Monstres contre Aliens: Les Citrouilles mutantes venues de l'espace

Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space (2009)

*** (out of 4)

Fun short picks up after the events in MONSTERS VS. ALIENS as it's Halloween time and a spacecraft lands on Earth and dumps some waste on a patch of pumpkins. That night these pumpkins turn into the title creatures so it's up to Susan (voice of Reese Witherspoon) and her friends to try and defeat them and return the holiday to the children. As of watching this I hadn't gotten around to watching the film that all of these characters came from but after viewing this short I'm certainly going to move it up on my list. I thought for the most part this was a pretty entertaining film and especially if you don't take it overly serious. I think the film certainly captures the mood and spirit of Halloween and I really liked the title creatures. The entire sequence of the spaceship landing was very well done and I thought the animation on the pumpkins was extremely good. The vocal performances were all good as well so there's certainly no problem here. The entire look of the film was another major plus and especially Susan's parents house and the various decorations they have 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!

This film is about monsters saving the world by fighting mutant pumpkins that came from a UFO.

"Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space" is a fun short animation. The plot is very simple, as not much can be packed into 20 minutes anyway. It tells how people prepare for Halloween, and the plentiful Halloween themes and decorations make the short animation appear very festive. I have a feeling that it is geared towards very young children, judged by the abundance of candies and sweets. Which young child does not dream of being forcibly fed non stop by a candy cannon?

This Halloween special is even better than the movie from which the characters come from! Part homage to the movie Gremlins, this half hour special has lots of quirky humor and thrills as well as references to adult classics (think theme from Halloween and Psycho) that keeps the pace zipping along. Well plotted and funny enough to prevent it from being scary to the little ones make this a must-see! In short, a UFO dumps its sewage onto a farmer's pumpkin patch and the resultant pumpkins come to life, inflicting "terror", mischief and mayhem on a town. it's up the monsters from MvA to come to the rescue. Good show! My kids wanted to see it again immediately.

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!