Halloween Memories I

I love Halloween and most all that's associated with it. A great deal of why I love the holiday is the personal nostalgia associated with it: Trick or Treating in 3 different neighborhoods, crazy costumes (yea, I was the Batmobile one year, so what?) getting sick on candy and:


The Great Bear Scare!!!!

This little animated ditty was one of the best parts of the holiday season. I dug it so much that my mom had to track down a VHS copy for the other 364 days of the year!

More closely resembling a slide show than a full on cartoon (due to the lack of "in-betweening") The Great Bear Scare follows the plight of the good bear folks of Bearbank who are about to be besieged by the ghoulish residents of Monster Mountain. All of the Bearbank residents are up in arms but suddenly, their savior comes on the horizon:


Ted E. Bear. Yep, can't make that up. Ol Ted thinks that everyone should just get along and embarks on a journey, up Monster Mountain, to allow the healing to begin between the bear folk and horror regs. Sure, this is all pretty cliche with the weak plot and un-bear-able bear puns (HA!) there is still a lot to love here.

The supporting Monster cast, led by ol' Drac himself


re a lot of fun and have some really entertaining dialog and while the "animation" is lacking, it is beautifully colored and some of the scenery is really great (Monster Mountain still looks B.A.). While it's not quite the caliber to be considered the Grinch's Halloween counterpart, the film has a lot of heart and is a treat for any Halloween fan, young and old.

You can check the flick out here
Interesting to note, Youtube lists the owner/user of the film as Lions Gate. Is it possible we'll see a updated version of the toon? My fingers are crossed for a cgi 3-D spectacular ala Monster vs Aliens!