Google's animated Halloween doodle this year doesn't just tackle the haunted costume dilemma many of us face every October. It also hits on challenges of loneliness, self-acceptance and facing your fears.
The doodle tells the adorable tale of an adorable ghost named Jinx struggling to find a Halloween costume to hide his ghostly identity.
Afraid the reputation of scary, haunted ghosts will get in the way of having friends to go trick-or-treating with this year, Jinx tried dressing up as a witch, a mummy, a princess, a queen, grapes, a clown, a spaceship and countless others, but faced a dreadful number of costume malfunctions.
The lonely and frustrated ghost then slipped into a sheet-over-the-head costume and hid from embarrassment behind the trees, watching other trick-or-treaters enjoy their Halloween night.
He noticed one trick-or-treater, a cat dressed as a witch, dropped her hat. The sweet ghost came out from hiding, still in a ghost sheet costume, and returned the hat to the trick-or-treater.
But soon, a strong and spirited wind stole the sheet off of Jinx’s head, leaving him unmasked and vulnerable.
Noticing how uncomfortable he was, the feline plopped the witch hat onto Jinx’s head and invited him to join her trick-or-treat crew.
She and the rest of the critters accepted him in all of his true, ghostly glory and he realized he didn’t need to hide or change himself to make friends.
It’s a sweet tale of acceptance, but there’s even more to the story.
The feline trick-or-treater was no ordinary cat. It was Momo the magical cat, who in last year's Halloween doodle was part of a game to defeat evil ghosts in the Magic Cat Academy, where she was studying wizardry.
In the same way that it took a whole lot of courage for Jinx to be vulnerably himself, Momo put aside her previous fears and stereotypes of evil ghosts from last year’s fighting game to see Jinx for who he is: a friendly ghost who just wanted to be accepted.
Watch this year’s doodle, “Jinx’s Night Out” below:
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