Welcome to what is effectively the Year Without a Halloween. Stupid pandemic. I'm determined to keep the spooky season alive even if I can't pass out candy or keep a running tally of what costumes I see most often, always a fun pop-culture barometer. Here are some mostly Halloweeny (or not) links for you.
* Boundless Realms - I don't think I've met a single foolish mortal, Disney Park geek or otherwise, who doesn't adore the Haunted Mansion. Foxx, of the fantastic Passport to Dreams website, has just written a gorgeous book on the Mansion and it is a must-have.
* Staying in the Disney Parks world, the always excellent Defunctland released a fantastic documentary about the original EPCOT plans.
* You're Wrong About is my new podcast obsession that goes over historical events, famous figures, and urban myths that, it turns out, we got all wrong. It's fascinating, if not exactly light listening. Get ready to scream in anger at various decibels at least once.
* If you need some cuteness after that, I suggest Kyra Kupetsky's creepy-cute "Chickn Nuggit" short-shorts.
* No stupid pandemic is going to stop the guys at Sludge Central from doing their annual Halloween special.
* I am so, so happy that people are starting to rediscover "Michael Jackson's Halloween", if only because it proves I didn't hallucinate all those years ago. Have a podcast and a video essay.
*You want more Michael Jackson Halloween specials and putting "Thriller" on an infinite loop isn't enough? Channel KRT just reminded the world of the truly insane "Ghosts" which is... a thing... that exists...
* "Into the Spiderverse" is that rare movie that gets better and better every time I watch it and the latest Film Critic Hulk documentary goes into a deep dive as to why.
* Saturday morning and weekday morning cartoons are coming back thanks to MeTV, who will be airing blocks of classic theatrical cartoons starting in January. Consider this your early DVR alert.
* For the first time in decades, the Peanuts holiday specials are not airing on broadcast TV, which is even more upsetting than it looks on the surface according to Emily VanDerWerff's report.
* Spectember is well in the past but I'd be remiss if I didn't share Alphynix's fantastic series of spec creatures and the history of Speculative Biology.
* "Eli Roth's History of Horror" is back for another season and I'd be very happy if we got to do this every year please and thank you.
* And if that wet your appetite for horror movie docs, I also love The Kill Count, which, while it is exactly what it sounds like, is also a surprisingly good kind of a Cliff Notes of gory horror for wimps.
* As far as horror movies of a different sort, Xiran did an excellent tweetmenary of the "Mulan" remake, effectively saving us all thirty dollars.
* The Halloween Jukebox is back! Without a shuffle feature, sadly, but with 250 songs for your Halloween!
* Finally, Glen Keane has a new movie out and he sat down for an interview to talk about it, "Tangled", "Treasure Planet", and more.
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Art of the week! A little Fairy Dragon.
