Google Doodle of Jinx the Lonely Ghost Has a Powerful Message

Google has taken a unique path this Halloween that leads away from scare tactics and spooky legends, and toward a story that pulls on your damn heartstrings.

The play button on the search engine’s main page leads you on the journey of Jinx, a lonely ghost who tries to find a costume to impress the trick-or-treaters outside so he can join in on their Halloween fun.

As this ghost cycles through his options, Jinx struggles to find something that will hide that he’s a ghost and won’t scare others away. But in the end, the trick-or-treaters allow Jinx to join them without a costume, which comes to the moral of the story that, as Google puts it: “Wearing a disguise is no match for being yourself.”

This is one of more heartwarming ghost stories coming at you during the Halloween season since Casper the Friendly Ghost. How could you not feel for the little lonely guy just wanting to fit in and be accepted by his peers?! Google doesn’t even try to hide how deep and significant the theme is in resonating with kids and adults alike.

For users interested in the work that went into the animation, Google offers an in-depth behind-the-scenes look into how its team designed Jinx and created the video.

The animators went through many iterations of what the ghost character should look like:

They eventually settled on the ghost you see below:

The characters in this year’s Halloween video also appeared in last year’s Halloween animation, which Google turned into an interactive game. The 2017 creation acts as a kind of sequel in the story from 2016 of the cat named Momo and the other “Magic Cat Academy” characters.

Perhaps the Halloween Boo-dle will make your October 31 a little more uplifting, or maybe it’ll give you some ideas for last-minute Halloween costumes. But at the least, hopefully, Jinx the ghost’s tale can show us all how it can make someone else’s day to be just a tiny bit more inclusive every once in a while.