Lumpkin the Pumpkin
“Lumpkin the Pumpkin” (1991) really is a terrible production. I don’t know if this was actually made for PBS as the video suggests, but if it was than the network really must have hit rock bottom with their decision. The entire cartoon reeks of a rushed with a tight deadline and a very low budget. Now this could be forgiven if the animators and writers turned those obstacles into advantages that in turned made the animation and writing profound as was the case with the classic Peanuts specials. But alas we are not talking about Bill Melendez or Charles Schultz…just a puny pumpkin named Lumpkin in what has to be one of the worst animated specials I have ever seen. There are so many things wrong with this picture. The soundtrack is dreadful to listen to. The character named Tara is designed to be a child yet she clearly sounds like an adult woman poorly phoning it. It is not too hard to figure out which characters are being voiced by the same actor. The witch lady and the grandmother are acted out by the same person but the very lame attempt to distinguish the two characters is disastrous enough to laugh at. A man is obviously voicing the two females roles which all the makes the scenes pathetic to watch. It’s not like it can’t be done successfully. Watch an episode of “Bob’s Burgers” where the male actors who voice multiple female characters make it hilarious to their advantage. In addition the songs are so obvious and poorly written. The singing by the actors is not good at all. And the sound effects are no better either. The visual quality is quite awful. Whereas animators of the time like John Kricfalusi were using digital animation to improve the look of their cartoons this picture instead uses the emerging method only to make the artform look and feel fugly. All of the backgrounds and layouts in the picture are flat and inspired. The animation is just as horrendous with little imagination to their movement or expressions. The only moment of sincere thinking with regards to the animation comes in a brief moment where the witch is dancing to her very bad song in the pumpkin patch. One thinks after that sequence that the studio decided to not spent so much time on animating and simply put aside all of the thinking away from the animation. As for the post production effects they stick out like a sore thumb and do not gel at all with the animation. The same goes for the character designs which turn out to be just as bland and generic as the art direction itself. When one looks at the design of the grandmother one surmises she will be pushing daisies sooner than later. Football fans will laugh at the players playing on the field who have the physic of an adult yet they strangely have kid voices. And of course the young girl would be the only pretty witch while the older witches are nothing more than hags. Let’s face it, she is only a witch by definition of the pointy hat and cape…without those attributes she would just be an average girl. Finally you have Lumpkin the Pumpkin who is too much of a lame-ass to do anything. He is a terrible mascot for all children to listen and follow. The whole “powers of the orange pumpkin” was so redonkulous and absurd to buy as was his puny song about wanting saving the world. Yet Lumpkin does that as he supposedly scares the witches, brings joy to the children in a very creepy manner, and teaches everyone a lesson.
And the lecture on kids being protected on Halloween comes way out of left field. It does not work with the plot and it reads like a desperate PSA being stuffed down your throat. Children deserve better than this piece of crap.
