2003 Directed: Ezekiel Norton, Written: Heath Corson, Jill Thompson

Score 3/5

This movie is fine, it’s a kids movie, it’s got an ok story. The prank-playing older kids get their comeuppance. The Skeleton is really mean to the Werewolf (everyone’s mean to the Werewolf but the Skeleton treats him like a literal dog he should’ve gotten his bones bit). One of those older kids is costumed as a baseball player in an SUV and he won’t stop roleplaying being inside a car and it’s awesome.

But the best part of this movie is the animation and art design hoooooly. It’s so good. The characters all have that early-2000s 3D animation charm. The environments are wacky and look like they have Borderlands (Gearbox Software, 2009)-style cell shading cranked up to 11. This movie requires 2 subscriptions at once to watch (woo free trials) so here’s some screenshots.

Look at those trees in the back. The tasteful tombstones with painted on grass at the bottom.

Look at those stairs! The handrail and porch railing! Painted on leaves and grass. The 3D cobblestones are a nice accent to the flat ground. This is also the scene where the cat-girl goes “I’ll trade you 2 sugar plums for 3 kisses” and the suspenders-boy goes “But I don’t have any kisses… Ohhhhhhhhh” but then he’s not like “ew yuck cooties” like you’d expect a 10-year-old in a kid movie to go. Then the baseball-player-in-an-SUV kid makes fun of them.

What a square fireplace. Look at those bricks placed into what must be columns of cement. The plant leaves so graceful and plastic. The pumpkin that’s either got no backside or is clipping into the wall. And honestly the beard on the monster to the far left doesn’t look half bad.

It’s just really cool to look at. Kinda reminds me of Psychonauts (Double Fine, 2005) in art & environment direction. I haven’t played Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine, 2021) but hopefully it kept that spirit alive. The PSX art style is played out, it’s time for indie video games to move on to the early 2000s they-were-just-figuring-it-out art style.