Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular

Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular is a 2003 Canadian animated television special. It is based on a stage adaptation of the first entry in the Scary Godmother series of books by Jill Thompson. A Mainframe Entertainment production, it depicts Hannah, while trick-or-treating with her cousin Jimmy and his friends, encountering the titular witch and her many friends for a Halloween party at the Fright Side. From a screenplay by Thompson and Heath Corson, it was directed by Zeke Norton (credited as Ezekiel Norton), and produced by Kevin Gamble and Sharan Wood.

Mainframe Entertainment first bought the option rights to the books in July 1999. The company's plan was to produce a special that would also serve as a pilot for a TV series. Pre-production started January 2002, before the start of actual production in July that lasted eight months with a team of up to 50 individuals. The hour-long special involved a different animation process from their past projects, in terms of a new animation pipeline and the beginning of their usage of proprietary software.

Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular premiered at the 2003 San Diego Comic-Con. First released on region 1 DVD in September, it aired the following month for Halloween on YTV in Canada. One year later, it premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States to huge ratings. A sequel, Scary Godmother: The Revenge of Jimmy (2005), depicts Jimmy attempting to end the holiday to protect himself from the monsters in the Fright Side. An episodic series, however, was never produced. Both specials continued to re-air every Halloween season on Cartoon Network up to 2012. Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktakular has enjoyed a positive critical reception since its release, and is a nostalgic cult classic for Generation Z, resulting in memes and fan art.