Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space

Yes, that’s the plot for DreamWorks Animations’ 2009 made-for-TV Halloween ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ computer animated movie special.

Invasion of mutant pumpkins from outer space?

For those who already forgot, the monsters are the good guys. They are a special ops team of home-grown scary beings recruited by and working for the US government to do battle against evil aliens who want to take over Earth.

Acting under the command of General W.R. Monger (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland), the team is composed of a giant woman named Susan Murphy aka Ginormica (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), the blob-like B.O.B. (voiced by Seth Rogen), the mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (voiced by Hugh Laurie), the 20,000-year old fish-ape hybrid Missing Link (voiced by Will Arnett), and Butterflyosaurus(Conrad Vernon).

Mutant pumpkins from outer space TV Show

In the TV special, a UFO drops green goo down on Farmer Jeb’s pumpkin field, causing the pumpkins to begin mutating. Mysteriously, the people of Modesto, which also happens to be Susan’s hometown, were drawn to take the pumpkins home from Farmer Jeb’s pumpkin field so that they can turn them into jack-o-lanterns for the holiday.

The biggest of the lot was christened Wicked Jack by the boy who took it to his house. Soon after, Wicked Jack and all the other pumpkins from Farmer Jeb’s field became alive. Wicked Jack and the other pumpkins then began attacking the children in the town.

Meanwhile, at the monster’s base, as Susan and the rest of the team were getting ready to enjoy their Halloween holiday, they were re-called back to duty by General Monger. They were told that signs of alien activity had been detected in Modesto.

They were ordered to proceed to the place and investigate to mutant pumpkins. There, at Farmer Jeb’s pumpkin patch, Susan and the team discover that the green goo from the space ship had caused all the pumpkins in the patch, as well as those which have made it to people’s homes, to come alive and apparently to become very hostile to the children.

They were attacking the trick-or-treating little kids! But then, Dr. Cockroach saw:  “It’s not the children they’re after, it’s the candy!” and that the more they ate, the bigger the pumpkins would get “until the whole world becomes their pumpkin patch.”

Monsters vs Aliens 

Susan and her team did their best to try and protect the people of Modesto but they were vastly outnumbered.

Led by Wicked Jack, the mutant pumpkins from outer space chased the monsters right down into the Murphy’s house.

The monsters and the children tried to fight off the pumpkins but they were simply no match. As Susan giants up, all the pumpkins fused themselves into Wicked Jack’s body until he becomes an even bigger giant than Ginormica.

The monsters seemed about to be beaten when Dr. Cockroach came to another realization. He realized that the way to defeat the giant Wicked Jack is to overfeed it until it gets an indigestion.

So he made a gattling gun platform with which they used to shoot all the candy they could find into Wicked Jack’s waiting mouth.

Wicked Jack was on the verge of getting indigestion when the monsters ran all out of candy. Then Dr. Cockroach remembered, he still had a lollipop hidden in his pocket.

He tossed that last candy to the giant pumpkin. Wicked Jack finally got so groggy that Ginormica was able to sucker punch his head off.

Then she whistled for mutant pumpkins to finish him off before he gets away.

Wicked Jack burst open, but surprisingly the candies inside came out unharmed and intact, including Dr. Cockrach’s lollipop which he picked up and gave to a little girl.

The monsters once more saves the day for planet Earth against the alien invaders. But of course, that is not the end of the story. The juice from the splattered mutant pumpkins from outer space managed to seep into a nearby carrot plot.

For the young and young-at-heart, DreamWorks’ Monster vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space and its 2011 sequel, Monster vs. Aliens: Night of the Living Carrots, make excellent Halloween memorabilia. Both are already available in DVDs and Blue Ray at recognized retail outlets.