The View's Halloween Show Is a Tribute to Disney's 100th Anniversary — See All the Hosts in Costume (Exclusive)

Whoopi Goldberg as Tour Guide Barbie from 'Toy Story 2'

It starts with a theme — but the theme can fall apart if the co-hosts latch on to their looks.

"We've always said that Halloween shows don't work unless the women are into the costume, and no one is that clearer example of that than Whoopi," explains Hammer, of the process of picking out each look. "We typically come with suggestions of a bunch of potential characters that we feel are tied to the person, but they can choose whatever they want. And this year, Whoopi was supposed to be The Mandalorian until she came to us and was like, 'I want to be Barbie.' "

That proved a problem, at first, with Barbie (and its parent company, Mattel) not falling under the Disney umbrella. But then, they thought broader.

"We searched through Toy Story and found that there was Barbie in Disney, and there was Tour Guide Barbie!' Hammer says. "So it ended up working out. And Whoopi looked amazing. She was wearing 40 pounds of hair, and carried it effortlessly."

Sara Haines as Carl from 'Up'

Haines, perhaps, underwent the most unrecognizable change this time.

"Sara, in particular, likes to be transformative. She loves Halloween," says Hammer. "So we actually pitched Carl from Up to Sara, amongst others, and that was the one that she picked. She loves narrative of the film, she loves the character; it's something that her kids knew. So she was like, 'I want to be Carl. That's it. I want to be Carl.' And I was like, 'Well... there's prosthetics and this and that.' And she was like, 'I'm all in. Done!' "

Her whole look took two hours and 15 minutes for the team to complete.

Ana Navarro as Mirabel Madrigal from 'Encanto'

Navarro's was a little easier, all around.

"Ana has been such a huge supporter of Encanto from the beginning," says Hammer. "She's friends with Lin-Manuel Miranda, she's friends with John Leguizamo — we felt like that's probably where she was going to go, and we were right."

In fact, Navarro was such a fan of the 2021 Disney animated musical that she didn't just stop at being Mirabel, the movie's protagonist.

Ana Navarro as Isabella Madrigal from 'Encanto'

Later in the show, she changed into Mirabel's sister, Isabella.

"One wasn't enough for Ana, so she got to be both," jokes Hammer.

Sunny Hostin as Neytiri from 'Avatar'

Like Haines, Hostin's costume is a massive transformation — something Hammer and company knew would be the case going in.

"Sunny's a lot like Sara in that know that we can always do something really fun and creative," says Hammer. "And it allows hair and makeup to really be creative and do their thing, too."

"Her costume was obviously super amazing," says De la O. "The show team really elevated it to a new level with her look, I think."

Alyssa Farah Griffin as Princess Jasmine from 'Aladdin'

As for Griffin, with only her second Halloween since becoming a co-host on The View, she used the occasion to call back to something extra sentimental.

"Alyssa has said multiple times on the show that Jasmine was the first Arabian princess — and she's half Lebanese, half Syrian, so to her as a child, it was someone that she identified with," said Hammer. "We had a feeling that was who she was going to pick, and it felt like a dream realized for her in a way."

Joy Behar as Cruella de Vil from 'Cruella'

Joy's pick of Cruella was also a "perfect fit," Hammer says, and a look the comedian "had a lot of fun with."

"We have a lot of fun with Joy in one segment where we brought her, Ana and Whoopi to Disney Treasure, a new cruise that's coming out," Hammer adds. "They have this parlor where you'll be able to interact with ghosts. And if you watch the show, you'll know that Joy has had some experiences with ghosts before. So if you get the reference, you'll get the joke."

Whoopi Goldberg as Tour Guide Barbie from 'Toy Story 2'

Once the characters are picked, the fun work begins.

Says Hammer: "We'll then pick selects from the film to show to our styling team — made up of stylist Fran Taylor and Ashley Alderfer-Kaufman, our wardrobe supervisor. They put their input, 'Oh, we think this would be great to recreate, that would be great, etc.' And once we have a plan, we'll go back to the hosts to show them what we're thinking and go from there."

With The View airing on ABC, which is owned by Disney, the pressure surely was on to make everything look perfect.

Marc Summers as Alfredo Linguini from 'Ratatouille'

There were guests to dress, too — including beloved Double Dare host (and Food Network favorite) Marc Summers.

"Marc is a really good friend of mine," Hammer says. "This is my 20th year at The View and I met him 20 years ago. So when we were looking for guests, and settled on this idea of doing a segment on foods from classic Disney films that are featured in Disney Parks, it was like, 'Well, Marc Summers from Unwrapped is clearly the perfect person!"

Hammer did not get any resistance when she called up Summers, who fittingly dressed as Alfredo Linguini from Pixar's Ratatouille.

"I was like, 'Do you want to do it?' and he was like, 'Just tell me where and when,' " the sr. producer recalls. "He canceled his plans, he came, and he was just brilliant. He's an unbelievable talent. He absorbs information and just presents it back to the audience in such a clear, understandable and entertaining way. He's perfect."

Brian Teta as Indiana Jones from 'Indiana Jones'

Even Teta got in on the action, dressing as Indiana Jones.

Roy Wood Jr. Makes a Political Statement

The only guests of the day to step away from the Disney theme was guest Roy Wood Jr. The comedian, known for his work on The Daily Show and for hosting the most recent White House Correspondents Dinner, made a callback to the man who was seen swinging a folding chair at the Montgomery Brawl earlier this year. The image soon after became a symbol of resistance against perceived racial aggression.

"Roy actually came up with what he wanted to dress up as, and we just through it was so creative and in line with his political humor," Hammer shares. "And our team, Fran and Ashley, they actually make that costume for him. They attached a folding chair to a BabyBjörn. So that's how that was done."

The View's 'Boo Are You Wearing?' Segment

Actually, Wood Jr. wasn't the only one making a statement with his costume. Kids gets in on The View Halloween fun every year, too, with the show's annual "Boo Are You Wearing?" segment, which show's off a parade of "Hot Topics" costumes.

Those garments come together thanks to Ashley Alderfer-Kaufman, who puts the segment together each year with Hammer.

"She's my expert," says Hammer. "And what we do is we come up with a long list of Hot Topics for kids, narrow it down, and then creatively come up with how we're going recreate those costumes. And we actually just do it ourselves. We'll bring in a couple of seamstresses, and Ashley pulls out her glue gun, and we order things from online, and we basically create these costumes together. We did fittings together on a weekend with all the kids. We really just try to make it as fun as possible."

Sara Haines as Carl from 'Up'

The co-hosts don't just wear their costumes for the show, but also for a series of pre-recorded skits that help open the show each year.

Those are typically taped first before the full show, as each co-host finishes with their ginormous team of hair, makeup and prosthetics artists that are all working at the same time.

"That's what the most amazing thing about it is," De la O says. "If you think about these big, huge films, they take hours and hours and hours to do makeup, sets — and we do it in two to three hours. To me, it's still mind-blowing that we pull this whole production off in such a short amount of time."

Ana Navarro as Mirabel Madrigal from 'Encanto'

De la O, The View's first female director, and her team will spend weeks brainstorming ways on how to make each one of the vignettes different and special.

This year, they decided to use a green screen for the first time, which allowed them to do unique things that captured the Disney magic.

"You can't do Encanto without having the moving house," De la O notes. "So doing chroma key, you were able to see that in all its glory."

Alyssa Farah Griffin as Princess Jasmine from 'Aladdin'

The technology came in handy with the rest of the cast too, including Farah Griffin.

"Alyssa needed a magic carpet, so we were able to give her that with ease," says De la O.

Sunny Hostin as Neytiri from 'Avatar'

To create the world of Avatar, De la O added strands of lights to build the fantasy.

"That actually was a whole process that was much harder than we ever thought it was going to be," she notes. "So we actually made the lights! We had our electric shop make the lights. Each individual strand was hand wrapped and the whole thing, and we pulled that off."

"I think Sunny's costume just obviously was super amazing," she says. "So we needed to take it to that added level."

Joy Behar as Cruella de Vil from 'Cruella'

In fact, the whole process, Hammer says, is about raising that bar.

"It's really cool because we'll start here, and then Sarah will say, 'Well, what if we do this?' And I'll be like, "And what if we do this?' And she'll be like, 'What if we do this?' And then we just end right there," she notes. "It's a constantly evolving creative process."

"That's my favorite part of the whole thing. We start here, and we end up here, and here is different than any other show has," she adds. "Is it tough to get there? Certainly is. It's a lot of work. I know Sarah is like me. She'll call me at 7:00 in the morning. She'll be like, 'I just had an idea. What if we do this?' I'm like, 'Okay. Great.' Our minds are constantly going. But it's really cool when you finally get here."

The Halloween Show's Set

De la O's department also is in charge of the set, which this year takes its inspiration from Disney's Haunted Mansion attraction. "For the 100th anniversary, everybody had an idea of what the set should be, So we started big and just kept narrowing it down from there until we landed on the Haunted Mansion," she says.

That allowed them to be extra-creative with the technology. "There are so many elements in the Haunted Mansion, like the crystal ball with Madame Leota's head, that allowed us to step things up to another level," De la O teases. "And I think the most important thing about this whole thing is exactly what Jamie said earlier: this about very single department coming together in this Super Bowl that we do for The View. And it's just an amazing thing to literally start with this small idea and watch it blossom into this massive event where every department is doing their part to make it happen."

'The View' Crew

And some of those heroes, according to Hammer, are unsung.

"It is hair, makeup, wardrobe, and crew, no doubt about it. DGA team, no doubt about it. But there are so many people that also work so hard on this that don't necessarily always get the recognition," Hammer says.

She goes on: "The PAs pull every still and every track of music that's in there — which, there's probably 35 to 40 tracks of music in that show that they scour and send me. Our tape department... watch the show and count how many pieces of tape elements are in that. I tell them what I want, and it's a long list, and they pull every tape element. Every one of those bumpers. That open — Sarah sits with Rich, our editor, and she cuts that cold open with him, and Jamie and Brian, they edit those bumpers and those intros. It's a big process."

"It's so many people that I just want to make sure that that's known that it is really a View crew production," she adds. "It is not just producer. It is every single person, audience department, it's everybody. And that's so important that people understand that. That's the real magic, the teamwork that goes into this and the people who make it happen."