It’s the Hopping Hessian of O-Town!

Jay’s Month of Screams, Day 16- Rocko’s Modern Life

Ever since I started this month long event, I’ve made a conscious effort to avoid using any of the examples I used for FANDOM. Yet I can no longer put off using this next one because it’s so good. It’s Rocko’s Modern Life: Sugar Frosted Frights.

On Halloween night, everyone is excited for candy and costumes, except for Filburt. Thanks to his Halloween-hating Aunt Gretchen and her stories about the infamous Hopping Hessian, the poor turtle’s in fear of the holiday. So Rocko and Heffer decide to teach him about the joys of Halloween.

However, it turns out giving someone who’s never tasted candy before can backfire horribly. Filburt goes into what I can only describe as a G-Rated drug trip, which is something that a show like Rocko would be willing to allude to. Seeing Filburt devolve into a sugar-crazed state is disturbing, but what takes the cake is the hallucination where he turns into a giant demon. The older fans may recognize it as a parody of the famous Chernabog scene from Fantasia. It has the music for Night on Bald Mountain playing, which only adds to the scene.

Once Filburt comes down from his sugar-high, though, we get a real treat in the Hopping Hessian. One of my favorite stories to read around Halloween is Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The Hopping Hessian is a silly, yet still scary, parody of the Headless Horseman. Plus the ending is pretty funny.

I recommended this special in my article on FANDOM, and I still think that it was a good decision. Sugar Frosted Frights is awesome, and the Hopping Hessian is fun. The real lesson learned here, though, is never listen to Crazy Aunt Gretchen. Happy Halloween!

Click here to see the FANDOM Article I did for Halloween last year. Click here to see my other animation stuff. Or here to see all holiday related posts.