Lumpkin the Pumpkin
It’s October, there's a chill in the air, the leaves are changing colors and Halloween is approaching fast. For me that means animated Halloween specials, and The After Movie Diner has a lack of animation on here!
That brings me to this uncommon VHS movie, Lumpkin the Pumpkin from 1994.
We are graced with an almost 2 minute long opening song, sang by a ghost we never see again. Then we are introduced to witches Tara and her Mother Maggie in a pumpkin patch. Maggie is letting Tara pick the scariest pumpkin there because If they scare the most people tonight, Maggie can become the head witch. So to hammer this home Maggie sings a song. Witches have to be scary, never nice.
But Tara doesn’t play that shit, and picks a cute pumpkin. His name is Lumpkin!
They meet up with the rest of the witches at a bonfire who are quick to talk shit about Tara, and her pumpkin. The witches head off to see who can be the biggest asshole, and scare people. Maggie doesn’t bother, and lets Tara go have fun on Halloween.
The first witch fails to scare the kids. They think her pumpkin is dumb looking. They beat the shit out of it with a stick, smacking it into the air. Knocking the witch into the trash.
Tara joins some kids for trick or treat. But they plan on pranking a mean old lady. Tara isn’t down with that, she instead talks to the lady. Turns out she isn’t mean at all.
Another witch turns her pumpkin into a football to scare some football players. It fails, they just kick it. Lumpkin randomly apologies for not being scary, but Tara didn’t want a scary pumpkin to begin with.
They hear some crying. It’s a little girl, she was told she couldn't trick or treat with some kids. They said she’s too small, and not scary looking. Tara helps the girl scare the 3 boys completely going against her anti-pranking and scaring stance. Then Tara says you don’t have to scare people, just have fun on Halloween. Make up your mind Tara!
Lumpkin says how he wishes he could help people like Tara and then busts into a song! He wants to keep kids safe at night. His face on every kid, so he can make the night bright. Then a car almost hits them! Luckily the driver saw the bright orange pumpkin. He then just leaves, like almost hitting kids isn't a big deal.
Tara gets an idea, She covers every kid against their will with Lumpkin’s face. You have bracelets, necklaces, pins, and stickers! They will be safe on Halloween!
Back to the witches and, apparently, they all failed to scared anyone. Tara shows up, but the witches also see a bunch of glowing Lumpkin faces. They freak the fuck out about all the lumpkins! However it’s just the reflective stickers! The head witch agrees with Tara. They should just have fun on Halloween, and not scare people. Tara wins the head witch! We get another song about how Lumpkin will keep you safe.
What we get here is the ultimate trick! It comes off as an ad, disguised in a learning video about Halloween safety. But No Lumpkin the Pumpkin reflective things were ever made, as far as I can tell. You have a VHS, and maybe a book with a cassette tape. That's all that ever came out. It’s an animated short about being safe trick or treating. I use “animated” loosely because it’s hardly animated - they even use the same shots a couple of times!
I think most of the budget went to Bobby Goldsboro. He wrote, did voices, and sang the songs.
It’s not good, but I feel everyone should see it at least once. If you collect VHS, this needs to be in your collection.
