40 Fun Facts About The Halloween Tree

Which Star Trek actor voices the mysterious Mr. Moundshroud in the animated film The Halloween Tree?

Leonard Nimoy, famous for playing Spock for over 40 years, also directed films including Three Men and a Baby.

In The Halloween Tree, what do the children ride back through time, clinging on as its weighted tail?

A kite, which the film calls the October Kite, tows the children back through four thousand years of Halloween history.

Which sudden illness strikes Pip on Halloween night in The Halloween Tree, forcing an emergency operation?

Appendicitis means surgery for Pip, who leaves his friends a note telling them to celebrate without him.

At which California theme park has a Halloween Tree honoring Ray Bradbury's novel stood each autumn since 2007?

Disneyland first presented its tree on October 31, 2007, with Bradbury himself in attendance.

What does each child give up to Moundshroud to win Pip back at the climax of The Halloween Tree?

A year of life, taken from the very end of each child's lifespan, is the price, and Pip's spirit revives once the deal is sealed.

Which award did Ray Bradbury win in 1994 for writing the animated film of The Halloween Tree?

An Emmy for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program went to Bradbury, and the film was also nominated for Outstanding Animated Program.

In which city do the children of The Halloween Tree use Moundshroud's magic to finish a half-built cathedral?

Paris is home to Notre-Dame, whose real builders needed far longer than one night: work ran from 1163 to 1345.

In which country does the journey of The Halloween Tree end, with a candlelit feast among the graves?

Mexico is the last stop, and Bradbury dedicated the book to Man'ha Garreau-Dombasle, whose husband was a French ambassador there.

Besides writing the script, which other job did Ray Bradbury take on the 1993 animated film The Halloween Tree?

Narrator was his second role: his voice opens the film, describing a small American town getting ready for Halloween night.

Ray Bradbury, author of The Halloween Tree, is best known for which novel about firemen who burn books?

Fahrenheit 451 came out in 1953, almost two decades before he wrote The Halloween Tree specifically for a younger audience.

At which prehistoric English landmark do the children watch Celtic rituals in the film The Halloween Tree?

Stonehenge, which stands on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, is the film's second stop, visited during the Dark Ages.

Which costume does Ralph wear in the film The Halloween Tree, later using it to scare priests away from Pip?

Mummy wrappings let Ralph pose as the real thing just as the priests begin trying to embalm Pip.

In the film The Halloween Tree, what does Moundshroud make fly so the children can escape a mob of villagers?

Brooms made from a field of freshly harvested straw carry them off, and Pip is knocked from his own during the chase.

Jenny, the girl the 1993 film adds to the all-boy group of The Halloween Tree, dresses as what for Halloween?

A witch is Jenny's costume; the film trimmed the novel's eight boys down to three boys and a girl.

Which civilization is the first stop in the film The Halloween Tree, home of the Feast of the Ghosts?

Ancient Egypt opens the journey, with Pip's spirit hiding in a tomb inside a pyramid.

Which American cartoon studio produced the animated film The Halloween Tree, first shown on TBS in October 1993?

Hanna-Barbera, founded in 1957 by the creators of Tom and Jerry, was the studio behind The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo.

What sweet treat bearing Pip's name do the children share to seal their bargain in The Halloween Tree?

A sugar skull, broken into pieces and eaten, seals the deal; such skulls are known as calaveras and are a common gift for children.

In what kind of building do the children first meet Moundshroud in the film The Halloween Tree?

A mansion, towering and darkened, is where he greets them after a translucent Pip vanishes nearby.

Ray Bradbury's novel The Halloween Tree traces the history of Halloween and which older Gaelic festival?

Samhain marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, the darker half of the year.

The Halloween Tree began in 1967 as a screenplay for an unmade collaboration with which Looney Tunes animator?

Chuck Jones and Bradbury never got the project made, so the story became a novel in 1972 and reached the screen only in 1993.

What do Moundshroud and the children tear from a barn to build their flying craft in The Halloween Tree?

Circus posters, old ones pasted on the barn, are ripped down and pieced together into the giant craft that tows the children through time.

During the visit to Dark Ages England in the film The Halloween Tree, Pip briefly appears as which animal?

A black cat is Pip's shape while Moundshroud teaches the children about the rituals of the Celtic druids.

In the film The Halloween Tree, what kind of Pip-shaped stone figure does Wally climb a cathedral to reach?

A gargoyle shaped like Pip clutches his pumpkin high on the cathedral; real ones are spouts that throw rainwater clear of the walls.

Where do the children finally find a very weak Pip at the last stop of the film The Halloween Tree?

In catacombs Tom reaches Pip and apologizes, before Pip's spirit crumbles into dust.

By what deadline must the children keep up with Moundshroud to win Pip back in the film The Halloween Tree?

Dawn is the limit Moundshroud sets, and only after Tom begs to come along: he first refuses to take the children with him at all.

Which dark and eerie stretch of ground do the children cut through as a shortcut in the film The Halloween Tree?

A ravine is the shortcut, and a real one near Bradbury's boyhood home became a metaphor he used throughout his career.

Why does Tom Skelton feel guilty about Pip's fate when he apologizes in the film The Halloween Tree?

He wished him harm so that he could lead the group for once; Pip forgives him and promises to let him lead anytime he wants.

At the end of the film The Halloween Tree, what does Moundshroud turn into before he disappears?

Smoke is all that is left of him, moments after the children find Pip safely back at home.

In which country did an overseas studio produce the animation for the 1993 film The Halloween Tree?

Philippines-based Fil-Cartoons was a subsidiary that the film's own American producers had set up in November 1987.

Why is Moundshroud disappointed in the children he greets in the film The Halloween Tree?

They can't explain their costumes, so he turns the chase into a lesson, taking each child to the era their outfit comes from.

Which Illinois town, the model for Green Town, was the boyhood home of The Halloween Tree author Ray Bradbury?

Waukegan dedicated Ray Bradbury Park in 1990, and the author willed his personal library to the town's public library.

Which artist, a Ray Bradbury collaborator since 1952, illustrated the original edition of The Halloween Tree?

Joe Mugnaini was born in Viareggio, Italy, and reached America at three months old; Bradbury owned many of his artworks.

Alex Greenwald, the voice of Ralph in The Halloween Tree, later fronted which band behind the theme of The O.C.?

Phantom Planet formed in 1994, the year after the film, at a Los Angeles Pizza Hut, with Jason Schwartzman on drums.

Which future star of 10 Things I Hate About You voices Wally the monster in the film The Halloween Tree?

Andrew Keegan went on, six years later, to play the antagonist to Heath Ledger in that Shakespeare-inspired teen comedy.

Which composer scored The Halloween Tree in 1993, the same year he wrote the music for Hocus Pocus?

John Debney made Hocus Pocus his first studio feature, and he returned nearly thirty years later to score Hocus Pocus 2.

What strips every pumpkin except Pip's from the branches at the end of the film The Halloween Tree?

A strong wind blows the rest away, sparing only the pumpkin the children rescued by their sacrifice.

Mr. Moundshroud of The Halloween Tree has the given name Clavicle, the anatomical term for which bone?

Collarbone is the everyday word for the clavicle; his first name, Carapace, means a shell like a turtle's.

What is carved into the pumpkin that Pip's ghost steals from the tree in the film The Halloween Tree?

His own face marks the pumpkin as Pip's, and Moundshroud spends the rest of the night trying to snatch it back.

Which Ray Bradbury novel of a boyhood summer did Kirkus invoke when reviewing The Halloween Tree in 1972?

Dandelion Wine, set in the summer of 1928, was the review's yardstick for the new book's nostalgia for boyhood.

Which illustrator, whose Pinocchio inspired a Guillermo del Toro film, drew the 2015 edition of The Halloween Tree?

Gris Grimly is the pen name of Steven Soenksen, a Nebraska-born artist known for darkly whimsical children's books.