The Legend of Hallowaiian (PG)
Arcana; Halloween Specials Wiki; IMDb; Rotten Tomatoes; SC Films; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Vudu

Three kids named Kai, Leilani, and Eddie are out surfing on Halloween, when they discover an underwater cavern. In that cavern they find a chest, which Leilani and Eddie don't think they should open. But Kai does open it, and takes out a little wooden figure, which he soon loses. They go back home, and tell Kai's grandfather about the cave and the chest, but lie and say they didn't open it. He tells them a story about an ancient monster called Pineapple Head, and of course it's not long before the figure Kai had found begins to grow, because it's the real Pineapple Head. It begins wreaking havoc around town, while the three friends are out trick-or-treating. Eventually Pineapple Head starts chasing them, because it wants the moon rock Eddie is wearing as part of his astronaut costume. Because it gets its power from the Moon. But Leilani and Eddie get separated from Kai, though all three of them are rescued by small creatures called Menehune (which I'm sure are nothing like the actual mythological people of that name; they remind me more of Minions crossed with, I dunno, weird-ass hamsters, or something).

Anyway, Leilani and Eddie are eventually reunited with Kai. And in their efforts to stop Pineapple Head, they seek help from a volcano goddess (voiced by Vanessa Williams). And I'm not sure what else to tell you. Oh, Tia Carrere voices Kai's grandmother, and Mark Hamill has a very small role as a clueless cop. The animation isn't great, especially the backgrounds. The writing and acting aren't that good, either. Just in general it's not a good movie, but while I can't exactly say I liked it, I wouldn't really say I disliked it, either; at least not too much. Anyway... I also have to say I find it strange that the townsfolk all call Halloween "Hallowaiian," just because they live in Hawaii. I seriously doubt anyone does that in real life. And I suspect the movie gets Hawaiian mythology wrong in any number of ways. So despite one of the messages of Kai needing to learn to embrace his culture, I wouldn't be surprised if Hawaiian viewers found the movie offensive. Still, it's something I've been wanting to watch since it came out in 2018, so I'm glad I finally did, in 2020.