''Witch's Night Out'' is a Canadian animated television

Halloween special This is a list of Halloween television specials and Halloween-themed television episodes. Children and family * ''ABC Weekend Special'': ** "Soup and Me" (1978) * '' Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'': Witch's Brew (1999) * ''The Addams Family'' ** "P ...

that premiered on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

October 27, 1978. Produced in a

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

studio, it was the sequel to the 1974 special ''The Gift of Winter'' with the vocal talents from

Dan Aykroyd Daniel Edward Aykroyd ( ; born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Aykroyd was a writer and an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" cast on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Nigh ...

and

Valri Bromfield Valri Bromfield (born February 10, 1949) is a Canadian comedian, actress, writer, and television producer who started her career as one half of a comedy team with Dan Aykroyd. Together, they joined the first Toronto company of The Second City wh ...

. It featured the voices of

Fiona Reid Fiona Reid, CM (born 24 July 1951) is a British actress. She is best known for her roles as Cathy on the TV series '' King of Kensington'' (1975-1978) and as Harriet Miller in the film ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding'' (2002). Early life and educa ...

as Nicely and

Catherine O'Hara Catherine Anne O'Hara (born March 4, 1954) is a Canadian and American actress, comedian, and screenwriter. She started her career in sketch comedy, sketch and improvisational comedy in film and television before expanding her career taking dra ...

as Malicious, with

Gilda Radner Gilda Susan Radner (June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989) was an American actress and comedian. She was one of the seven Saturday Night Live cast members, original cast members of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on the NBC sketch comedy series ...

as the titular witch. Like the earlier special, ''Witch's Night Out'' was produced on

35mm film 35 mm may refer to: Film * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film 35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on ...

by Jonathan Rogers (formerly known as John Leach) and Jean Rankin for

. It later aired on the

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

every year from 1983 to the late 1990s. This cartoon film was released on videotape August 5, 1986 by

Family Home Entertainment Family Home Entertainment (FHE) was an American home video company founded in 1980 by Noel C. Bloom. It was a division of International Video Entertainment, which had its headquarters in Newbury Park, California. History The company was found ...

and PPI Entertainment in the late 1990s. The film was resurrected once again by the original creator Jonathan Rogers and Animation Director Jimmy Cross (with his Uncle Porkchop Productions animation studio) and together with a new remastered film they formed Cross/Rogers and released it to Mill Creek Entertainment and

This TV This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) was an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally ...

Network and in 2016 for both

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and Shout TV. Mill Creek Entertainment released this cartoon along with ten more classic Halloween-themed cartoons on DVD September 16, 2014. Its predecessor ''The Gift of Winter'' had its own DVD release a month later from that same company.

Plot

The plot involves a depressed witch who is 'summoned' by a pair of children, named Small and Tender, who are upset at not being able to scare anyone on Halloween. The witch turns them into a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshifting, shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a Shapeshifting, therianthropic Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid wol ...

and

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

(previously their

Halloween costume Halloween costumes are costumes worn on Halloween, typically while trick-or-treating (going door to door to ask for treats). Although traditionally based on frightening supernatural or folkloric beings, by the 1930s costumes based on character ...

s), and their babysitter Bazooey into a

Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster, commonly referred to as Frankenstein, is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' as its main antagonist. Shelley's title compares the monster's ...

. The witch then takes them to the Halloween party-in-progress at her isolated mansion on the edge of town. However, the citizens of the town get offended at the thought of real monsters in their town, and form a mob, under the leadership of the strait-laced 'Goodly'. The witch loses her magic wand, which gets attached to a woman named Malicious, and is unable to turn Bazooey and the kids back to humans. The group of supernatural beings is chased through the town and forest by the mob, eventually losing them. Malicious and her partner, Rotten, misuse the wand's powers, which causes a lot of damage to the town, but also summons the witch and the kids to their location. Regaining her wand, the witch uses its power to turn Malicious and Rotten into monsters (though she turns them back soon after), while turning the Frankenstein monster, ghost and werewolf back into Bazooey, Tender and Small. Eventually, the witch uses her powers to restore everything to normal, showing the town that she is not evil. The town quickly accepts the witch, and she starts turning people into what they want to be for Halloween. A disco song entitled "Witch Magic" was sung in this film.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0078500 1978 television specials 1970s animated television specials Halloween television specials NBC television specials CBC Television original films Canadian animated television films Television shows about witchcraft