ALWAYS

Ghosts Come Out at Midnight

An illustration of mine, Part of Halloween ’22 - Realm of Ghosts

Yes, the story is about a puppet not understanding right from wrong - and so does the wrong thing and earns consequences from those actions.

But it always resulted in such an unlikable character.

Then Del Torro comes around and makes the best version literally ever. Everything is perfect.

He didn't join the circus because he was a little twat. He joined because, in the town where people resented him, he found a place where he was 'loved' and 'accepted.'

Replacing the island of fun and debauchery with a literal fascist military camp was a stroke of pure GENIOUS.

In all the other versions - the lesson is "Don't do fun things! Never do fun things! Work! Learn! If you do anything a normal proper citizen wouldn't do, you'll become a DONKEY. Not just a donkey! A donkey slave! You can't even cry out to mama anymore- hope the 'root beer' was worth it!"

It also never made any sense how this island even worked. I have yet to see a version explain that heap of witchcraft.

fyi to pixel artist theres tons of paint by number apps stealing then vectorizing pixel art!