Poster // Mainframe Entertainment via IMDb
‘We have to serve something!’: Reviewing “Scary Godmother” (2003)
By: Magnus Blanchard-Rockhill
Staff-Writer & Advertising Co-Manager
This wonderful Cartoon Network Halloween special is not something that I personally ever caught as a child, somehow. I believe that if I had seen “Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular” at an earlier age, though, I would have cited it as formative.
From an objective point of view, this is perhaps not the best movie ever made, sure. Consider, however, that this is a 3D animated kid’s TV movie from 2003, and try to tell me honestly that you have high expectations. That said, this movie rocks. It is incredibly funny and honestly looks pretty good for what it is.
I will concede that the actual character models do not look great. It’s pretty ugly even for the time. I like the designs, though, and I love how much the poses and expressions are pushed. I have a fondness for 3D animation that is not even slightly trying to achieve realism and is instead highly stylized.
Other than the character models, this movie looks gorgeous. The backgrounds sometimes look painted, and the buildings and other background structures are 3D but outlined to give sort of a 2D effect that looks awesome. Everything looks a little off-kilter, with doors and walls at odd angles and everything warped and sharp. It is pleasant to look at.
The main character, Hanna, is probably about six years old. The rest of the kids are about 12 or so, but the focus is mostly on Hanna and the monsters and such she meets because of a prank by the older kids. The monsters, including the titular Scary Godmother, are the stars of the show without a doubt.
The Scary Godmother herself is serving in a low-cut top and living with her two roommates, one of whom is a transparently gay skeleton and the other of whom is a monster-under-the-bed of some kind, and they’re in the process of putting on the best Halloween party ever for their vampire and werewolf friends. The plot is mostly Hanna learning not to judge by first appearances, and she’s besties with all of them by the end.
There are a lot of puns in this movie. The obviously and stereotypically gay skeleton makes “out of the closet” jokes and riffs about drag a few times. At one point, one of the vampires makes a joke about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, for some reason. The humor caught me off guard a lot, and while sometimes the meta movie-loving werewolf got a little old, overall the writing is pretty snappy.
I love this movie so much. It’s a quick watch with a thin plot and some unsettling 3D models, but I genuinely recommend it as a family-friendly Halloween movie that anyone with any whimsy in their hearts should be able to enjoy.