The Scary Godmother books by Jill Thompson were a series of Halloween related spoofs on the fairy godmother trope. While it's hard to say how well known the original books are today, they did inspire a made for television adaptation called Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular. Created by legendary CG animation company Mainframe Entertainment (or Rainmaker today), this special has been regarded as somewhat of a cult classic since its release in 2003 (2004 on Cartoon Network). Looking back on the special today, while definitely dated in some capacity, its corny embracement of Halloween is still delightful.
The special focuses on a little girl named Hannah Marie, who encounters the title character and her many friends for a Halloween party, while her cousin Jimmy and his friends want to trick or treat without her. With that premise intact, the special's main theme is overcoming your fears, as the Scary Godmother herself tries to show Hannah that not all monsters are as bad as they appear. The many acquaintances around Scary Godmother include her flamboyant roommate Mr. Skully Pettibone, Harry the ravenously dramatic werewolf, Bug-A-Boo the fuzzy monster who only scares kids for work, and the vampire parents Count Max and Countess Ruby, and son Orson. In addition to some phenomenal voice acting courtesy of Tabitha St. Germain, Scott MnNeil, Gary Chalk and more, these characters make the special work from their corny personalities and witty banter. Meanwhile, the older kids Hanna is around are a bit too pompous and stupid for their own good, although their payoff is well earned and only further adds into the point to never doubt the consequences of your actions.
Going more into the special's quality, perhaps the most infamous aspect of the whole show is its delightfully dated animation. The backgrounds and environments themselves appear to reflect a watercolor approach to fit the idea that this is a storybook come to life. Meanwhile, the character designs reflect an uncanny inspiration to stop-motion halloween films of years prior, allowing their movements to feel janky and distorted while still going all out in broad acting and gestures. At a time when people behind computer animation had no proper understanding of the technology's limitations, products like this stick out well in how much they went all out in embracing the unlimited possibilities of animation as an artform. Also, the music score fits in with the cheesy tone so well that it's hard not to dance around whenever the characters do at the same time, especially when the mood gets intense. Perhaps the only real downside is the lack of proper musical numbers, but that would have padded out too much time to begin with, so the music at least gets the job done as well as anything else.
20 years since its release and Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular still holds up as a wonderfully corny modern Halloween classic. In a day and age where most Halloween specials are either focused more on the fear factor or mere kiddy fodder, specials like these come around to mix in the scares and humor without losing respect for its target audience. As the special would later result in a sequel and become popular in recent years thanks to social media, it's no wonder that it's deemed a cult favorite today. If you ever have time this Halloween season, this special is waiting for you to check out.
