Whether it’s Pac-man saving Christmas, or Kiss saving Christmas, or The Power Rangers….saving Christmas (maybe the Republicans weren’t wrong about that whole Starbucks cup thing after all…nah.) shitty holiday specials are a long held and well loved tradition.
So of course, viral SNL Halloween sensation David S. Pumpkins has to join on in the fun too!
Portrayed by Tom Hanks in the most menacing role he’s ever held, David S. Pumpkins is a terrifying figure, with his toothy grin, festive suit, and unblinking stair. Good god, that stare.
It carves right into you
“David S. Pumpkins Saves Halloween” doesn’t reveal much about it’s titular, crazy haired character that we didn’t already know. In one memorable song, Pumpkins sings that he was a normal man until “occurrences occurred” and that he is “from where he is from.”
The randomness is part of the charm however; did anyone really want a searing biography on just what kind of orange goop fills David S. Pumpkin’s gourd? And some of the specials biggest what the fuck moments, like Davids vehicle The Pumpkin-Mobile inexplicably being a strawberry, are some of it’s biggest laughs.
Over the course of it’s 22, intermittently rhyming minutes, this special never takes itself seriously, and it’s got a lot of laughs. Hanks, returning to voice David, and Peter Dinklage as the narrator, recall old specials with A-list actors, like Boris Karloff on the animated “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.”
Don’t go in expecting anything deep though, or as memorable as the original sketch; unfortunately some of David’s charm is lot in animation. Hank’s facial expressions, not to mention Mikey Day and Bobby Moynihan as his sexually ambiguous skeleton pals, are what made “Haunted Elevator” so funny.
Still, if your in the mood for a funny take on an old fashioned genre, with A-list voice acting and C-minus animation, “David S. Pumpkins Saves Halloween” is well worth a watch. After all, it is it’s “own thing!”
