These days, we get so bombarded with sequels and remakes, that we can often forget their cousins, the spin-off or one-shot. Audiences like to see their favorite characters from movies return to the screen and the studios like the money involved, but sometimes a full-fledged entirely new movie isn't prudent. So, we get television specials, webisodes, and bonus shorts on DVD releases or as part of a theatrical presentation. This has been going on for decades (The Star Wars Holiday Special, anyone?) and the home video era has only made these offering more prevalent. Paramount Home Entertainment is now offering a nice Blu-ray Disc package which contains six Halloween themed shorts featuring characters from the Shrek and Monsters vs. Aliens movies. Some have been released on home video before, but it's nice to have them all together.

"Thriller" (6 minutes) -- Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) takes the family to see a The Sound of Music inspired film and regrets it because he hates musical. As they exit the theater and Shrek continues to complain, everyone begins to turn into a monster and grotesque versions of familiar characters (a giant Gingy, for example) rise from a local graveyard and everyone does the dance from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. This is weird and we've seen animated versions of "Thriller" before, but it's still fun.

"The Ghost of Lord Farquaad" (13 minutes) -- Shrek (Myers) and Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz) are on their honeymoon, which Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) along for the ride, when Fiona is kidnapped. A chase ensues and while passing through a graveyard, Shrek and Donkey encounter Farquaad's (voiced by John Lithgow) ghost. This pesky spirit brings a dragon statue to life who pursues our heroes through the air. When this short began, I immediately felt that I'd seen it, but I couldn't place it. Then it hit me -- this is the move from the "Shrek 4D" ride at Universal Studios. I've seen other movies within rides before, but I don't ever remember one being released for home video, so this is a very cool move on the part of Dreamworks, as it like having yet another souvenir from vacation. As for the movie itself, this is an interesting piece with plenty of action, but it's not the same without the 3D and the moving chairs.

"Scared Shrekless" (26 minutes) -- It's Halloween and while Shrek and Fiona are out trick or treating with their kids, Donkey, Puss (voiced by Antonio Banderas) and the rest of the gang break into Shrek's house and set up a party. Donkey suggests that they have a contest to see who can tell the scariest story. Gingy (voiced by Conrad Vernon) tells "The Bride of Gingy", where after being dumped, Gingy visits a baker who makes him a female cookie (voiced by Kristen Schaal) to love. Of course, things don't go as planned and the obsessive cookie is more than Gingy can handle. This eventually turns into a zombie piece. In "Boots Motel", Donkey and Puss do a terrible job of collaborating on a story which begins as an homage to Psycho and then goes off the rails. The inspiration for "The Shreksorcist" is obvious, but seeing a possessed Pinocchio (voiced by Cody Cameron) is definitely weird. It's fascinating to see the shots which reference The Exorcist. Overall, this is fun, but kids won't get a lot of the movie references.

"The Pig Who Cried Werewolf" (7 minutes) -- Seriously, they're doing Rear Window? The Three Little Pigs are very suspicious of their neighbors and they are often convinced that those around them are up to no good. When Heimlich (voiced by Sean Bishop) is confined to a wheelchair, he watches the wolf (voiced by Aron Warner) who has moved in next door and finds himself thinking that the wolf can't be trusted. Thankfully, this one is short, as we've seen it all before, and it definitely misses the other characters.

"Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space" (27 minutes) -- When an alien spaceship dumps its chemical toilet on a pumpkin patch, the pumpkins come to life. Susan (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), B.O.B. (voiced by Seth Rogen), The Missing Link (voiced by Will Arnett), and Dr. Cockroach (voiced by Huge Laurie) are sent to Modesto (where Susan's parents live) to check things out. After experimenting with trick or treating, the monsters square off against the animated gourds, and learn that the pumpkins are after the sweetest prize. If you liked Monsters vs. Aliens, then you'll like this, as it offers the same combination of humor and heart, while not shying away from "scary" gags involving the pumpkins.

"Night of the Living Carrots" (13 minutes) -- This begins right where "Mutants Pumpkins from Space" ended. A shattered mutant pumpkin oozes into the ground, causing a carrot to mutant and come to life. The carrot quickly multiplies and swarm all of Susan's old house. The Missing Link and Dr. Cockroach are there to help, but it falls upon B.O.B. to save the day. For some reason, Susan isn't in this one at all, and most of the action deals with B.O.B., which is fine, as he's very funny. There are some laugh out loud moments, and my family and I were still talking about the lava lamp the next day. This can be viewed with "Pop-Ups" which offer fake trivia throughout.

Dreamworks Spooky Stories oozes onto Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment. The shorts here have been letterboxed at 1.78:1, save for "The Ghost of Lord Farquaad", which is framed at 2.35:1. The Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 30 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing on grain and no defects from the source material. I don't know if a digital-to-digital transfer would be used for something like this, but it certainly looks good. The colors look fantastic, and the image is never overly dark or bright. The images have nice depth and the level of detail is good. The only drawback would be that the HD transfer reveals that some of the animation isn't as intricate as what one would see in a theatrical release. The Disc carries a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. Some of the shorts contain better sound than the others, but all offer at least some nice stereo, surround, and subwoofer effects. Given the subject matter here, we get screams coming from the rear speakers and thuds emitting from teh sub.

The only extra on the Dreamworks Spooky Stories Blu-ray Disc is the aforementioned "Pop-ups" on Night of the Living Carrots".