seeing Donald get his comeuppance and this short was no exception, that's for sure! By the way, while there was also a Witch Hazel in a couple of Bugs Bunny cartoons, obviously that one's not the same as this one here though both were voiced by June Foray in the same cadence. Happy Halloween, everybody!

This is one of those Disney Halloween cartoons that has become a viewing tradition for most families. It is in the Halloween Haunts Cartoon Collection from Disney, and was featured in A Disney halloween, aka Halloween Treat. When Donald cheats his nephews out of candy for Trick or Treating, Witch Hazel helps the boys get even. You can probable guess who wins this battle!!!