The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-Ween

[StevePulaski]

The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-Ween (2019)
Storyboard by: Andrew Bendik, Ryan Hansen, Derek Moore, and Ian Young

The first official "sneak-or-snack" — George and Harold's self-made event to replace "trick-or-treating" — in the Halloween themed Captain Underpants short.

Rating: ★★½

The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-Ween is exactly the type of Halloween special I would've loved to see on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network as a young child, who spent more time in front of the television than he'd care to admit. All throughout early grade school, as I clamored for more and more Dav Pilkey books revolving around the grumpy-principal-turned-scantily-clad-superhero, I couldn't believe how there weren't recurring specials or a feature-length film adaption of Captain Underpants.

Never did I think I'd be in college by the time the crude yet sweet phenomenon would get its theatrical due, let alone out of college by the time a TV show and those aforementioned specials ever came to fruition. This is where there's a crossroads in my heart. The child in me wants to praise The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-Ween almost exclusively on the merits of existing, but the professional critic in me needs to take an honest look at what is ultimately a serviceable, if slight, little short.

The film predictably follows the hijinks of George Beard (voiced by Jay Gragnani) and Harold Hutchins (Ramone Hamilton), two 10-year-olds who are still hard at work on sketching comic books revolving around their makeshift superhero Captain Underpants. If you don't already know, George and Harold used hypnosis on the miserable Principal Krupp (Nat Faxon), which worked so well that every time either of them snaps their fingers, he turns into Captain Underpants, who always come in clutch when it's time to save the day.

George and Harold can't wait for Halloween, but Krupp and their buzzkill classmate Melvin (Jorge Diaz) start a campaign to ban Halloween in their community that gains steam with the parents. The parents come to realize what a "hassle" Halloween is, in terms of having to buy candy and then have their doorbells rung all night long. Beside themselves, George and Harold find a way around the new unjust law by "hacking" Halloween. And thus, "Hack-a-Ween" — a holiday where you dress up in disguises, not costumes, and go sneak-or-snacking for snack food as opposed to trick-or-treating for candy — is born.

To continue on with the plot would not only spoil the various sight-gags and head-spinning plot detours, but also be an exercise in going criminally insane. Like so much animation these days, The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-Ween moves at breakneck speeds, similar to The LEGO Movie franchise sans the meta and pop culture references. With this pacing, Captain Underpants plays like a kid-friendly version of South Park on the merits of satirizing elementary school students and fun-sucking adults who are so easily swayed by a person with a microphone at a podium telling them something is the way it is. That part, along with some of the goofy asides, make this 46-minute short palatable.

It's the barrage of silliness that flies at you from every conceivable angle that makes the short a bit less enjoyable due to the fact that it's as if the writers are trying to exhaust any and everything this setup can bring in a truncated amount of time. With a little more breathing room, say an hour, this might've been cleared up, but I doubt it will be to the detriment of the little ones, who have likely binged The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants a couple times over and will eat this short up like full-size Hershey bars on Halloween. As a compliment to a sugar rush, or a friendly sleepover, The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-Ween serves its purpose quite well.

Voiced by: Jay Gragnani, Ramone Hamilton, Nat Faxon, and Jorge Diaz. Storyboard by: Andrew Bendik, Ryan Hansen, Derek Moore, and Ian Young.