Absolutely brilliant

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

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.

The gang goes to Susan's hometown of Modesto, California after an alien presence is detected right before Halloween. An alien ship had flushed onto a patch of pumpkins mutating them into monsters. The group must battle the candy eating pumpkins on Halloween night.This is a 30 minute Halloween special. The gang has great chemistry together. It's a smaller simplified version of the movie. It's a fun group especially BOB. The fact that it is smaller and simplified may actually help it. It doesn't feel overstretched. The setup was easy. The characters do some jokes. There's a bit of action, and they win in the end. It's a fun watch for 30 minutes.

I did enjoy the movie Monsters vs. Aliens, so naturally I did want to see Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space. I found this very entertaining and perfect to go with the movie. Generally it is well-plotted and engaging, even if there is the odd spot where it does feel predictable or thin. It looks beautiful especially in the colours which are bright and colourful, and the music is jaunty and rousing. The characters are still as likable as they were in the movie, and the writing is witty and funny, right from the dialogue, the physical jokes to the references to adult movies, making it accessible to adults as well as children.All in all, well worth watching and very entertaining. 8/10 Bethany Cox