Halloween-Themed Animated Movie Weekend

I saw Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit last night. My college friends were huge W&G fans and to hear the clapping along to the music during the opening credits, I would guess that many in the audience last night were from the same cult crowd. Now I may be, too. As a vegetarian, I give it my highest recommendation. I recommend it for the simple but charming plot, the Rube Goldberg machines, the fact that I winced when a clay hunter pointed a clay gun at a clay rabbit. I recommend it for the short that plays first, featuring the Madagascar penguins ("shiitake mushrooms!" "Hoover dam!").

Corpse Bride - I loved this one, too. I can't compare it to "Nightmare Before Christmas" because I watched that so long ago I don't remember it well. Corpse Bride is visually dark overall and has a few "things that go bump in the night" moments, including chase scenes through creepy forests at night. For those with kids, I'd say a lot of nine year olds could handle it, but the scariest moments are early in the movie and a more sensitive kid might have a hard time making it through to when you realize the dead are actually personable and compassionate folk who like to sing and dance (the living, on the other hand....). It's only a little scarier than a Disney movie. I don't know, I am probably the wrong person to try to assess whether a kid should see it or not, I am an adult who scares easily and I haven't talked to a lot of 9-year-olds recently. Anyway, it's a fun story and clever music and you really pull for the characters to find a way to make everyone happy...