OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)As spooky season draws near, Kiff wants to start doing spooky stuff, but Barry is too scared. When a Halloween party comes to their house, Barry accidentally makes a deal with a demon to be brave for thirty minutes, but realizes he’s been actually very brave all along.OUR TAKEOkay, first off, this show is cute as all gosh darn heck. The character designs, the voice acting, the writing, the Halloween costumes, all of it is just plain adorable as fudge. Also the humor just clicks with me on a weird level, similar to why I enjoyed Season 1 of Amphibia more than what I’ve heard others have. I’ve generally fallen off a lot of Disney cartoons but I guess I’ve been missing out on stuff I would actually like if I watched, between this and Big City Greens. The friendship between Kiff and Barry is incredibly wholesome, even with just the glimpse I got, though it’s clear that Kiff is usually the one who comes up with the plot instigating ideas and schemes while Barry is the willing accomplice who may be the conscience of the duo when given the opportunity. But again, that’s just from this one episode I’ve seen and the dynamic between the two could be much more nuanced and complicated than that for all I know. And perhaps if I ever get around to it, I’ll watch the rest of this currently ongoing premiere season and learn exactly what it is. Someday. I swear.Anyway, this is the first Halloween special of the year I’ve seen, and while it’s not even October yet, I’m already seeing plenty of people put up pumpkins and decorations and get ready for parties, so sure, fine, let’s say Halloween season has started already. I just better not see any Christmas commercials before November 1st. So yeah, this is actually a very fun and solid Halloween special in its own right, as it focuses well on the holiday and its trappings, both the fun and kooky aspects and the scary and disturbing ones. We also have a fine antagonist for the episode, a sealed demon who needs to be invited and make a deal with in order to come into being AND was sealed because he partied too much and turned people into Halloween decorations. However, as much as I like it overall, if I were to rank contemporary Disney cartoon Halloween specials, I would probably rate it below ones like Amphibia or Gravity Falls. If the demon, Scarm, had ended up having traits that fit in more with the lesson, that bravery is a choice and that it’s okay to not go to parties to be with your easily scared friend, then that would’ve definitely earned it some more points.
