Poster

Trick or Treat

A Donald Duck Cartoon

Release Date : October 10, 1952

Running Time : 8:14

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
Volus Jones
Bill Justice
George Kreisl
Don Lusk
Backgrounds
Yale Gracey
Effects Animation
Dan MacManus
Layout
Yale Gracey
Story
Ralph Wright
Music
Paul J. Smith

Video

United States
The Black Cauldron
Halloween Haunts
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Germany
Donald Superstar and Co.
France
Une Cervelle D'oiseau
Italy
Paperino Guai in Vista
Paperino e i Racconti Misteriosi

Laserdiscs

United States
Donald Scary Tales / Halloween Haunts
Japan
Disney Cartoon Festival 5
Scary Tales

DVD

United States
Disney Treasures : Wave 8 : The Chronological Donald Volume 4
Mickey's House of Villians
The Black Cauldron
Germany
Die Tollkuhne Hexe in Ihrem Fliegenden Bett
Taran und der Zauberkessel
Verschworung der Superschurken Verschworung der Superschurken
Donalds Spassfabrik
France
Walt Disney's Rigolons avec Donald
Italy
Pomi D'ottone e Manici di Scopa
Taron e la Pentola Magica
Topolino E I Cattivi Disney
United Kingdom
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Walt Disney's Laugh Factory with Donald

Television

The Ink and Paint Club: Episode 34: Donald's Nephews
Walt Disney Presents: All About Magic

Technical Specification

Color Type: Technicolor
Animation Type: Standard animation
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1
Negative Format: 35mm
Print Format: 35mm
Cinematographic Process: Spherical
Original Language: English

Comments

From Patrick Malone : 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 received 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 at Ramapith : 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 funnier 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 referred 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, brilliantly 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 vinyl record which had a spooky story of a haunted house on the flip side. I highly recommend 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 distinction 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 featuring this monster.

Also, little Golden Books released 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, especially 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 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!
From Todd Sokolove : This is one of my all time favorite Disney shorts for a number of reasons...

It's directed by legendary Disney Animator Jack Hannah (not to be confused with the animal guy that you always see on talk shows).

It features a song throughout the film sung by Elvis back-up singers "The Mellomen," who you'll recognize from their many contributions to Disneyland/Disneyworld attraction songs (including the Haunted Mansion), not to mention the popular "Ballad of Davey Crockett."

Witch Hazel, the strangely hillbilly witch character, is voiced by June Foray (who provided the voice of Natasha Fatale and Rocket J. Squirrel on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. The character of Witch Hazel would pop up in Warner Bros. cartoons also voiced by Foray - no relation.

The background art on this short is really simple, but SO surreal. Kind of like the "Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" backgrounds. I think my childhood memories of Halloween were pretty much shaped by the tone of this short.

From Dave : I remember this very well, considering it's been so many years since I last saw it! I've been re-reading the companion comic book story and very much wish I could see the original again, since Witch Hazel is one of my very favorites and any characterization by June Foray is always worth watching!

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