When people think about Halloween-themed animated specials, the first that comes to mind is usually It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. However, there’s a lesser-known special that’s actually quite scary. Featuring everyone’s favorite fat orange tabby cat, Garfield’s Halloween Adventure aired on Oct. 30, 1985.
At the 1986 Emmys ceremony, it won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. So if you don’t believe us, listen to the critics on this one.
‘Garfield’s Halloween Adventure’ Has No Right to Be This Creepy
Originally titled Garfield in Disguise, the special opens with Garfield waking only to realize it’s Halloween. He convinces Odie to dress up as pirates so they can go trick-or-treating. As they hope to fill their buckets and bellies with candy, ghost pirates soon loot them. They stumble onto an abandoned mansion and meet an old man who warns them of an urban legend that pirates would return 100 years later to reclaim their treasure. As the 24-minute special goes on, the tone grows darker and more sinister, which creator Jim Davis was hoping for. “I wanted to go somewhere that would at least scare 4-year-olds,” he told A.V. Club in 2014.
Not only that, as family-friendly as it may seem today, Davis admitted they toed the line of what Standards and Practices allowed for scares in the ‘80s. “…It hard to grasp because they said, ‘scaring kids.’ [Laughs.] ‘Too scary.’ We could have the ghosts, but we couldn’t have anyone touch anyone else in a threatening way. It couldn’t be anything that appeared to be physical harm.”
They find themselves stuck on the deserted island, and when the clock strikes midnight, the ghost ship returns as promised. They get chased by the terrifying-looking ghosts (that are, in fact, nightmare-inducing to this day). Eventually, though, they make it home safe and sound.
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