Halloween Hijinx by Andrea DysonIt’s Halloween and Michael and Tom are on their way home from school. The scene opens with Tom kicking a jack-o-lantern off a porch and then running to catch up to his friend who continued to walk without him. In front of them, you can see a kid wearing a ghost costume.
Tom, catching up to his friend, says “Man, I hate Halloween.”
Michael replies gruffly “You hate everything.”
Soon they catch up to the fake ghost and Tom quickly yanks the sheet off of its wearer and throws it in a nearby bush.
A little boy is revealed who starts to cry hysterically and asks Tom “Hey...what did you do that for?”
Tom turns casually and shrugs in response to the boy’s question and nonchalantly turns himself back around.
Still walking, they come close to a spooky looking house with spiked wrought iron fencing reaching high up into the sky and a Jack-o-lantern sitting on the front of the rickety old house. The roof looks like it is one rainstorm away from falling down completely and the rest of the three story house doesn’t look too stable either.
Michael points to the carved out pumpkin and goads Tom “I bet you wouldn’t ever kick that pumpkin.”
Tom takes Michael’s comment as a challenge and responds “Yeah, what’s that all about? Nobody ever trick or treats there so why do they even need a pumpkin?” As he walks toward the front gate, he says “I bet you I will kick it!”
With his hand on the gate, Tom slowly pushes it open, trying his hardest to keep it from creaking too much. When he gets in, he leaves the gate open and carefully tiptoes along the path up to the front porch where his target lies.
While Tom is moving towards his pumpkin prey, Michael hides himself in some nearby bushes to watch the events as they unfold. He bites his nails with worry, wondering if he made a mistake making that comment and hoping that his fear for his friend is unfounded.
As Tom reaches his mark, he winds up and kicks the orange fleshy carved fruit and it flies off the porch, down the steps, and splats on the walkway, leaving a big mess of pumpkin guts all over. Tom glances toward the house to see if someone was watching. At that very moment, the front door creaks open and a wrinkly old lady steps out wearing a long pointy hat and a dark black robe.
“Are you here for the Dinner Party?” She says in a deep, hoarse voice.
Tom stutters “Em..er...n..n..n..no.”
The witch looks at the boy, her head tilted to one side “Hmmm, no? Well, we could always use more Frogs Legs!” and before Tom could even reply, the Witch pulls out her wand from under her robe and flicks her wrist, pointing at the boy.
A second later, in front of the old hag, a frog croaks up at her. She then bends down to pick up Tom in his new form and cackles as she calls to her guests inside “Yum, Yum. It’s time for supper, girls!”
Michael stares in disbelief as the Witch carries his friend off to a most unfortunate fate. His heart pounding with fear, he finally gets up enough courage to move and runs off, trying hard not to scream and wondering who he can tell that will believe him.
Nobody ever saw Tom again and his poor friend Michael ended up in the loony bin for spending far too much time talking to frogs.
~ The End ~
NOTES ABOUT THE ANIMATION:
This animation will be geared towards children 9 years old and up since the mood is a bit on the dark side with some suspenseful moments and with an ending that is somewhat disturbing but left to the imagination.
Michael is an average looking boy of 11 with brown hair, fair skin and freckles and his friend Tom has blonde hair and is a little on the chubby side. He’s a bit taller than his friend but he’s the same age. Tom is a bit of a bully and Michael is a bit of an instigator. This pairing ends up with tragic results.
The Witch has the typical long, crooked nose with warts and green tinged skin. She also has a bit of a hunched back. She doesn’t care much for children that are mischievous but her main purpose in the story is to find more food. The boy turning up at her doorstep just at that moment is seen, in her eyes, as a bit of good luck.
The surroundings are of a typical American neighbourhood with each house decorated especially for Halloween night. The weather is typical of Autumn with a bit of a breeze blowing and withered brown leaves swirling on the ground, some trees still holding on to the last vestiges of summer .
In my opinion, this animation would appeal to those that enjoy celebrating Halloween and love watching horror movies and Halloween cartoon specials.
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