The kids forego their usual trick-or-treat path and instead take on the most haunted house in Duckburg, while Launchpad confronts ghosts from the past.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Jerkass:
- In the 1987 episode "Ducky Horror Picture Show", the real monsters were friendly and fun-loving, protesting against horror movies for making people scared of them. Here, they scare trick-or-treaters so they can steal their candy, and would eat the trick-or-treaters if they don't get any. They even seem to resent the fact that no one is scared of them anymore.
- In "Trick or Treat", Witch Hazel, though a self admitted Wicked Witch, was actually friendly to children celebrating Halloween and helped the nephews get back at Donald for giving them a mean trick instead of treats. Here, she's a openly hostile witch who is among the monsters that scare trick-or-treaters to steal their candy, and joins in on the other monsters when they decide to devour the kids.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In the Classic Disney Shorts, Donald gets mischievous on Halloween and often plays mean tricks on his nephews. In a Mouseworks short, Donald would go as far as scare kids and steal their candy. Similarly in "Trick or Treat", he went so far as to blow up his nephew's candy bags with firecrackers when they visited his house. Here, he would rather just hand out candy to trick-or-treaters and strongly opposes playing tricks on them. The "mischievous" role is given to Della instead.
- Adaptational Species Change:
- In the original series, the vampire and Frankenstein's Monster were both ducks. Here, the former is a vampire bat and the latter is a dog.
- An interesting case with the wereduck. In the original series, his bestial form was a traditional Wolf Man. Here, he resembles a muscular duck with fangs, fur, and claws.
- Witch Hazel in "Trick or Treat" was a human. Here, she's a green, vulture-like bird.
- Adaptational Ugliness: More towards creepiness. In "Trick or Treat", Witch Hazel is less creepy and more noble looking, while in this version, Hazel has a more wicked and creepy appearance.
- All There in the Script: The credits name the witch as "Witch Hazel", and the vampire as "Nosferatu".
- An Aesop: You are never too old to celebrate Halloween.
- Artistic License – Linguistics: The credits label the Wolf Man as a "wereduck", a Portmanteau between "werewolf" and "duck". Technically, this term would mean "man-duck"; as in, a man who turns into a duck rather than a duck who turns into a wolf.
- As You Know: The wereduck turns to one of his monster brethren to ask if he heard that Scrooge is opening an all-night candy store. Given they're very close to the front of the line and have presumably been in such a long line for a while, they'd obviously both know this, but it's meant to be exposition for the audience.
- Ax-Crazy: Launchpad tends to get rather crazy every Halloween, because he thinks on that day, he unleashed a curse that sends demons and monsters to his home.
- Beyond the Impossible: Even as a child, Launchpad had the gift of crash. His flashback started with his tricycle crashed into a fence and on fire. Leaving, he tumbled into a bush, and it somehow bursts into flame.
- Blob Monster: One of the monsters is a big green glob of slime with a duck skull floating in it.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Halloween monsters don't care about good and evil, only who can give them candy. If they don't get their tribute, they devour anyone caught empty handed. If someone can be scarier than them, that person commands their respect.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Huey not wanting to have an adventure on Halloween because he treasures trick or treating is perfectly reasonable. However, Louie is not wrong when he claims that Huey could have just said that and that him trying to force a schedule on his brothers and friend, as well as lying about not knowing about the Hazel House, was very much uncalled for.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Since Louie is dressing up as Huey, he makes a point of quoting fake Jr. Woodchuck rules, even though he slips into his own Character Catchphrase of "Trademark Louie Duck" once.
- Brick Joke: Two, both involving Dewey.
- Call-Back:
- The fact that Launchpad Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality is brought up again.
- After being mentioned in "Terror of the Terra-Firmians!" and "The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!", a wereduck finally appears in the flesh.
- Back in "The Phantom and the Sorceress!", Violet mentioned that the gang was 'overdue' for a vampire encounter. Sure enough, one turns up here.
- Casting Gag: Several.
- Cheap Costume: Dewey dresses in an eyepatch and Hawaiian shirt as a "pirate on vacation." He's put slightly more thought in his costume than Louie, who just wears Huey's cap to go as Huey. Huey's own costume, while obviously lovingly made, is still made of cheap materials and obviously not store bought. Scrooge evidently continues to penny-pinch during the holidays (except maybe where his own costume is concerned).
Huey: [to Louie] You are a lazy costumer.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Company Cross References:
- Conflict Killer: Huey and Louie get into an argument after the latter finds out the former has been purposely avoiding Hazel House for their trick-or-treat routine, but that gets cut short by the monsters' arrival.
- Continuity Nod: As seen by her costume, Mrs. Beakley is still a fan of Darkwing Duck from when Lauchpad got her hooked on the show in "Friendship Hates Magic!".
- Copycat Mockery: Louie's "impression" of Huey. Deliberately put on because we know he can actually impersonate Huey perfectly (in "GlomTales!").
Louie: Duh, Junior Woodchuck rule nine million!
- Creepy Crows: The kids encounter a crow when they reach the gates of the ominous Hazel House.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Webby claims that Halloween comes from a tradition where people would leave sweets as tribute to monsters. It turns out that the monsters at Hazel House go out and scare kids at Halloween for their candy, though the part about Balor flies completely over their heads.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Thinking that Scrooge is a monster, Launchpad defeats him by taking advantage of his distraction for candy as he managed to slam him inside a candy bag, putting the poor duck in a world of pain.
- Demonic Dummy: One of the scares at Hazel House involves creepy wooden dummies of the kids, and the vampire dresses like a giant evil puppet resembling Billy from Saw.
- Designated Victim: Referenced in this conversation.
Della: LP's the evil mechanic; I'm your demonic helper; Donald, you're the victim.
[Donald does not look impressed]
- Didn't Want an Adventure: Louie finds out that Huey knew about the legend behind Hazel House, and was actively trying to avoid it to go trick-or-treating, primarily since Huey holds Halloween and trick-or-treating as one of the fondest memories while living with Donald.
- Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: Inverted. A crow was shown active at Halloween Night, despite crows being diurnal and lacking nocturnal vison. One wonders why they couldn't have used an owl instead.
- Door Roulette: After escaping from the toy room, Louie suggests they open every door in the hallway to look for the candy stash, but every door they open, they find a monster hiding behind it. Save for the last one at the end of the hallway, which leads to a haunted graveyard instead.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
- After Huey explains he wanted to avoid Hazel House because he wanted to go with Halloween traditions for the rest of their lives, Louie admits he wanted them to have a lifetime supply of candy... which would be against his brother's wishes.
- Dewey asks Webby what happened when Celtics failed to appease the demons. She cheerfully reveals they ate children, as she sees the monsters closing in on them.
- Expy: The wereduck seems to be one of Wolfduck, a Darkwing Duck villain exclusive to the video game.
- Female Angel, Male Demon: Inverted, Donald dresses as an angel and Della as a devil. This can also be interpreted that Donald, as the angel, being the responsible twin and is sane enough to prevent Della, the devil, from traumatizing children by exploiting Launchpad's beliefs that Halloween is a curse and that trick or treaters are monsters after him.
- For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: The monsters go undisguised at Scrooge's manor for trick or treat, and kids compliment them on their cool costumes. Initially averted, as the monsters dressed up as other monsters to scare those foolish enough to enter as kids weren't scared of the classics anymore.
- Formerly Fat: Launchpad is revealed to have been quite chubby in his childhood years.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- Launchpad's calendar has all sorts of appointments, including "Ballet Class" and "Jr Woodchuck Meeting, 3 pm (not AM like last time)".
- The various tombstones in haunted house's graveyard are all Punny Names.
- At the end, you can see Mrs. Beakley has dressed up like Darkwing Duck.
- Fright Beside Them: While looking for Dewey in the toy room, the kids suddenly hear him calling out to them, saying he has found the candy stash, and they come across what appears to be him sitting in front of a TV set to static. But then the real Dewey walks up right next to them, with no recollection of having called out to them. The kids all turn to see the imposter rotate its head behind it, revealing itself to be a Demonic Dummy.
- Goal in Life: Parodied with Dewey.
Dewey: With my cut [of the candy] I can finally open that 24 hour candy store I've been dreaming about since ten minutes ago!
- Grave Humor: The tombstones in the graveyard turn out to have punny names and humorous epitaphs on them.
- Halloween Costume Characterization: The Duck Family's costumes are all rather appropriate to their personalities.
- Della and Donald are a demon and an angel respectively, Della being a devil-may-care adventurer that tends to cause problems for everyone else, while Donald is the put-upon Moral Guardian.
- Huey goes as Gizmoduck, Huey being the smartest and most tech-savvy of the triplets (as well as being friends with the real Gizmoduck).
- Louie goes as Huey. More specifically, he just wears his hat, mocking his sibling while also not putting in any real effort into his costume.
- Dewey wears a Hawaiian shirt and eyepatch to be a pirate on vacation, Dewey being the imaginative one with a lust for adventure and a carefree attitude.
- Webby goes as Balor from Celtic Mythology, relying on her historical and arcane knowledge to make a costume no one else gets.
- Scrooge dresses as a skeleton, him being the oldest member of the family.
- Halloween Episode: Right down to having an altered intro with spookier vocals.
- Haunted House: Hazel House, the most haunted house in Duckburg, is home to actual monsters who scare kids and take their candy as tribute.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: The monsters are willing to let the kids go when they reveal they have no candy, only to turn round and decide to eat them when they realize the kids wasted their time and now they won't get any more trick or treaters. They then switch back to good when they discover Launchpad is better at scaring people than they are and Scrooge offers to let them buy candy from him.
- Heel–Face Turn: The monsters decide to be nice to the Duck family when Scrooge begins handing out candy bars, satisfying their desire for candy. Sure, he's charging admission, but he is open all night long.
- Helping Hands: The Frankenstein's Monster can manipulate his arms and legs independently of his body to pose as a multitude of claws and tentacles.
- "Here's Johnny!" Homage: Done when Scrooge breaks a hole in the Hazel House's front door, only he yells "Trick! Or! Treat!".
- Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: Played with. Launchpad's getup includes a hockey mask, but he wields a buzzsaw instead of a chainsaw.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: After getting a good scare from Launchpad, the vampire remarks "I haven't felt so undead alive in years!"
- Hope Spot: After the kids escape the hallway and end up in what looks like the house's backyard. While they are initially spooked by the tombstones, they believe that they've escaped the house and make plans to continue trick or treating, believing the monsters to be behind them. Turns out there are even more monsters out there and they are still being chased. Not only that, but the backyard was just another room of the house made to look like a backyard, and they've never escaped the house at all.
- Horrifying the Horror: Launchpad, unwittingly looking and acting like a serial killer due to being under the impression that Halloween is a curse, ends up scaring the monsters that they respect him. Della, Donald, and Scrooge also end up accidentally scaring the monsters as well.
- Hypocritical Humor: Scrooge hates the idea of handing out candy to children for free, but he has no problem having a good old time trick-or-treating himself.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: The monsters claim they aren't so easily scared. They immediately get frightened by Launchpad showing up with a handheld buzz saw, Scrooge dressed as a skeleton breaking through the front door, and the "creepy twins" of Della and Donald.
- Indian Burial Ground: No burial ground, but a variation with similar consequences. According to Louie, Hazel House was built over a gateway between the realms of the dead and the living, resulting in the house being haunted by monsters.
- It's All My Fault: Launchpad, who has never heard of Halloween, thinks that it's a curse that he unleashed by reading an "incantation" (actually the list of ingredients on a candy wrapper) when he was young.
- Jerkass Ball: Held by Della in this episode, with her decision to play along with and feed Launchpad's paranoia about Halloween, just so that she can scare kids. When she realizes that Launchpad could actually hurt someone, she refuses to outright take responsibility for making things worse (even though it’s clear that she does realize she messed up).
- Jerkass Realization: Louie has this after learning that Huey just wants to keep trick-or-treating, and having candy for life would be against that.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: After Launchpad tells his story, Della sums it up with this:
Della: So, to be clear, you think this night is a
monster curse that you unleashed on Duckburg as a child?
Launchpad:
(Beat) Yes. Della: Awesome! I'm in!
Donald:
WHAT?! - Locked Out of the Loop: Somehow, Launchpad has never heard of Halloween, as he thinks that it's a curse he unleashed upon Duckburg by reading a list of ingredients off a candy wrapper he confuses for an incantation, causing minute spirits and demons to manifest every year on said holiday, breaking into people's homes and stealing their soul in bags. He doesn't learn about it until the very end of the episode.
- Looks Like Orlok: The vampire resembles Count Orlok, and is even named Nosferatu.
- Made of Explodium: Apparently, when Launchpad was a kid, everything he broke or crashed tended to catch on fire.
- Meaningful Name: The vampire's name is "Nosferatu", the archaic Romanian word for "vampire", which then was used for a famous vampire movie.
- Method Acting: In-Universe. Della thinks Launchpad was deep into the Halloween spirit, that he didn't once break character. Subverted once Della realizes Launchpad actually doesn't know what Halloween is and really has gone crazy.
- Metronomic Man Mashing: Launchpad does this to Scrooge after stuffing him in a candy bag.
- Monster Clown: One of the monsters is a clown based on Pennywise from It. It's actually the costume for a wereduck.
- Moral Myopia: Scrooge enjoys trick-or-treating and indulging in free candy, but he refuses to allow candy being given out to children at his manor. He doesn't let people in until they pay an admission fee at the end of the episode.
- Monster Mash: The true identities of the monsters living in the haunted house are a vampire, a werewolf, a Frankenstein's Monster, a Wicked Witch, and a Blob Monster.
- Mythology Gag:
- While dressed as Jason Voorhees, Launchpad wears the mask that was originally the logo for the Mighty Ducks.
- The monsters in the haunted house are the same type of creatures as the ones attending the monster convention in the DuckTales (1987) episode "Ducky Horror Picture Show". The monsters also consider Halloween offensive to them, similar to how they considered horror movies offensive in that episode.
- "Witch Hazel" was the name of the witch character in the classic Donald Duck short "Trick or Treat".
- Donald's angel costume resembles his angel conscience from the Classic Disney Short "Donald's Better Half" and "Donald's Decision" or possibly the angel costume the triplets trick him into wearing in "Soup's On". Likewise, Della's devil costume resembles Donald’s devil conscience from the former two.
- Scrooge in his skeleton costume does the sideways step from "The Skeleton Dance".
- In Launchpad's flashback, one of the kids is dressed as the Tyrannosaurus rex from Bubba's debut episode in the original series. Another kid is dressed almost identically to how Mickey appeared in The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment of Fantasia, complete with the red robe and blue wizard's hat.
- Launchpad bashing the sacked Scrooge around mirrors the iconic "Put out the Darkwing" scene.
- Launchpad's appearance as a child is nearly identical to Tank Muddlefoot from Darkwing Duck.
- Speaking of Darkwing, there's a note on Launchpad's calendar to watch a Darkwing Duck marathon. It's noted to be on channel 7 — ABC owns multiple stations on channel 7 and ABC ran the original Darkwing series on Saturday mornings back in the day.
- One of the fake tombstones says "Don't Call Me Shirley", something Scrooge said in "Raiders of the Lost Harp".
- Huey dressing up as Gizmoduck is a reference to the 1987 series episode "New Gizmo-Kids on the Block", where the triplets wear Gizmoduck's suit after it got shrunk in the wash.
- Louie wears a cap (though it's Huey's) as part of his ensemble, something that was standard for the triplets.
- Never My Fault: Della refused to take the blame for trying to exploit Launchpad's fears as Donald could only give an "I told you so" look.
- Only Sane Man: Donald tries to prevent Della from worsening Launchpad's paranoia of Halloween by traumatizing children using Launchpad. Unfortunately, Della won't listen until she sees Launchpad might actually hurt someone.
- Our Vampires Are Different: The vampire in the episode is an anthropomorphic vampire bat, does not have to subsist on blood (though he still can), and unusually can be seen on a photograph. He still can't go out in the daylight though.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: If the one in the episode is anything to go by, werewolf versions of ducks (called "wereducks") are muscular versions with fangs, claws, and fur. Werewolves also seem to retain their intelligence and free will, but are not above eating people if pushed.
- Papa Wolf:
- Donald, as usual, becomes defensive when Della wants to traumatize children even fighting her to prevent anything bad from happening to them.
- Launchpad goes ballistic when he thinks the monsters have hurt Dewey (he actually came across the Dewey dummy lying on the floor).
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Huey purposely avoids Hazel House and fakes ignorance about it and its rumors, so that they can keep celebrating Halloween the traditional way for the rest of their lives. When Louie finds out what he's been hiding, he angrily accuses Huey of wanting to keep all the candy for himself.
- Launchpad spent his whole life thinking Halloween is a curse because of a misunderstanding, with no one telling him about it or him telling anyone about the "curse" until now. Della doesn't help when she decides to fuel the misunderstanding to scare kids. Then a costumed Scrooge comes to Launchpad's house for candy and dismisses his warnings, driving Launchpad to a rampage, lashing out at whomever he believes to be a threat.
Scrooge: Trick or treat!
Launchpad: GO AWAY!
Scrooge: I said, trick or treat!
Launchpad: NEITHER!
Scrooge: Candy-hoarder, eh? You won't stop the Guileful Guiser of Glasgow!
[Scrooge starts banging on the barrier with his bone]
Launchpad: They're breaking in! They're getting even bolder!
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Somehow Launchpad never learned about Halloween growing up and remains convinced the annual appearance of "monsters" on October 31 is a result of a curse he accidentally placed on Duckburg.
- Punny Name: Witch Hazel is named after the witch-hazel
plant. - Real After All:
- The monsters are real, but they wear costumes due to people not being scared by them so easily anymore.
- The Blob Monster turns out to be genuine out of the initial monsters, rather than a costume.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: After Huey pours out his heart to him, Louie tries to cheer his brother up by asking "Who cares about the candy?" The Frankenstein's monster furiously replies "WE do!" as the monsters start to surround the kids.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: With a twist. It turns out the infinite supply of candy being guarded by monsters in a haunted house was a hoax to steal candy from trick-or-treaters, with the perpetrators who dress up as said monsters being actual monsters.
- Shout-Out:
- The monsters in the episode are wearing costumes based on the antagonists of famous horror movies. The werewolf is dressed as a Monster Clown resembling Pennywise from It, the vampire is dressed as a puppet like Billy from Saw, the witch is dressed as a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl climbing out of a well similar to Samara from The Ring, and the Frankenstein's Monster wears a striped shirt similar to Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
- Launchpad's costume includes a hockey mask (from Jason Voorhees), a dark blue mechanic's jumpsuit (from Michael Myers), and a powered saw (from Leatherface).
- The scenario Launchpad describes is similar to Evil Dead.
- When Launchpad attacks Scrooge, he shoves Scrooge into the candy bag and slams it about, similar to how Jason attacks someone in a sleeping bag in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood.
- The Dewey-like puppet in front of a TV set to static references Poltergeist.
- The scene where the monsters meet Donald and Della in the hallway and mistake them for Creepy Twins, the scene where Scrooge bashes the door and shows his face in the hole, and the final scene of the camera zooming in on a black-and-white photo, are nods to The Shining.
- One of the tombstones reads, "Don't call me Shirley."
- The Google Chrome Dinosaur appears as a Halloween decoration.
- While Webby states that her costume is Balor, the overall design is based on the Cacodaemon.
- The monsters' haunted house design is a mixture of the Amityville house and Norman Bates' house.
- The monsters having to wear costumes due to no longer being viewed as scary is similar to the Cold Open of "Treehouse of Horror XX", where the Universal monsters decide to dress up for Halloween after being mocked for wearing old-school costumes.
- One of the fake tombstones says "Chris P. Bacon", the same name as a pig character in Banjo-Tooie.
- Shown Their Work:
- Webby states that in Celtic Mythology, Halloween was a holiday where Celtics wore monster costumes to scare off demons, and candy was their tribute. It's still different from the real-world history of Samhain, the Celtic festival that served as partial inspiration for modern Halloween, but closer than most American media put it.
- Rather than the mindless and lumbering Hollywood version most people are familiar with, the show's version of Frankenstein's Monster is a fast-moving Genius Bruiser more in line with the original novel, even if he is a Third-Person Person. He also has the pale skin, misproportioned body, and jaundiced eyes of his book counterpart, and lacks his Universal counterpart's trademark electrodes.
- The vampire has both fangs and fang-like incisors like real-life vampire bats, albeit the incisors being exaggerated.
- Scrooge refers to "guising" rather than trick-or-treating, which is the Scottish name for it.
- Skewed Priorities: Even when coming up close with real monsters, Louie still demands to know where are they hiding the candy.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Dewey's Halloween costume is a “pirate on vacation”, which consists of him wearing a Hawaiian shirt and an eyepatch. The others don’t think this is a good costume even after hearing the explanation. Later on, the wereduck immediately recognizes what Dewey's costume is supposed to be and compliments him on the choice.
- Special Edition Title: No changes to the visuals, or even the lyrics, but it's sung in a scary voice, with the "Woo-oo"s replaced by spooky theremin music.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: After Huey, Louie and Webby enter a room to find Dewey.
Louie: Focus on what's important. Let's find candy!
Huey: You mean, let's find Dewey?
Louie: Oh, yeah yeah yeah, him too. [whispers] Candy for life!
- Take That!: The monsters all dress up as newer types of monsters because people just aren't scared of classic monsters like witches or vampires anymore, and the werewolf bemoans the fact that now kids are scared of random childish things like puppets, clowns, and little girls in wells.
Wereduck: What is wrong with you guys?
- Tempting Fate:
- Think of the Children!: Said word to word by Donald who refuses to allow Della to traumatize any children on Halloween by fueling Launchpad's paranoia. Della’s response?
Della: I am! I wanna scare 'em!
- Visual Pun: The vampire is a bat, specifically a vampire bat.
- Wham Shot: When the kids are captured and cornered by monsters, Huey loudly admits they don't have candy. Upon hearing that, the monsters drop their acts and reveal themselves... as real monsters.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The Blob Monster is never seen again after the monsters reveal themselves.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Louie and Webby both get angry at Huey for lying about not knowing about Hazel House and intentionally avoiding it. Dewey, on the other hand, is too busy worrying about the arrival of a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl and warns the others about it.
- Windmill Crusader: Launchpad, thinking a candy wrapper was an ancient scroll, gave him a Don Quixote-like mentality that he really doesn't understand what Halloween is and thinks what he did cursed Duckburg every 31st of October, and then attacks people in costume.
- Wolf Man: One of the real monsters is a Wolf Duck (or a "wereduck" according to the end credits). As per the trope, he is portrayed as a humanoid with wolf-like fur, fangs, and claws.
