Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space (2009)

The Worst Film Ever

Simply Perfect

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is a delightful short feature (27 minutes) of mutant pumpkins vs. monsters. This would make a great seasonal family film for the kids as it lacks the traditional frightening features of traditional movies at this time. The movie starts out with aliens accidentally mutating pumpkins in Modesto, by disposing of their waste. The monsters are called on to save the world. The mutant pumpkins eat candy.Most of the humor is geared toward the younger crowd, with only a few jokes that only mom and dad might get. "If they give you candy, they are human. If they want to probe you, they are probably an alien."

And Reese Witherspoon right in the middle of it as voice actress of the main female character. She gets help from a whole bunch of familiar male actors too, basically everybody who appeared in the full feature film from which these 20 minutes are a spin-off. Fairly spectacular cast for a short film. But that is also all there is to it pretty much. Monsters and aliens unite to fight evil pumpkins in this Halloween special. The writer is not too known and for director Peter Ramsey it was also the first work behind the camera. He went on to direct "Rise of the Guardians" a couple years later. I did like the looks of the evil gigantic pumpkin monster, but the jokes pretty much fell flat in here almost from start to finish. Definitely not on par with other monster movie releases, such as "Monsters University" or "Hotel Transsylvania". However, I am only talking about this short film here. Maybe the full feature is more interesting. I have not seen this one, but the monsters in these 20 minutes here are not that interesting to me unfortunately. That's why I cannot recommend it. However, if you liked the feature really a lot, you can give this one a try here. Or check out the television series. No idea if they will ever make a second movie. If they do, I just hope, it will be better than this short one here. Not recommended.

I was a fan of the Monsters VS Aliens movie. Despite it's predictable storyline and it's lack of character development, it was an entertaining flick with great animation, likable characters with enthusiastic voice work, nice references to other sci-fi movies, and nice humor along with some heart-pounding sci-fi action. So, when I heard that Dreamworks Animation made a Halloween special to this film, I became so excited and went to see it online and to my surprise, I was impressed by it.The storyline and concept, although thin and predictable, was at least engaging and well-plotted, the characters are as likable as they were in the first movie along with some great voice work and the music is rousing. The jokes from the writing are witty and funny. Not to mention it's nice references to adult horror movies which would make this more appealing to adults as much as it is to kids and the dialog is efficient.Overall, not excellent, but a great Halloween special to an underrated movie from Dreamworks Animation. Thumbs up!

When I watched this I wasn't sure if I had been to harsh with the feature length movie (only gave it 5, which means, I though it had more potential than it explored ... but still not a bad movie). But another reviewer/user here stated that he thought the short movie is better than the original movie too ...Hopefully they will continue from this short, when (and if) they make another feature length movie. The jokes are good, it is a very well rounded story. Of course it only really works if you have seen the characters grow (quite literally in on case) in the movie. Watch if you can, during Halloween season!