The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special (2017)

Perfect cast and a good story

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Silly, but if you like Halloween or SNL, not a waste of time by any means. It's quirky and inane, like the Addams Family. Not as classy or deep, but witty in a sort of hit and run Oscar Wilde kind of way. Halloween used to be simple and more fun than bloody or violent. It isn't the classic that The Great Pumpkin is, but it is sort of like the next best thing. There is nothing like Rocky Horror, but Hedwig is pretty cool if you want more of that kind of thing. Same with David S. Pumpkins. It is family friendly, for the most part, unless you are a Klansman.

"The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special" is a very recent Halloween special from this year and it aired just 2 days ago in fact the day I am writing this. The director here is Emmy winner Don Roy King and this shows already how closely it is connected to the successful long-running Saturday Night Live. I don't know too much about SNL, so no further elaboration in that area. It got some attention especially because the title character is voiced by Tom Hanks and we also see him in costume of his animated character very early and very late during these slightly over 20 minutes. The other well-known name in the cast here is Peter Dinklage who narrates the whole thing. Oh yes I forgot to say it is an animated movie and it unites aspects of several long-running shows into this thingey here. The title character acts and reacts a bit like Bender from Futurama, the moral at the end reminded me of South Park and a lot of the slapstick comedy had a touch of Simpsons to it. And these are only the ones I know. I am sure you will find more parallels, also in terms of the animation style for example. Anyway, I struggled a bit with the main character early on from a comedy perspective, but in the second half I liked him more. The boy and his little sister in the center of it all were nice from start to finish. I am surprised many of the other reviewers hated it so much because at least as a one-time project I think it worked and was a fun watch. The focus on Halloween and several plot points makes it basically impossible to turn this into a recurring series, but that's perfectly fine. I am not sure if it could work as such. But I would not say no to another 20-minute-sequel for Halloween 2018, 2019 or 2020. This was never a scary watch, so it is also a good watch for the little ones. If they are old enough to trick'n treating, they are old enough to watch this television special. I give it a thumbs-up.

Who is Halloween Santa? It has to be David S. Pumpkins (Tom Hanks). The narrator (Peter Dinklage) recounts his meeting with Pumpkins as teenager Kevin. His little sister Dotty picks the dumpy pumpkin which comes with David S. Pumpkins who tells them that he's theirs for Halloween. The Ditmeyer brothers are bullies. Kevin likes Paige. The neighborhood boogeyman Raincoat Man has taken everybody's candy.It's a silly SNL skit that Tom Hanks does with Bobby Moynihan and Mikey Day. It's fun for a stupid two minute break but it struggles to be more than that. It has rudimentary animations with the trio doing the wrap around. It's not quite kiddie level but also not subversive enough to be adult. It's a light mixture of both. While it's watchable, it's not rewatchable.

Saturday Night Live has been awful for several years now so it's no surprise that this special is not funny. If you are familiar with the Tom Hanks sketch, you know that it was a thin premise that should have been quickly forgotten. Sadly it wasn't and now you will see this every Halloween and ask why.