Halloween is a night of fanciful terrors, its macabre machinations ticking, turning, clicking and clacking inside of its youthful acolytes’ imaginations as it ushers in the one day a year where life, death and everything in between is allowed to stalk the moonlit streets. There are a multitude of October tales that attempt to capture the holiday’s uncanny spirit, but few stories manage to embody the enigmatical ghostliness of Halloween’s mystifying soul more completely than Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree (1993).

Initially pitched as an animated film in the late 1960s, Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree was first published as a novel in 1973. It would take another 20 years to see Bradbury’s story realized on screen due in large part to the friendship, dedication and artistic prowess of writer and producer David Kirschner. A true disciple of October 31st’s many unearthly goings on, Kirschner’s belief and dedication to the holiday is made apparent throughout his career, particularly when considering his role and history with Bradbury’s seminal work.

“[Halloween] is such a fascinating holiday because it is a day where you can dress up and be anything you want to be without anybody judging you,” Kirschner tells Bloody Disgusting.

“From the time we climbed out of the primal ooze and looked to the heavens, we needed to believe in something greater than ourselves to get through it all… to get through life. Egyptians understood this. Romans understood this. The concept of the afterworld. In all these different cultures from the beginning of time there was a need to believe in something greater… it has always fascinated me as a kid and still does now,” he reflects. “It truly obsesses me.”

Originally an artist and illustrator for creators such as Neil Diamond and Jim Henson, Kirschner skyrocketed to producer stardom with An American Tail (1986). After Jeffrey Katzenberg brusquely passed on the idea as a Disney picture, an article was published about Kirschner’s efforts, calling out a “shy, young daydreamer” looking to bring his “ideas to life.”

“Kathleen Kennedy read that [article] and in July of 1983 she came to my office,” Kirschner recalls. He presented the film to her and, after the pitch, she requested to use his phone. “I thought she was calling a taxi,” he says with a laugh, “but she called Steven Spielberg… Steven obviously wound up making that project happen and, after that, I had Spielberg pixie dust all over me.”

Kirschner’s Spielberg connection led to the creation of multiple beloved genre classics, such as Child’s Play (1988) and Hocus Pocus (1993), while paving the way for his eventual position as the head of Hanna-Barbera in 1989.

“When I was made head of Hanna-Barbera, I sat there and I just thought, ‘Okay, I know there’s the classics and that’s what I’m here for but I’ve also been charged with bringing new blood to Hanna-Barbera.’ So I thought, ‘You know what, I’m going to call Ray and see if would want to do The Halloween Tree as a special.’”

Long before Kirschner found success in Hollywood, he had forged a friendship with acclaimed author Ray Bradbury. “In my early 20s I wrote a fan letter to Ray Bradbury,” he explains, “and shockingly Ray responded. So, every October through my 20s, I would write him a really nice note wishing him and his wife Maggie a happy holiday. By the time I got to the end of my 20s, Ray started to invite me over and we would sit in his office and, on paper plates, we would have tuna fish sandwiches with potato chips and root beer like we were ten years old… we would just sit and discuss things that go bump in the night and it was something I so looked forward to.”

As a result of their lengthy relationship, Kirschner was aware of the gravity of his pitch. “I said to [Ray] on the phone, ‘Would you consider this?’ And there was the briefest of pauses and then [Ray] said, ‘By God, let’s do it!’ And, you know, because I didn’t have to ask anybody else, we did it.”

“That book was enormously inspirational for me,” Kirschner notes. “The heralding of October 31st as it’s just getting dark and those porch lights that are like lighthouses beginning to snap on all across our little neighborhood… it was the beginning of a night of fun and spookiness and running into friends. I knew a little bit about how Halloween had come to be but there was so much I didn’t know until I read Ray’s book. It was life changing. Hocus Pocus came from that… I just have an obsession with Halloween and the truth is I feel there should really only be about four months of the year so that we can get to Halloween much quicker.”

The first consideration regarding the project was the look and feel of the animation. “[Ray] was very concerned about the quality of the animation because Hanna-Barbera wasn’t Disney, but I assured him that we would put everything we could into this and do something very special.

“Joseph Mugnaini’s illustrations from the book were really inspiring to me… we really kind of kept the design of his characters, his Moundshroud especially. The talented people at Hanna-Barbera felt the same way… it was so important to them to be a part of this project. All of these people who had grown up reading Bradbury… they pulled everything they had to make it special.”

“Even at the very beginning, I wanted something that said, ‘put on your seatbelt, this is going to be spooky fun!’” Kirschner continues. “[The animators] came up with one of the clouds kind of forming a pumpkin face… not an inviting pumpkin face but something else. They did a great job.”

When it came to casting the voices in the film, Bradbury required some convincing.

“When I suggested Leonard Nimoy as Moundshroud to Ray, his initial reaction was, ‘Huh?’” David recalls. “I think he just pictured the guy from space who’s kind of flat. That’s why I invited them both to dinner… I wanted Ray to spend time with him.

“Ray and his wife Maggie came for dinner with Leonard Nimoy and his wife Barbara and Liz, my wife, and I just sat back and listened to these two talk the entire evening. It was like Wimbledon, my head going back and forth just listening to them. Leonard told a story that he knew he wanted to be an actor when he listened to Ray Bradbury’s The Fog Horn. He had heard it on the radio and he knew at that point what he wanted to do. He would try to repeat passages, doing it in his best voices. It was magical to just be a fly on the wall and listen to those two iconic talents have a wonderful evening… Leonard was brought on and it worked out really well.”

Kirschner’s suggestion that Bradbury narrate the story himself went over much more smoothly.

“When I said to Ray, ‘Would you consider narrating this?’ He just kind of looked at me…” Kirschner remembers. “I told him he had this wonderful avuncular voice and I think this thing will live on beyond us with you narrating it. He liked that, but I really felt that. [Bradbury’s narration] is musical. That’s not anybody directing him or producers or anything else, it’s just Ray. That’s the way he would speak and you would just sit in your chair and the world would disappear… he had this warm, hug-like voice and spoke in such poetic terms.”

Bradbury agreed to write an updated script, debating only one key alteration. “There’s a character of Jenny… I did a drawing of her bike with the brooms on them and I showed it to Ray. [Ray] said, ‘There is no female character in this.’ I said, ‘No, I understand that but as the father of two daughters and you as the father of daughters, don’t you think that we need to have female representation in this?’ He said, ‘No, because it’s not in the book’… the book was based on his recollections of Halloween and going with his friends… it took him a while, but he came around to it. I couldn’t make the movie without a female character in it, it was wrong.”

Jenny’s inclusion brought the film one step closer to becoming the comprehensive Halloween classic David Kirschner was striving to bring to the screen. “There’ve been so many people that have said I grew up with this and I’m obsessed with it, that they watch it every year,” Kirschner says. “It just makes me feel so good about Halloween and life and it really touches me because that’s how I felt when I read The Halloween Tree.”

The film was released on Cartoon Network to high viewership and successful reviews. “It did so well that they chose to repeat it in the first few days. They ended up showing it quite a few more times and it just kind of grew from there.”

As the years have passed and the film’s reputation has solidified into a thing of Halloween legend, Kirschner remains ever dedicated to the property’s spirit and timelessness.

“Years ago, I bought the rights to the book again,” he reveals. “It’s something that we are discussing doing a live-action version with. I think it has the potential of becoming what Hocus Pocus has for the Halloween season even beyond the animated special… I absolutely want to do it.”

More than a chilling glimpse into the infinite wonders found in the starry skies on Halloween night, The Halloween Tree stands as a testament to humanity’s understanding of life and death and the friendship forged between two kindred spirits who shared a love of whimsy, the fantastic and all the strange things that dwell in their midst.

“As I’m saying this to you, I’m looking at a picture of [Ray and I] in his office,” Kirschner tells us. “One of those times we finished our tuna fish sandwiches on paper plates with potato chips and root beer.”

There’s a sense of fate in the story behind The Halloween Tree, a destiny fashioned out of paper skeletons and plastic pumpkin pails that upholds Halloween’s off-kilter shape with equal parts eerie disconcertion and heartening care. Regardless, David Kirschner is filled with pride and love for The Halloween Tree, a representation of his adoration for Bradbury and his dedication to his favorite time of the year.

“The idea of death was so fascinating to [Ray and I]. “From the beginning of time it’s so obsessive… what grew out of those fears with religion and the creation of something to get you through the night. Fires that they sat around to be safe. The light was safe and the darkness was not. It spoke to me in my early 20s and it’s just continued to fill up my gas tank ever since and inspire me.”

“When I went to film school they wanted us to be Fellini,” Kirschner reflects. “I’m a popcorn guy. I love animation and horror and comic books… that’s who I am. I’m very happy that this stuff has made people as happy as it does. Making it reminds me of those porch lights going on, it’s the same flavor.

“It just does something to that orange and black blood that runs through my veins.”