Halloween, my second favorite holiday of the year, is a day of tricks, treats, scares, costumes, and movies! No matter how old I get, I will always dress up each year, not so much as go trick-or-treating. During the month of October, schools will decorate for Halloween, even colleges! There is even an event on Freeform that does a “31 Nights of Halloween” marathon of classic Halloween movies. I watched this marathon when I was younger, and the animated Halloween movies were the best in my opinion. The way they were produced (my favorites included stop-motion), the visuals, and the soundtracks in these animated films have always intrigued me more so than live-action films. They are generally targeted towards a younger audience, but that does not mean you can’t watch a classic.
Binge-watching on Halloween day is a personal tradition of mine to get into the Halloween spirit. I recommend this to everyone, as you can never be too old to watch kid movies! Below I have listed my personal top five picks of animated Halloween movies ever made, some you may undoubtedly recognize or know, and some you may have no clue about, but I implore you to give it a watch!
1. The Nightmare Before Christmas
This animated stop-motion film is a staple in all Halloween movies, and dare I say the best one. Everyone has at least heard of Jack Skellington, the King of Halloween, and of his Halloween town. Every Halloween they put on a spooky celebration, outdoing their previous ones year after year after year… and Jack gets bored of the same routine. He stumbles into a magical tree that transports him into another world unlike he has ever seen before: Christmas Town. After exploring this new realm, he returns home with some souvenirs and presents them to everyone during a town meeting. They love it, however, they only see what they want to see, and that is a Halloween take on Christmas. They all end up ruining Christmas for the normal people on Earth with their scary antics, but in the end, Jack does the right thing and lets a kidnapped Santa Clause go free to save Christmas for all. I love how it adds two holidays in one, so you can also watch it during Christmas as well, which is coming up soon!
2. Corpse Bride
Can you imagine being accidentally engaged to a corpse and whisked to the underworld? Well, this is a situation a young man named Victor Van Dort found himself in! He was arranged into marriage with the human Victoria Everglot to increase his family’s status in society while her family was in need of money urgently. As he practices his wedding vows out loud in the woods, Emily’s body comes out from the ground and says, “I do.” She whisks him away to the underworld, and Victor, rightfully confused, wants to leave. However, during their time together in the underworld, they find out they have a lot in common (aside from being dead/alive). He agrees to marry Emily in the land of the living and drink poison so he can permanently be a member of the underworld. As he is about to drink poison, Emily spots Victoria secretly watching it unfold, and Emily has a sad moment of realization. She never got her wedding, and yet she was about to take someone else’s. She sacrifices her one wish for the happiness of Victoria and the well-being of Victor, for them to live a life that she couldn’t. Her killer is rightfully discovered and punished in the end, karma amiright? Emily finally has peace and as she looks towards the moon, she disseminates into butterflies and is forever free from her pain and sorrow. It is quite darker than most children’s films, however I think that’s what made it unique, and its use of stop-motion as well gives it realness.
3. The Book of Life
This animated film is geared towards the Mexican holiday, “The Day of the Dead,” a celebration to celebrate the lives of family and friends who have passed away. It can also be seen as a subtle Halloween movie, with a very cute romance blooming between Manolo and Maria, childhood friends turn lovers! Manolo, Maria, and their friend Joaquin grew up in a small town in San Angel, Mexico. Maria ends up leaving and Manolo and Joaquin wait for her to return, and to profess their love for her. As adults, they reunite and there’s some tension between the two men for Maria’s hand in marriage, but Maria is not having it. The two gods, Xibalba (in charge of the land of the forgotten) and La Muerte (in charge of the land of the remembered) root for Joaquin and Manolo respectively.
When Maria gets bitten by a snake sent by Xibalba and is presumed dead, Manolo decides to die to get to the land of the remembered to be with her. However, he was tricked by Xibalba and Maria was perfectly fine. Manolo goes through a long journey to go back to the living world, and along the way, he meets his dead family, including his mother whom he had loved and missed deeply. He also has an internal battle with his love for guitar playing and following in his family’s footsteps and becoming a bullfighter. In the end, he chooses to continue with music with the support of his family and is able to come back to the living world to be with Maria. There was another enemy they had to fight, but the whole town joined in battle to save their home. They win, Manolo and Maria get married, and it’s a happily ever after.
It’s a beautiful love story of two people who would die for each other, and the film spread knowledge about the Mexican holiday for everyone to learn about. Representing cultures to this extent is rare in these films, but recently it’s slowly turning around. Everyone should be able to see a part of themselves on screen so that the joy can be spread everywhere.
4. Hotel Transylvania
This beloved animated film is an ultimate classic. A vampire dad runs his own monster-only hotel, and his daughter Mavis has always lived there. Soon, she gets tired of staying at the hotel and wants to explore the world. Her very worried, overprotective dad does not allow her to. On her 118th birthday, she meets Johnny, a human disguised as a monster with the help of Dracula to keep him safe since he accidentally stumbled onto a monster hotel! The two immediately zing, a sign that a monster has found their true love, similar to how humans fall in love at first sight (cute right!) Over the course of the film, Mavis and Johnny bond and learn more about each other, Mavis still oblivious to Johney’s disguise. When all is revealed, Mavis gets mad at both her dad and Johney. Johnny decides to book a plane to go home, but Dracula goes after him during the day, where he is most vulnerable. After lots of apologizing, and understanding, everyone forgives each other, and it ends with a party for Mavis’ birthday! Monster, vampire, unicorn, love is love and I think that was the message of the movie: to love whoever you want.
5. Coraline
A young, blue-haired girl, Coraline, moves into a new house with her family, but that house is more than what it seems. She soon discovers the magical side of the house and finds a portal to the “Other” world. There, she is much happier with her life, getting what she wants, having parents she likes, and no one annoying her. But it’s too good to be true. Wybie, her neighbor, befriends her and he warns her about the dangers of the house, explaining that his grandmother’s twin sister went missing there. Every time she visits this “Other” world, it gets more and more sinister, and her “Other Mother” real intentions are revealed. She wants to own Coraline’s soul. With the help of the “Other” versions of her dad, neighbors, and Wybie, she is able to escape this world. Her real parents don’t believe her when she tries to explain what happened, but she lets it go considering everything is fine now, right?
conclusion
These movies are my personal favorites, and even outside spooky season, I would watch them for entertainment after a long day of classes and homework. However, to experience a greater Halloween mood, I recommend adding these to your watchlist for next Halloween! Remember, you can’t beat the classics!