The Trippiest Kid's Cartoon Halloween Specials

If your bones are still rattling from last year’s Halloween horror movie guide, this year we’re offering up something a little more treat than trick.

Cast your mind back to the halcyon days of childhood, when a pair of plastic fangs and a bucket of tooth-rotting delights was pure bliss. After school, with the evening already drawing in you’d hunker down and watch — what else — Halloween cartoon specials! Your favorite characters embroiled in spooky situations for one novelty episode a year. And to be fair, at the time some of those Halloween specials were flipping terrifying! There’s no shame in admitting that you once got nightmares from an episode of Arthur…

But, now we’re officially big kids, these shows are just a spooky bit of nostalgic fun — and perfect for watching while tripping on shrooms. I mean, we’ve already enthused that kids cartoons are great visuals to enjoy while tripping; the colors are bright, they’re full of good vibes and they can often be pretty psychedelic themselves! So why not get on the seasonal theme?

And, if you didn’t grow up doing the Halloween-thing here’s a bunch of kitschy new content to enjoy! Happy Halloween kids!

SpongeBob Squarepants: ‘Scaredy Pants’

Tired of being such a ‘Scaredy Pants’ on Halloween, everyones favorite yellow spongy optimist resolves to really give everyone a fright. With the help of Patrick he dresses up as The Flying Dutchman, hoping to freak out his Bikini Bottom neighbors. At first it works. But then the real ghostly pirate arrives, furious and offended that he is being used as a Halloween costume. However, when he pulls the costume off SpongeBob, he gets a bit of a shock.

It turns out when Patrick was ‘helping’ SpongeBob to look like a ghost he shaved off too much of his head (ghosts HAVE to have round heads — didn’t you know?!) leaving his brain exposed. Everyone, including the Dutchman flees. So, SpongeBob kinda wins Halloween after all….

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: ‘All Hallow’s Thieves’

As Raphael explains, Halloween is the only time that the turtles can walk the streets of New York City without standing out, so they’re pretty pumped for it to come around again. However, things get spooky fast when they have to fight some costumed thieves who are attempting to steal a six-armed statue from the antique store their pal April lives above. The thieves use the bronze idol to open a rift in the air, while shouting some freaky incantations. Winged Gremlins stream out of the rift, chasing the turtles, and the statue grows larger into a living, thieving stone beast pillaging the city! However, as you may have guessed, all is not lost, and with some trademark teamwork, our heroes smash their way to victory.

The Rugrats: ‘Candy Bar Creep Show’

It’s Halloween, and Didi, Stu, Drew and Grandpa Lou are setting up a haunted house for trick o’ treaters in the yard. However, Didi thinks its probably too scary for the babies. From the safety of the house Tommy and co. watch kids come and go. Eventually they decide that they MUST go in there to get their hands on the Reptar chocolate bars Angelica bragged about. Once inside however, they do indeed get spooked and try and hide amongst the decorations. The trick o’ treaters and Grandpa Lou think the house is really haunted when props start to move. They run away screaming, leaving their bags of candy for the babies to find and enjoy.

Adventure Time: ‘Hug Wolf’

There are many wacky Adventure Time Halloween episodes to choose from, but this one, packed with references to classic werewolf movie tropes is a fan favorite. Instead of becoming vicious murderous beasts at the light of the full moon, what if werewolves just wanted to hug? On the cuter end of the spooky scale and perfect for a inducing the shroom-giggles.

Peanuts: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Now, a real piece of vintage, this American classic is a must-view at a Halloween watching party. The Peanuts gang are prepping for Halloween, and despite being mocked by his pals Linus is writing his annual letter to the Great Pumpkin. Refusing to join the gang trick o’ treating Linus waits at the pumpkin patch, having managed to persuade Lucy to join him. Suddenly a figure looms out of the dark pumpkin patch — Linus faints from excitement! — but it turns out it’s just Snoopy.

The Powepuff Girls: ‘Boogie Frights’

At the beginning of the episode Buttercup is teasing Bubbles of being afraid of the dark, saying that the ‘Boogie Man’ will get her. The Professor quietens the girls telling them not to be afraid. However, deep underground the real Boogie Man, complete with 70s togs and a Barry White-esque growl, is hatching a plan to cut the power of Townsville, so he and his monster pals can party in the open air. Raising a giant disco ball to block out the sun, Boogie Man claims he’s ‘gonna make this night last forever!’

Turns out this is one of the few times we wish the girls hadn’t beat the bad guy! But, they do, and are back in bed before the sun comes up. Powerpuff kitsch at its best!

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror: ‘Edgar Allan Poe – The Raven’

Whether you were allowed to watch The Simpsons as a kid depended on how diligent your parents were. Many a sensitive child (we know who we are! 😳) was scarred by accidentally watching one of show’s iconic Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials. In fact, you could watch them all night and still have some leftover — as it stands today there are currently 32 different episodes to choose from (and probably another on the way!) One of our favorites however is a golden oldie — ‘The Raven’ episode. The dialogue is almost entirely from the Edgar Allan Poe poem that the short is based on, making it an extra creative and weird episode. To top it off, its narrated by none other than Darth Vader himself, James Earl Jones.

Scooby Doo: Any Episode

Let’s face it, every day is Halloween for Mystery Inc. They’ve been plugging away since 1969, so you’re pretty safe to go picking out one of their cartoon capers at random .

Psst, also, you know that Shaggy and Scooby are high too, so you’re in damn fine company!