Google Doodle Celebrates Halloween With This Ghostly Animated Tale

Google’s Halloween Doodle this year animates an ordeal that has haunted us all: the costume dilemma.

Jinx the lonely ghost is caught in the clutches of costume anxiety, unable to pick which outfit is best for the Monster Mash. Should Jinx be a witch? A mummy? An astronaut? A bat? Or a pirate?

Dying to get it right and fit in with the trick-or-treat crew, the lonely ghost undergoes a few dreadful episodes of lost attire and mis-wrapped mummification. After much hocus pocus, the frightfully lonely ghost slips back into the night wearing a sheet as a disguise to hide embarrassment. But soon, Jinx’s sheet is spirited away by the wind. Jinx discovers there is no need to be spooked however, as the trick-or-treat gang accepts the unmasked ghost as a new friend.

Google says initially it had thought of a storyline bringing back last year’s mischievous Momo the cat, who would dress up as a ghost only to be entranced by a real one. But the creators decided the romantic plot was better suited to Valentine’s Day. Instead, they settled on Jinx and a meaningful story of not being spooked out of being yourself.

“In the end, Jinx finds wearing a disguise is no match for being yourself,” Google says.