20 Best Cartoon Network Halloween Episodes, Ranked

The best Cartoon Network Halloween specials and episodes represent some of the funniest and most entertaining shows for younger viewers to enjoy during the spooky season. Cartoon Network was officially launched in 1992 and aimed at providing animated content. Though it operates under the same mindset as Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network has never had as much success as the other children's networks. However, it has cultivated a home for its own distinct brand of animated content that has drawn in both kids and adult audiences over the years.

Since Cartoon Network is geared toward children, their Halloween-themed episodes tend to be less scary. Instead, they leaned into their weirdness (and sometimes grossness) to create fun and compelling holiday-themed episodes. The best Cartoon Network Halloween episodes offer a unique kind of fun that viewers of all ages can return to every year to celebrate the spooky holiday. With several Cartoon Network shows having run throughout the holiday, there are some incredible episodes that celebrate all-things Halloween.

20 Ben 10: "Beware Of The Scare-Crow"

Season 3, Episode 33

The Ben 10 Halloween episode "Beware of the Scare-Crow" was part of the Ben 10 reboot and aired in 2019. In this spooky episode, Ben visits his cousin, Penny Bennyson’s, grandfather's farm, and is attacked by a living scarecrow. Ben immediately begins to suspect that his cousin Penny is behind the attacking scarecrow since she seems to be a bully, and he doesn't trust her. However, this is not actually a haunted episode since the true villain here is Aristocrow, who was flying with the scarecrow.

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Ben must defeat Aristocrow's master, the steam-powered Steam Smythe, to save the farm. The episode was a fun look at Ben 10 fighting his way through a haunted Halloween monster while showing the power of family. It isn't as scary as other Cartoon Network Halloween specials, but sometimes it's just about delivering on the jokes and offering some good, wholesome fun at the same time.

19 Adventure Time: "Blank-Eyed Girl"

Season 7, Episode 19

When it comes to scary cartoon episodes, Adventure Time is one show that offers more than almost any other. The series about the boy Finn and his dog Jake fighting monsters and bizarre creatures was always one of Cartoon Network's most beloved series, enjoyed by adults and kids alike. The seventh season episode, "Blank-Eyed Girl," is a Halloween episode that was scarier than many others in the animated series.

Finn and Jake encounter the urban legend surrounding the Blank-Eyed Girls, which are creatures that hide all over Ooo and stare at people for no reason. What makes this funny is that the seemingly supernatural beings just stare, but this is enough to have Finn and Jake frightened to death as they try to battle these beings to stop them once and for all. Even when they try to ignore them, the staring is just too much. There is even a great twist ending where they reveal what they are, which is even scarier.

18 Uncle Grandpa: "Costume Crisis"

Season 4, Episode 6

Uncle Grandpa was always a bizarre Cartoon Network animated series, with a lot of strange things happening that bordered on horror-centric. Each season of the series had one Halloween special as well, with the fourth season's "Costume Crisis" one of the better efforts. Uncle Grandpa has a costume crisis where Chet shows up in a shirt that says "Costume," and Uncle Grandpa won't accept that and forces Chet into a machine where he will find a costume for him.

He finally finds the perfect costume, turns Chet into a giant candy person, and sends him out to trick-or-treat. Sadly, Chet can't have fun trick-or-treating because all the kids who see him now want to eat him, and he ends up running for his life just to survive Halloween. Not even people at the school can save him since there is a costume contest, and Chet is the first-place prize for the winner to eat. There is a gross twist at the end that turns everything on its head in this Halloween episode.

17 Dexter's Laboratory: "Filet Of Soul"

Season 2, Episode 8

Dexter's Laboratory was a Cartoon Network series about scientific inventions and most of the horror here was based on robots and other machines coming to life. However, in the Halloween episode "Filet of Soul," things changed. In this episode, Dexter and Dee Dee are making their pet goldfish, Fishy, do tricks to get some exercise. However, they don't stop and push him too far, so Fishy becomes exhausted and then suddenly dies.

This is traumatic for Dexter and Dee Dee as well as their dad, and their mom says they will get a new fish in the morning and they need to flush Fishy down the toilet. Before they can do so, Fishy's soul comes out of its body and begins to haunt Dexter and Dee Dee, and they decide they need to find some way to either capture the ghost or send it to the afterlife. This was one of the scarier episodes of Dexter's Laboratory, and in Halloween spirit, it even ends with a jump scare.

16 Adventure Time: "The Creeps"

Season 3, Episode 12

Cartoon Network

Surprisingly, for a series as full of horror as Adventure Time, there wasn't an official Halloween episode until season 3. Adventure Time's very first Halloween episode was called "The Creeps" and features Jake and Finn invited to a party by an unknown host. However, when they show up, they find Princess Bubblegum, Lumpy Space Princess, Cinnamon Bun, and BMO all at the party. They then soon learn there is a ghost who will take over one of them and kill the rest.

This had a lot of fun callbacks to Halloween, from dressing up in costumes to the ghostly villains to the haunted house itself. It was also a fun one since it all ended up as a prank by Jake on Finn, with the twist that some of the evil spirits there were real, albeit not known to Jake, who was too busy pulling off his stunt to get Jake in the end. There were plenty of Adventure Time Halloween episodes after this, but "The Creeps" set the bar pretty high for the rest.

15 Chowder: "The Spookiest House In Marzipan"

Season 3, Episode 2

As one of the more random and "out there" shows in the history of Cartoon Network, it's little surprise that Chowder had some great Halloween specials throughout its run. Chowder premiered in 2007, ran for three seasons, and even won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. During that time, the series aired several Halloween episodes, but the best arrived in season 3 with a zany and hilarious plot.

The episode, titled "The Spookiest House In Marzipan" opens with a puppet, Gazpacho, as he narrates the spooky story behind the distinct title. From there, the focus shifts to Chowder, who has been tasked with making a special delivery to the haunted house located in their town. The episode offers the typical wacky fun Chowder is known for but with plenty of horror-movie references only older viewers will get, including a hilarious parody of Psycho.

14 Cow And Chicken: "Halloween With Dead Ghost, Coast to Coast"

Season 2, Episode 2

When Cow and Chicken began airing in the late 1990s, it marked the third "Cartoon Cartoons" to air on the network. It was also the last Cartoon Network series to be produced by the legendary cartoon company Hannah-Barbera. Always quirky in nature, even regular Cow and Chicken episodes had a subtle spooky vibe running through them which made them perfect for Halloween. Cow and Chicken's parents are literally just the lower half of the human body, they have a cousin who is a chicken without a skeleton (Cousin Boneless), and their regular antagonist is a cartoonish version of Satan.

All in all, Cow and Chicken often toed the line between hilarious and mildly disturbing, and their Halloween episode was no different. The installment centers on Cow and Chicken, who desperately want to go trick-or-treating. Taking advice from a Dead Ghost, they dress up as adults, which leads to plenty of mishaps and shenanigans. The episode is also a great use of the show's eccentric villain, Red Guy, whom Cow and Chicken blame for their terrible Halloween.

13 6Teen: "Boo, Dude!"

Season 1, Episode 26

While not the most widely known or highly regarded Cartoon Network show, 6Teen still managed to have one of the best Halloween episodes on the platform, though for markedly different reasons than most others. 6Teen is a Canadian animated show that found its United States home on Cartoon Network. The series revolved around a group of teenagers who all work and hang out at their local mall.

"Boo, Dude!" is the first Halloween episode of the series and centers on the guys trying to prank Ron, while Jen gets forced into her boss' Halloween antics, leading her to wear a pig costume. The episode is a hilarious look at the attitude older kids take when they get "too old" for Halloween and attempt to become more mature. The premise provides a great setup for some Halloween hijinks to ensue, and this is definitely among the more grounded of the best Cartoon Network Halloween episodes.

12 Camp Lazlo: "Hallobeanies"

Season 2, Episode 1

Camp Lazlo is one of Cartoon Network's great forgotten cartoons. Despite this, the series ran for five seasons and even won three Primetime Emmy Awards. Since the show focused on a host of outlandish characters in a summer camp setting, it of course managed to tap into many fond childhood memories for a great Halloween episode (even though the premise means, in theory, that the characters weren't together in October).

"Hallobeanies" was a fan-favorite episode because the show managed to create an authentic Halloween-themed show. Instead of going home for the school year, Lazlo and his two friends decide to hide out in their cabin in the hopes of trick-or-treating around camp. The Jelly Beans' presence freaks Scoutmaster Lumpus out to the point where he thinks he's hallucinating. The kind of comedic misunderstandings that lead to some frights is a well-worn yet entertaining approach, with the summer camp setting of Camp Lazlo also making for a unique spin on the October holiday.

11 We Bare Bears: "Charlie's Halloween Thing 2"

Season 4, Episode 18

Based on a webcomic, We Bare Bears eventually became a beloved Cartoon Network animated series when it debuted in 2015. The success of the series led to a We Bare Bears movie in 2020 and a spin-off prequel series that began airing in 2022. Throughout the four seasons of the show, We Bare Bears aired a few Halloween episodes, but none were as well received as season 4's "Charlie's Halloween Thing 2."

The best Halloween episode of We Bare Bears revolves around Charlie telling four scary stories, which include the bears and their friends. Much like The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror specials, the Cartoon Network show takes an anthology approach to create a handful of incredibly memorable horror-themed adventures. Not only were the stories well suited for the spooky holiday, but the animation of this 2010s show was of an exceptionally high quality, and this was a key factor for We Bare Bears managing to create one of the best Cartoon Network shows of the 2010s.