Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to read and review this.

Film is a quirky animal to work upon the page.  In order to get across details, you often sacrifice in a script's bulkaplicity.  

Rob Skotte (Aka sniper) understands very well the value of a skinny script.

That's why it's so valuable to study the form from all angles so that the right techniques can be employed in the right way and at the right time.

Before I go on to some comments based on comments, I'd like to recommend for anyone who has little children or grandchildren--or just someone who likes fun music-- go to:

Oddio Overplay and Ilovewavs.com, you can get "Haunted House" by Hap Palmer which I used as Wendel's sneaking music, and "Gimme a Smile" by Andrew Gold which I used for my bookends to this in the intro and the ending.

These are lovely little tunes and they have lots more for your Halloween parties.

Now for the comments on the comments:

Elis, I never broke any rules.  This is a 12 page story, but in PDF with title pages, it reads that way.  12 story pages on the mark?  Check.

Cindy, I don't know where you got the bike from, there's no such animal in the script.  Just a floppy dog.  What's a floppy dog?  You decide.  They come in many breeds and colors, but one thing they have in common is they like to flop.

Wendel only discovers at the end about the idea of "Wish Pumpkins."  

...when he sees his daughter saying, "No Jefferey.  I don't want mine carved." and decorating it with lace, that he realizes:

"Here I've been running around and trying to come up with a fantablioshish idea for Halloween-- trying to beat Nelson with his Monster House and his big fat fancy pumpkin carving with dozens of my own exquisitely carved designs and now... I look over at Sarah with her bit of lace, and I look down at this little girl who's asking me sincerely how to carve the perfect pumpkin... and I realize that sometimes: YOU DON'T.

"Wish Pumpkins" is about Wendel trying so hard for the BIG GRAND DESIGN that he doesn't see the bigness in the very small... UNTIL the very end.

The mummies weren't important to me.  Only the fact that Wendel used up all the toilet paper in the process and failed to replenish--a critical mistake.

I'm really happy with "Wish Pumpkins."  I'd like to make it longer.

I don't know how to write the animated beginning any shorter than it is.  I know how to snip and tuck and I'm sure I could do that, but I'm not sure how to write in the fact that the song's lyrics are moving on a banner for little kids to read and the fact that a huge number of CARVED JACKS keep fighting for the spotlight, pushing each other out of the way...

I think the only way to do it would be to lengthen the script and do it line by line thereby increasing that beautiful white space.

I really fought with this script.  It's been through I don't know how many rewrites... you know the way it goes and Whoah!  It's been compressed and compressed and still Whew!

Anyways, this really was a joy for me.  I appreciate the incite.

Sandra

Having enjoyed your previous OWC script, I thought I'd take a look at this one.

I liked the beginning, morphing from cartoon to live action. I was hoping that it would, from time to time, morph between the two -- kinda like Run Lola Run.

I loved the exchange between Wendle and Sara; the Satan/satin comments. Very funny.

The story, I felt, took a few too many pages to establish itself. By that I mean, I wasn't sure, right away, what the conflict was. Given the limited number of pages with which to work, you might consider condensing it. This would allow for a more dramatic read.

The dialogue, I thought, had a realistic feel, yet, at the same time was comical. So points there.

I didn't understand the ending. It was very abrupt. Perhaps I missed something.

A format comment: rather than writing NEXT EVENING in the slug, you should drop it down and SUPER it.

Seth