"Night of the Living Dummy III" is the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth episodes of Season 2 of the Goosebumps TV series. The episodes are based on the fortieth Goosebumps book of the same title. The episodes aired on Fox on July 20, 1997 as a one hour special. They were directed by Timothy Bond.
Trina O'Dell's dad used to have a ventriloquist act. Now he stores all his old dummies in the attic. He calls it his Dummy Museum. Trina and her brother Dan think dad's dummies are pretty cool. Until one day they notice one of the dummy's hands is warm, humanly warm! Then they hear eerie voices coming from the attic. Could the dummies be leading lives of their own?
Differences from the book
Zane actually finds out that Slappy is alive, and is more friendly with the twins as he helps them get rid of Slappy. By the end, they plan on seeing each other again.
In the book, the dummies attack Slappy, but in the television episode, he gets destroyed in a different way. After Rocky throws him out the window, he is struck by lightning and explodes.
Rocky's design in the book and episode differ greatly. In the book Rocky is depicted wearing a red and white striped shirt and blue jeans. In the episode, he's made to look more like a 1930s gangster.
Rocky's role is expanded, as Slappy brings him to life to be his partner.
The ending of the episode is different. At the end, Zane's head twists all the way back. In an evil voice he says, "I'll be back ...cousins," just before he enters the car. This implies that he is still part dummy somehow and that Slappy has some control over him. In the book he merely receives Slappy as a gift, and Slappy is revealed to be alive.
In the book, Uncle Cal stays over along with Zane. In the episode, he drops him off and doesn't stay.
The original premiere of the episode and its VHS release include R. L. Stine as the episode's host. He is joined by a dummy version of himself.
In Night of the Living Dummy II when Slappy's head falls on the fireplace, his entire face breaks off. But when they show what is left of him in the sequel, only the part around his eye is missing.
Cousin Zane was played by a young Hayden Christensen, better known to fans of the Star Wars movies as teenage/young adult Anakin Skywalker.
In some camera shots, Slappy has moving eyebrows, and in other shots he does not. In these shots, he has a different-looking face. This is because two dummies were made to appear in different scenes.
In certain camera angles in the scenes of Zane's bedroom and the hallway as Trina and Daniel swept, a black line can be seen at the bottom of the screen. This is clearly a crack in the special camera's lens, as it only appears in the two types of angles, while the camera shots made from other angles were made with a different one.
Slappy is bigger in this television episode (and the continuation) than he was in Night of the Living Dummy II. This is because, in this installment, Slappy needs an actor to properly animate him (in the previous installment, he was simply a puppet with limited motion). For consistency, they made the puppet the same size as the actor.
Most of the "dummies" featured in the episode are actually dolls.
If you pay close attention, you will be able to tell when Slappy is a dummy or an actor in a costume. The costume's face stretches like rubber when the mouth moves, and it can't move its eyes or eyebrows. The dummies also have human hands when actors wear costumes.
When Dan and Trina talk to Slappy in Zane's bedroom, you should notice that some camera shots are Zane's dummy, while others are actor Hayden Christensen as human Zane with marker lines drawn over his mouth to simulate that of a dummy.
Goof: If you look very carefully as Slappy tries to squirm away from Trina and Dan as they wait for Zane, you can faintly see black wires moving his arms.
On the VHS/DVD release of the episode, the music recording is cut short, stopping before the credits are actually over, though just by an inch.
Near the end, when there is a scene with Rocky in the chair, there is some "Godfather" music playing in the background.
In the scene where Slappy shows off his "friends" to Trina and Dan, if you look closely, you can see Dennis from Night of the Living Dummy II.
The cracked Slappy head used at the beginning of the episode was later reused in Season 3's Bride of the Living Dummy, in the scene where Slappy and Mary Ellen are destroyed in the workshop.
In a scene where Trina and Zane are having breakfast, a box of cereal named "Aunt Deb's Wacky Wheat Cereal" is seen on the table. The name "Aunt Deb" is a reference to Goosebumps' producer, Deborah Forte.
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