This extremely rare Halloween special may deliver varying results depending on how lenient you are willing to be in production quality. The claymation here isn’t exactly top notch and the producers of “Follow That Goblin!” fill the gap with ancient computer animation that pops up every now and then. Deep down though, it’s a unique Halloween movie with a fun premise that deserves to be seen by folks that love this kind of entertainment.
Scott and his sister Abby tour the haunted house at a carnival on Halloween night. The two are trapped in the murky mansion when they stop to help Herbert the Goblin, a hapless haunt who’s lost the will to frighten. Learning that the carnival is going to be demolished before the night is over the brother and sister try to escape, all the while helping Gilbert. Gilbert meanwhile, teaches the monsters how to be truly scary and save the house.
As mentioned the big turn off of the movie might be the crude claymation that doesn’t entirely do the production any favors. In particular the characters aren’t very expressive or emotive, especially in the opening scenes. In either case, the producers manage to build some interesting villains and supporting characters. In particular, there’s the pumpkin headed leader of the haunted house who throws a big party in the finale. There’s also the soulful witch that promotes being true to yourself. Gilbert is also a fun hero who starts off with a lack of confidence, and slowly realizes he has a lot of power to become a terrifying goblin by the end. I have zero nostalgia with “Follow That Goblin!” so I was able to be as objective as possible, and in the end while I didn’t love the animation, it made for a fun Halloween diversion.