Director David Brooks and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios follow-up last year’s hit stop-motion special Mickey Saves Christmas with Halloween-themed half-hour Mickey and Friends: Trick or Treats. It premieres this Sunday Oct. 1 at 7pm on Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD. It will then be available on Disney+ starting Monday Oct. 2. This Animation Scoop Interview features my fun conversation with Brooks and an Email Q&A with the special’s songwriter, Beau Black. (Responses were combined and edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: Did you work on the two stop-motion holiday specials simultaneously?

David Brooks: There was a little bit of an overlap, but we really got a nice separation of the two projects.

JM: Alright. What do you remember about your Trick or Treating experiences growing up, and did they have any Disney influences and costumes at the time?

DB: Oh my gosh. Yeah. We definitely grew up in suburbia outside of Chicago and had that classic experience of being out there with my siblings and my friends Trick or Treating. My mom used to make our costumes. Very Disney influenced. And I grew-up in the “E.T.” and “Star Wars” era. Always had some really fun costumes growing up.

Beau Black: I have been to Disneyland during the Halloween season and it was amazing!

JM: What are the keys to making an establishing / opening scene and song work, and what were your goals with this one?

BB: I think the key to making an opening scene work is to start with a bang and show the audience when they are in for right off the bat. The goal with this one was exactly that. I also wanted to give some fun energy to the opening.

JM: Of course Disney is famous for its Haunted Mansion — the attraction and the movies, including the new one that came-out recently. So what did you want to showcase with this new mansion that you present us in this special?

DB: A witch lives there — Witch Hazel. We really wanted this to feel spooky and fun. We wanted to have some influence from the Haunted Mansion, so if you’re a fan of the Haunted Mansion, I think you’re gonna see some fun Easter Eggs in there. But we really just wanted it to feel witchy and spooky and a little run down, but it definitely gives you those Halloween vibes as our gang walks through the scenes.

JM: It’s cool. Witch Hazel is kind of misunderstood.

DB: Definitely. She seems grumpy and doesn’t want anybody to Trick or Treat at her house. But it turns out she’s just kind of alone. She seems like a villain but in the end she’s got a heart of gold. Fun exploring that through the eyes of our classic characters.

JM: What did you want to showcase with Witch Hazel’s song?

BB: Witch Hazel’s song is definitely my favorite in the film. I love the lyrics, written by David Goldsmith. We wanted to showcase her humorous reflection on why she’s always alone on Halloween, and her awareness that it’s her doing. Really fun moment.

JM: With “Mickey Saves Christmas”, a lot of the focus was on Mickey and Pluto. This time it’s a real showcase for Donald because of the lessons he learns and the heart he has.

DB: We were looking for a storyline that could be the heart of the story. I think Donald is constantly misunderstood. And like a lot of kids, he’s got a lot of energy and he really just wants to play. In this case, he really wants to Trick or Treat. He wants to go up to that big, spooky house. The spookiest house has the best candy, right? It’s always the house on the hill that you really don’t want to go up to. He’s really enthusiastic and he gets his friends into trouble. And along the way he kind of keeps messing up. He wants to do good and fix the situation. That feels really relatable to me. I see a lot of that in kids that I know and my niece and nephew. Seeing that play out through Donald’s eyes was a lot of fun.

JM: A lot of kids are very eager, and they learn about timing and when it’s important — and the value of friendship, which really comes across. The gang transforms into different creatures in very fun ways. Minnie becomes Spider-Woman! How did you pull-off those moments?

DB: (laughs) All the characters are dressed in fun Halloween costumes and then Witch Hazel turns them into their costumes. Minnie dressed as a spider for her Halloween costume — how do we transform her into almost a tarantula? She’s almost got a Black Widow mark on her body. It’s fun to see her in action with eight legs, crawling around the mansion.

JM: There’s also this certainly glow that Goofy has.

DB: Goofy gets transformed into a ghost and we really wanted him to be transparent. But I wanted him to glow. So we created the stop-motion puppet of the Goofy character with no legs so he could float around. But then we painted him with a UV paint so he could glow and we shined a UV light on him. Every shot that Goofy’s in, we had to shoot a separate pass for Goofy with a specific UV light on set with us.

JM: Wow. That’s really cool. And there’s a fun appearance by a broomstick. Of course it made me think back to Mickey with “Fantasia” and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. Did that kind of give you chills when you realized, “Hey, we gotta incorporate a broomstick. Whoa! Look at the connection here”?

DB: Oh yeah. That’s one of my favorite classic Disney animated films. We also took a lot of reference from the Donald Duck “Trick or Treat” short from the ’50s. In that short, Witch Hazel has this broomstick named Beelzebub. We wanted to capture that fun character — giving life to an inanimate object is always a lot of fun.

JM: I think families are going to enjoy this special, especially as we get into an important time of year for Disney, which is 100 years of Disney and the animation celebration. Mickey Mouse is 95. After doing two of these stop-motion specials, what do you think makes these characters so timeless?

DB: They’re constantly reinventing it. They are classic characters, but you look at the stuff that they’ve done throughout the years — they can go and have a Christmas special that feels really classic and then you see some 2D shorts that Paul Rudish put out. They’re dynamic and feel like an episode of “Ren and Stimpy” — beautiful animation and really fun, wacky stories that don’t necessarily fall into this classic look and feel. It’s constantly growing and reinventing. Being true to the characters and the brand but not being afraid to take some risks, including bringing Mickey and Friends into the stop-motion world. A medium of animation, but the sub-medium of stop-motion is a bold swing and I’m really happy with that and impressed that Disney is happy to explore those different types of animation.

JM: What do you think is the magic of the pairing of Mickey Mouse and music?

BB: Mickey is arguably the most famous cartoon character in the world. I think the second you hear this iconic character sing, you can’t help but feel good. Music is universal and so is Mickey – a perfect combination.

JM: What have you loved the most about your relationship and contributions to Disney Junior programming over the years?

BB: What I’ve loved most are the incredible people I get to work with every day. They are some of the most supportive individuals a composer could hope for. I also love the process of getting to explore different musical styles, and of course, writing music for legendary characters.

JM: Stoopid Buddy is one of the best in the business when it comes to stop-motion. What’s next? You’ve done Christmas. You’ve done Halloween. What’s the next holiday special you wanna do?

DB: We keep asking about that. We keep talking about Thanksgiving. When you’re home for Thanksgiving and you flip on the TV between football games, it’s Charlie Brown. I feel like we need a Mickey Thanksgiving. I think that might be next.