Long Form, Animated Halloween Screensaver

Earlier this week, I took a look at a Halloween screensaver that really took advantage of hand drawing techniques in it's animation style. One of the things I liked about it was that the screensaver was very clearly a screensaver, it had no plot line, the animation was very simple and neutral enough to remain in the background.

If I wanted to look at animated screensavers that are the complete opposite to the one I looked at then, this sophisticated cartoon screensaver fits the bill.

The holiday screensaver starts with a pretty standard Halloween scene. An orange moon in a purple sky with spooky clouds scattered across it is passed over by the silhouettes of bats and a far away witch.

Then, impressively, the camera zooms backward, pulling through a window of a stone chamber, possibly in a tower or castle. As we enter the room, with the moon still in the window, we see a portrait of an ugly broomstick wielding witch.

The portrait shakes, much as the coffin in the dancing skeleton screensaver shook, and then bursts apart, revealing instead a beauty queen witch with a young trim figure. She points out the window where we again see a witch flying around the moon, then the camera pans back to the pretty witch and she does a little dance for us, flinging her broomstick aside.

Finally, she blows us a kiss, and sparkling letters fly from her mouth to read "Have a Magical Halloween." A skull sitting on the floor provides a nice touch of detail in the end.

As screensavers go, this one is surprisingly long and detailed. I'm particularly impressed by the loop effect in the end. Rather than using a fade out effect, which I expected (and wouldn't even have faulted them for in this case), the camera zooms close to the eye of the pretty witch, and the reflected dot turns into the moon outside, where the whole thing starts over again.

I think the cartoon style in this animated screensaver is a little too stylized for it to be a sexy screensaver, but I guess you'd have to ask a guy for sure. My fiancee thinks Maid Marion in the Disney cartoon version of Robin Hood is sexy, and she's a cartoon fox (foxy lady!), so who knows, maybe even this simple screensaver can take its place among the ranks of sexy screensavers.

Whatever the case, this Halloween screensaver is nicely done. As personal preferences go, this cartoon screensaver isn't one of my favorites, but I have to admit that it's well-executed with exceptional details and fake camera effects. If this style of animation is your thing, this screensaver would be a good choice among the hoards of seasonal screensavers available.