Trick or Treat

"A Donald Duck Cartoon"

Alternate Titles

"Donald et la Sorcière" - France

"Donald, Geister und Gespenster" - Germany

Release Date October 19, 1952

Synopsis

Huey, Dewey and Louie visit Donald's house for Hallowe'en. but Donald turns the tricks on them. Seeing them rebuffed, Witch Hazel decides to help out with their revenge on Donald.

Characters

Donald Duck

Huey, Dewey and Louie

Witch Hazel

Beelzebub

Credits

Director : Jack Hannah

Animation

Bill Justice

Volus Jones

Don Lusk

George Kreisl

Story : Ralph Wright

Effects Animation : Dan MacManus

Layout and Background : Yale Gracey

Music : Paul Smith

Background Vocals : The Mellomen

Videos

United States

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Cartoon Classics : Second Series : Volume 14 : Halloween Haunts

The Black Cauldron

Germany

Donald Superstar and Co.

Italy

Paperino e i Racconti Misteriosi

Laserdiscs

United States

Donald's Scary Tales / Halloween Haunts

Japan

Scary Tales

Disney Cartoon Festival

DVD

United States

The Black Cauldron

Mickey's House of Villians

United Kingdom

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Walt Disney's Laugh Factory with Donald

France

Walt Disney's Rigolons avec Donald

Germany

Walt Disney's Donald's Spassfabrik

Television

The Ink and Paint Club : #34 : Donald's Nephews

Walt Disney Presents : All About Magic

Music

mp3 of "Trick or Treat" (53 seconds, 829K)

Technical Specifications

Color Type : Technicolor

Animation type : Standard

Sound mix : Mono

Aspect ration : 1.37 : 1

Negative format : 35mm

Print format : 35mm

Cinematographic process : Spherical

Original language : English

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Comments

The most obvious comparison of the character "Witch Hazel" is to another character with the same name. "Trick or Treat" was released in 1952. Two years later, Warner Brothers released a Bugs Bunny cartoon entitled "Bewitched Bunny" directed by Chuck Jones and featuring a much different witch named Hazel. To make matter more confusing, they were both voiced by the same artist; June Foray. (At least for most of the Warners shorts. Initially her voice was provided by Bea Benederette.) Foray recalled the situation in an interview in the December, 1995 issue of Animation Magazine:

"I did Witch Hazel as a short at Disney. She was a very funny character that I created the voice for. And Chuck Jones loved it so much that he called me over to Warner Bros. to do her again. I went over there and they said, 'You're going to do Witch Hazel.' And I thought, how in hell are they doing to do that? Disney owns it, and they're so litigious. But we did it. Chuck just went ahead and did it! So I asked him, just a couple years ago, 'How the heck did you ever do that and get away with it, taking a character out from under Disney's nose?' And he said, 'Because it was an alcohol rub! He didn't own the name!' So Disney couldn't capitalize on that, or stop Chuck because it was already a copyrighted name."

The two characters are quite different, however. Consider switching the two roles and think how things might have changed. The "Disney Hazel" would probably have wanted to help Hansel and Gretel (in "Bewitched Bunny") while the "Warners Hazel" would have been overjoyed at the thought of preparing duck soup.

(Note : I have recieved a report of a third "Witch Hazel" character who shows up in a "Tom and Jerry" short, but I've yet to be able to verify this myself.)

From David Gerstein : While it's easy to see some similarity between Disney's Witch Hazel and the later Warners one, we've forgotten another: Little Lulu's Witch Hazel. Created by John Stanley, this comics character was contemporary with Disney's Hazel (Halloween 1952), and Chuck Jones' Hazel bears much more resemblance to her -- personality-wise -- than to Disney's. Both Jones and Stanley present us with seriously evil hags who may be funny but, it's sometimes suggested, would eat children. Both delight in being not just irascible, but cold-blooded. Both await suckers whom they can lure into their clutches by various forms of temptation. Sure, it's funny as hell, but the key note is that we're talking about "evil". Disney's Hazel, by contrast, is a crazy, colorful old crackpot who's good at magic and mischief, but she's not evil, and that's carried on to Disney's comics (where, at first under the hand of Carl Barks, the character has gone on to great things). For Disney's animation and comics writers, it was funner to have a witch destructively "help" the good guys than try to kill them. So ... June Foray may have been thinking of Disney's Hazel when she worked on the Warner character, but that's as far as it goes. Disney's Hazel stands alone; let Warners and the Little Lulu copyright owners can fight it out!

From Tom : The Witch Hazel from a Tom and Jerry shorts refered to on your special page about "Trick or Treat" is from "The Flying Sorceress", this 1956 cartoon is the second in the series which gives Hanna and Barbera production credit.

In this cartoon, Tom is told off by the mistress of the house for making a mess. Tom reads an advert in the paper advertising for a Witches cat. He has the fright of the life riding along with her on her broom, but when said broom is left unsupervised, he decides to take it for a spin. Tom comes back to angry Witch who bangs Tom up and down who is clinging to her broom, it turns out Tom's dreaming and it's the mistress trying to wake up Tom and get him off her broom. Tom has a little fun by mimicking the actions he did on the witch's broom to get it going in the dream on a real broom, and low and behold, it takes him to the moon!

There are no vocal credits (like all H-B TaJ shorts) despite there being tow speaking female characters. Also the Witch is not called by name, so she may or may not be called Hazel. Maybe her name is on a letter box or in the advert Tom reads in the paper. CN don't air this cartoon very often (which is strange since this one doesn't have Mammy, the black maid in it), but when I next see it I keep an eye out for anything with the word "Hazel" in/on it.

From Lee Suggs : This short certainly paints Donald as an unsympathetic character. First he steals Huey, Dewey, and Louie's Halloween candy. They then enlist Witch Hazel to get back at him. Donald, of course, brillantly resists the Witch! This results in a great deal of pain. (for him!) It's interesting that Mickey Mouse's character was very bland in the later classic shorts, and Donald's character was often straight out nasty. Today (in "MouseWorks") Mickey has been given much more of an edge, and Donald has been softened. Maybe there's something to the rumors that Walt Disney didn't like the Duck.

From Ryan : I remember first seeing this short on a video entitled "Disney's Halloween Treat." As a kid I always (and still do today) laughed at the song that the witch sang while trying to get the key that Donald had swallowed. Donald was definitely getting into the spirit of Halloween. After his nephews had asked him for "tricks or treats", he gave them firecrackers (as their treat) and dumped a pail of water on them (as their trick). The way I see it, both were tricks and very dirty ones as well. Donald was a definite creep in this cartoon. I guess he's only like that on Halloween.

From Megan Sall : I love this Halloween special. It captures all of the wonderful detailing that characterizes Disney's quality. There's no better cartoon than one from Disney.

From Lauren Johnson : This cartoon is my all time favorite cartoon.

From John Ross : I absolutely adore this great Disney cartoon. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and Trick or Treat captures the magic and fun of it perfectly.

From Trisha Farrell : I first saw this short movie when I was a little girl in the 1970's. It has become a Halloween classic to me and my family. We had it on a movie projector, but mostly listened to it on a vinal record which had a spooky story of a haunted house on the flip side. I highly reccomend this tale for kids of all ages, as it is not only a cute little story, but gives a lesson on being stingy and greedy.

From Bob : This is a great cartoon for Halloween. The song Trick or Treat is a catchy tune. As a kid I loved this cartoon, still do. I highly recommend it, along with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Lonesome Ghosts", which I use to see back-to-back-to-back on the video rental. All are great cartoons which I have fond memories of.

From Frank Bateman : I give it a 10. I have always loved Halloween and this is a great Donald Duck cartoon.

Carl Barks also did a Dell comic--Donald Duck number 28--on this cartoon. It has the distiction of being one of the most censored comicbook stories. He added a crazy looking one-eyed creature which the editors thought to be too scary for little kids. They removed all the panels feturing this monster.

Also, little Golden Books repleased a book called Donald Duck and the Witch. Witch Hazel was also featured, but the story was different. The nephews thought they saw a witch, but Donald said they were seeing things. The nephews find Witch Hazel, and she pulls some pranks on Donald to get him to believe in witches. At the end of the story, Donald, the nephews, and Witch Hazel all sit down to enjoy a fall harvest feast. The book has some very beautiful illustrations.

From Philip Farrow : I used to love seeing this cartoon as a child as part of the "Disney's Halloween Treat" holiday television special. I still have it on VHS but it's really old and the quality is pretty bad. I've never forgotten the lyrics to the song also, very catchy indeed.

From Baruch Weiss : This short is nicely well done, espically the music and the songs. I first saw this short on that "Walt Disney Cartoon Classics" video "Halloween Haunts."

From Dan : This cartoon is great, funny, and very entertaining! I like the part when Witch Hazel put a spell on Donald's feet and then made Donald dance his behind into a cactus and fireplace.

From Julie Arsenault : Another good Halloween cartoon from Disney starring Donald and reprising the talents of June Foray as another Witch Hazel (don't get confuse with Warner Bros' version) who helps Huey.Dewy & Louie get their candy from Donald who doesn't do the treat (in Trick or Treat) but the TRICK! So Hazel and the boys are going to teach him a lesson,about tricking on Halloween; I love the title song too.

From Dino Cencia : One of my favorite Halloween cartoons! This cartoon is great to watch on Halloween. Huey, Dewey and Louie are trick or treating to Donald's house and he plays tricks on them. He gives them firecrackers instead of candy. He puts the firecrackers in their bags and when the nephews said "Thank you, Uncle Donald", their bags start exploding! That was their trick. Then Donald says "Now here's your treat" by pouring a bucket of water on the nephews. Halloween is one my favorite holidays. I give this a 950. Happy Halloween! (evil laughter).

From Hayley Brown : Huey, Dewey and Louie are at their cutest in this cartoon! It's adorable when they are marching up to Donald's front door in their little Halloween costumes quacking the 'Trick or Treat' tune!

From Tom Wardrope : My kids have grown up watching it and my grandkids will experience this Disney classic, thanks!

Referenced Comments

The Skeleton Dance (1929)

Lyrics

Trick or Treat
Trick or Treat
Trick or Treat for Halloween
Better give a treat that's good to eat
If you want to keep life serene

Trick or Treat (Trick or Treat)
Trick or Treat (Trick or Treat)
Trick or Treat the whole night through
Little scalawags
With fiendish gags
Can make it tough on you

So when ghosts and goblins by the score
Ring the bell on your front door
Better not be stingy or
Your nightmares will come true

Trick or Treat
Trick or Treat
Trick or Treat for Halloween
When the pumpkin shells
Cast evil spells
Your little white house turns green
Your little white house turns green
Your little white house turns green

Every post
Is a ghost
If you've got a witch's brew
And if you want your gate to circulate
Ho ho! We can do that too!

Trick or Treat
Trick or Treat
Trick or Treat
Trick or Treat
Trick or Treat for Halloween
When ghosts and goblins by the score
Ring the bell on your front door
You'd better not be stingy or
Your nightmares will come true

So when ghosts and goblins by the score
Ring your bell or pound your door
Better not be stingy or
Your nightmares will come true
BOO!

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