Google Celebrates the Halloween Witch in Latest Google Doodle

No need to mess with a Halloween classic. Google keeps it simple with a witch.

ByABC News
October 31, 2013, 11:07 AM

Oct. 31, 2013— -- Double, double, Google and trouble.

For Halloween, Google celebrates by sticking with the classics. Today's Google Doodle shows a witch making a nasty brew in her cauldron, but you can choose her ingredients. You won't find an eye of newt or toe of frog, but there is a skull and leg bone to satisfy your grisly Halloween needs. There are also a magic blue potion and an apple, both most likely poisonous.

Clicking on any of the two icons dumps them into the witch's cauldron, along with a puff of smoke. Each of the six combinations (it doesn't matter which order you add the ingredients) has its own minigame -- you can light up some jack-o'-lanterns, wrangle up some ghosts or play a game of whack-a-zombie.

Though Google Doodles will find almost any reason to celebrate, Halloween has been a staple of the doodles since the search engine's humble beginnings. The earliest Halloween Google Doodle dates back to 1999, when the two o's were replaced by pumpkins.

The doodle itself looks as if it was made with stop-motion animation, the same style used in the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas special. The puff of smoke looks like teased-out cotton balls, and the cauldron brew, like real-life green sludge. Tim Burton would probably be proud of this tribute to Halloween.