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A superlative in the title is a small, sometimes mean trick to arouse curiosity, but also a clever one! Especially when he flaunts an equally witty premise: Ironically, Disney icons Donald Duck, Goofy and Mickey Mouse rush through a TV special called “The scariest story ever“! And the title, which would also be a good fit for a horror movie, isn’t even a lie – because the highly entertaining trick special is about Mickey Mouse promising his Halloween guests to tell the scariest story of all time…
Part of the joke is that, of course, the Disney mascot fails disastrously. On the other hand, it’s not funny at all how Disney in Germany handles the great special: while it’s released on DVD in the US and can be found on Disney+, Germany is dependent on TV broadcasts. That’s why all Disney fans should now program their hard disk recorder! Then Today, October 30, 2022, “The Scariest Story Ever” airs on Disney Channel from 10:15 p.m.
In addition, the special will be repeated in the lunch program tomorrow, so on Halloween. The broadcast will probably be around 12:20pm – but since the airtimes on Disney Channel often change at short notice at noon, you’ll need to schedule a time buffer!
Visiting children for Halloween? This is “The Scariest Story Ever”!
Halloween in Duckburg: Donald’s cousins Huey, Dewey and Louie and Mickey’s cousins Mack and Muck have finished their candy hunt. What better way to end the evening than with a horror story? Obviously, with the scariest story ever! But if, of all people, brave Sunshine Micky tells this story, it probably won’t shock you much… Can his co-hosts Donald and Goofy give the bored toddlers hungry for more goosebumps?
The Disney special lasts just over 20 minutes a veritable gold mine of cleverly conceived, lovingly implemented horror cross-references. So Mickey’s first attempt at scaring his visitors is a passionate nod to James Whale’s unforgettable adaptation of Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff. This includes the partially verbatim warning Edward van Sloan addressed to the public before the film began. And it ends with an escapade that could have come straight from Mel Brooks…
Directors Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Eddie Trigueros, David Wasson and Paul Rudish also celebrate another masterpiece from Universal Pictures’ horror canon in The Scariest Story Ever Told: Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi in the title role, complemented by elements from Francis Ford Coppola’s “Dracula” – and ideas from Goofy and Donald. Since few horror tributes would be complete without Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, other cross-references include a framed photo of two twins staring at Mickey, hanging in Mickey’s house. This is on top of that with all kinds of items from the Disney haunted house equipped.
Disney fans can also look forward to cameos from rarely seen characters and visual parallels to Donald, Ghosts and Ghosts. The Halloween Tasty Trick Fun With Donald And Witch Hicksi’s Unlike “The Scariest Story Of All Time” Even on Disney+* to see! It goes without saying that numerous references don’t make a good special yet – so the mentioned elements are “just” the sweet treats intended to attract dubious horror and/or Disney fans.
The true joy of The Scariest Story Ever Told is in the humor, pace and aesthetic of this gem. So the special captivates with beautiful, detailed and attractively colored backgrounds, for which animator Justin Martin won a well-deserved Emmy. The lively, at times outspoken grotesque character designs make “The Scariest Story Ever” a real A feast for the eyes with Halloween flairwhile the solid directorial performances provide an enormous density of jokes.
Whether it’s absurd sights or events on the edge of the picture, mockery on cartoon slapstick or the main draw of the special: The delightful quirkiness of watching and listening to Mickey, Donald and Goofy struggle to be creepy! Mickey’s slip back into Disney kitsch and Goofy’s hair-raising exclamations are delightful. Doubly so for Donald’s impatience, which prompts a character inspired by him to clear all obstacles to action rather than build suspense. And it doesn’t matter if they planned it or not: With the increasingly irritable children the authors managed to do a little stroke of genius.
Darrick Bachman (who also worked on the gory animated series “Primal”) and his four co-writers, who also directed this special, capture surprisingly well how a small, rowdy segment of the horror crowd behaves: Something can be cleverly conceived, cleverly structured, cleverly told and passionately executed – if it doesn’t also cause panic to the core, they foam with rage.
So to end a TV tip about a production with a superlative title also with a superlative: There won’t be a funnier 20 minutes on TV today than ‘The Scariest Story Ever’.