The Last Halloween (1991)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I had nearly forgotten about this, a half-hour TV special from '91, one of Hanna-Barbera's few live-action productions. The story involves a brother and sister pair of trick r' treaters, a candy factory closing and putting everyone in town out of the job, visiting aliens looking for fuel, and an old woman studying bugs in order to become immortal.That's a lot of ground to cover in twenty-some minutes and some of those plot lines don't get much development. The old woman, played by Rhea Perlman in a fright wig, is mostly a plot device to endanger our protagonists. She hangs out in a creepy Victorian mansion on a hill, has a laboratory full of bubbling chemicals, and a bumbling, monosyllabic henchman. (Who somehow isn't a hunchback.) These are all nice horror-lite elements, even if they don't add much.The main attraction is the aliens. Considering this is a television production from a faltering studio in 1991, the special effects are extremely good. The Martians are brought to life with CGI and, while it's primitive, it's impressive for the time. The fact that the aliens are blatantly cartoons helps a lot. There's not much to them and they're even color-coded. The blue one is the captain, the red one is the science experts, there's the gold, hopping, child-like one that contributes nothing to the team, and finally a rainbow colored Mogwai looking guy (voiced by Paul Williams, who I guess didn't have anything better to do that day) spends most of the movie digging the spaceship out of the ground. With the help of a dog who is conveniently named Digger, for those not paying attention.The fuel the aliens are looking for turns out to be, ah, candy. So brother and sister take them trick r' treating. This leads to the scene you're probably expecting, of the aliens hiding in plain sight, pretending to be kids in costumes. The really arbitrary plot detail about the mean old woman needing special bugs leads to the two plot threads awkwardly fusing together. That plot line is resolved very quickly. I'm not sure if it was needed at all.There's some sap. The kids have a dead mom and discussions about that take up too much time. There's a literal magical conclusion. Luckily, there's almost no lame kid-friendly humor or no bad slapstick. "The Last Halloween" is super obscure. I only remember it airing once when it was new. It was heavily advertised at the time, including a promotional comic in Disney Adventure Magazine. I only vaguely remembered something about CGI aliens sucking up candy, and then something about a guy in a barn with a vat of green liquid? It was nice to finally find this and confirm I'm not crazy. It's not half bad, as far as these things go.

I look for this movie every year, & haven't seen it on in several years. It used to play every Halloween. It is my favorite Halloween movie. I wish they would start playing it again or release it on DVD!!! It is a fantastic family movie, and one that children today are really missing out on. They don't make children's made-for-TV movies like this any more. I'm 23 now & would still love to watch it. The characters were great, the animation was awesome. It's Halloween-y but still has worked in the importance of many of the virtues that TV & movie producers & writers have worked out of television and entertainment. Definitely worth watching! They really need to bring this one back as a classic. Release it on DVD & advertise for us so we know it is available...it would definitely be added to my collection.

This movie is great for "getting in the spirit" of Halloween & trick-or-treating! I highly recommend it - especially for families with young children. I would love to own a copy of it or would love to see it on TV again this year! Bring it back, please!! The cast & characters were just right, the story is about hope, dreams & never giving up wishing for something you really want to happen. The costumes, the decorations, the entire spirit in the movie is just plain fun. Rhea Pearlman is a terrific "bad lady" & Richard Moll is just perfect for the part of Hans, the evil henchman! And it has a happy ending, with lots of Halloween goodies thrown in - what could be better than that?

i REALLY wish they'd start playing this movie again every halloween. every halloween i look for it & i haven't seen it on tv in several years. i miss watching it. if it was released on video i'd buy it too! i really feel like kids now are missing out on a really neat movie that wanders a little from the traditional halloween plots but is very entertaining and has really cool characters (creatures).