The Halloween Tree (1993 TV film)

The Halloween Tree
1996 VHS Release Cover
Based on	The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
Written by	Ray Bradbury
Directed by	Mario Piluso
Voices of	Leonard Nimoy Ray Bradbury Annie Barker Alex Greenwald Edan Gross Kevin Smets Andrew Keegan
Narrated by	Ray Bradbury
Composer(s)	John Debney
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Kirschner Buzz Potamkin
Producer(s)	Kunio Shimamura Mario Piluso Mark Young
Editor(s)	Gil Iverson
Running time	69 minutes
Production company(s)	Hanna Barbera Productions
Release
Original network	TBS
Original release	October 1993

The Halloween Tree is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning 1993 feature-length animated fantasy-drama television movie produced by Hanna-Barbera based on Ray Bradbury's 1972 fantasy novel of the same name. The film tells the story of a group of trick-or-treating children who learn about the origins and influences of Halloween when one of their friends is spirited away by mysterious forces. The Halloween Tree stars Ray Bradbury as the narrator and Leonard Nimoy as the children's guide, Mr. Moundshroud. Bradbury also wrote the film's Emmy Award winning screenplay.

The movie is often featured on Cartoon Network during the Halloween season. The film changes the novel's group of night travelers from eight boys to three boys and a girl. A longer limited edition "author's preferred text" of the novel was published in 2005, which included the screenplay.

The narrator (Ray Bradbury) describes one small town's preparations for Halloween night. Four friends are shown at their respective homes donning costumes excitedly: Jenny as a witch, Ralph as a mummy; Wally as a monster; and Tom as a skeleton. They plan to meet up with their best friend Pip but he doesn't appear. They go to Pip's house and see him being loaded into an ambulance. He has written them a note explaining that he is going to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy and that they should celebrate without him. They feel they cannot start Halloween without him, so they follow the ambulance to visit him at the hospital. Tom suggests a shortcut through the spooky woods: the dark and eerie ravine. They see what looks like a translucent Pip running along the ravine trail, and Tom leads them on, convinced that Pip has designed an elaborate hoax for them. The group races after Pip, who disappears near a towering and darkened mansion.