Tim Burton's Hansel and Gretel (1983)

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I love Halloween. By proxy, I'm a big fan of Halloween specials as well. Some people follow the NFL, I follow the Great Pumpkin. While various Halloween specials are produced every year... I prefer the old ones. Because nostalgia? Maybe, but also because they were vastly different. The gloves were off, obviously too much fun being had behind the scenes, or maybe it was a good opportunity to try something different. The more obscure the special, the more out there, the better. Such is the case with today's post.

The video above is a Disney Channel Halloween special from 1983. At the time a young Tim Burton was a Disney employee and made this short for the company. It was literally only shown once, on Halloween in 1983. Even as a Halloween special it was a little too dark. Even for Tim Burton. It might be cursed.

I've used the term fever dream often to describe things here and... that's a nice way of putting it. We have a retelling of Hansel and Gretel which is a pretty good story for Halloween. You know, they get lost in the woods and find a witches house. In this telling, their step mother tries to get rid of them by getting them lost in the woods (involving a robot duck), which leads to the witches house and some of the weirdest hellscape I've ever seen on film. You'll have to pause it occasionally.

Enjoy!

Originally Posted 8/28/2020

Batman Bell Grande

Tim Burton's Hansel and Gretel (1983)

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I love Halloween. By proxy, I'm a big fan of Halloween specials as well. Some people follow the NFL, I follow the Great Pumpkin. While various Halloween specials are produced every year... I prefer the old ones. Because nostalgia? Maybe, but also because they were vastly different. The gloves were off, obviously too much fun being had behind the scenes, or maybe it was a good opportunity to try something different. The more obscure the special, the more out there, the better. Such is the case with today's post.

The video above is a Disney Channel Halloween special from 1983. At the time a young Tim Burton was a Disney employee and made this short for the company. It was literally only shown once, on Halloween in 1983. Even as a Halloween special it was a little too dark. Even for Tim Burton. It might be cursed.

I've used the term fever dream often to describe things here and... that's a nice way of putting it. We have a retelling of Hansel and Gretel which is a pretty good story for Halloween. You know, they get lost in the woods and find a witches house. In this telling, their step mother tries to get rid of them by getting them lost in the woods (involving a robot duck), which leads to the witches house and some of the weirdest hellscape I've ever seen on film. You'll have to pause it occasionally.

Enjoy!

I Miss Batmania

If you Google Batmania, you'll get a million results including a Wikipedia entry on a fanzine probably written by said fanzine creator. Though for an entire generation of folks, Batmania specifically refers to the media blitz surrounding the 1989 Batman movie. Toys, games, fast food tie ins, it's the kind of thing I love. It continued for each Batman movie up until 1997's Batman Forever.

Following Batman movies had various tie ins and stuff, but not the awesome craziness of a Batman cheeseburger at McDonald's (back when you wanted to eat there). While which series of Batman movies are 'the best' is often debated in nerd circles, I'm pretty biased to this era. Not just for the Batmania, because dude, I love those movies.

Batmania

When it comes down to favorite versions of Batman, hands down mine's the Tim Burton movies. Always has been, always will. For me, Batman movies usually overdoes the dark and gritty or goes overboard with the whiz bang. The 1989 Batman was on even level with those things and just plain fun to boot. The assorted merchandise that came with it was part of the fun too. For a while that Batman logo on glossy black was everywhere and who couldn't love that? Though, even though it's hard to find evidence of now, the neon colors on black of Batman Returns merchandise are far superior in my opinion. It's hard not to love a bright orange line art of the Batmobile on a black t-shirt with technical specifications. Damn near impossible to be exact.

Thinking of the toy line that came with the 1989 movie by Toy Biz before they made Marvel figures, not only am I filled with just great thoughts of how good Toy Biz figures were before they started doing Marvel Legends (the Legends get all the focus), but also my discovery of the line. We regularly got catalogs from Warner Brothers filled with merchandises tied into the studios various movies and tv shows modeled by the stars of said shows and movies. One fateful late spring afternoon the newest edition of said catalog came and it was majorly Batman themed stuff. Almost nothing but Batman stuff including the toys that could be ordered before they were in stores! I think I read that catalog cover to cover a million times.