Oswald the Lucky Rabbit having largely disappeared form the ken of animators at this point, Walter Lantz was at seas in what direction to move. Disney was ramping up feature production, Schlesinger was finally stepping up to the plate with manic offerings from Clampett and Avery with fine work from Freleng and Tashlin. Mintz was sputtering his way out, even as his animators turned out an occasional brilliant work, Harman & Ising were still going nowhere, Terry was still idling and Fred (Beedlebaum) Quimby was starting to assemble his staff at MGM.
So here was Lantz with no star, looking for one. He tried Kiko the Kangaroo. Here he tried a couple of monkeys. Nothing worked. It wouldn't be until the following year that Andy Panda showed up with an actual personality and two years until Woody Woodpecker. So what happens here? The nominal supporting cast of ghosts steal this cartoon.
The ghosts are malevolent, imaginative and just plain silly. If the animation in this short lacks any sense of weight, well, for ghosts that works. And the sight gags are good. A nice little funny/scary Halloween cartoon.
So here was Lantz with no star, looking for one. He tried Kiko the Kangaroo. Here he tried a couple of monkeys. Nothing worked. It wouldn't be until the following year that Andy Panda showed up with an actual personality and two years until Woody Woodpecker. So what happens here? The nominal supporting cast of ghosts steal this cartoon.
The ghosts are malevolent, imaginative and just plain silly. If the animation in this short lacks any sense of weight, well, for ghosts that works. And the sight gags are good. A nice little funny/scary Halloween cartoon.