Now it's their duty to cancel... the Pumpkin Reports!
Eleven-year-old Max Green used to be the most popular kid in the pumpkin-loving Cucurtown, until his parents adopted two supposedly orphaned siblings, Teresa and Goliath. Not only they steal Max's spotlight from his parents and classmates, he discovers that they are actually plant-like creatures named Loom and Ran from an alien race called Kemii. Their mission is to lay the groundwork for an Alien Invasion to eventually Take Over the World and enslave humanity.
Unfortunately, most citizens of Cucurtown are oblivious to all of this, and Max's attempts to prove that his adopted siblings are aliens lead to him losing all his remaining reputation, as people think he is just being jealous. Now it falls to Max and his small team of believers to fight Teresa and Goliath in a battle of wits to protect their town from the aliens.
Pumpkin Reports is a Spanish-Italian-Malaysian All-CGI Cartoon created by Sascha Paladino. Produced by Motion Pictures, Young Jump Sample, and ForFun Media Network, it aired from October 31, 2015 to April 23, 2016 on Clan TVE in Spain. In the US, the series aired on the English-language sister channel of V-me, Primo TV on January 16, 2017.
Some humans waste their time trying to list all the narrative conventions in a fictional story, such as:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Pixel has a crush on Teresa, and she does not appreciate the sentiment.
- Adults Are Useless: All adults in Cucurtown, with the exception of Simon. Teresa's species isn't terribly much better given the amount of time her commanders spend laughing at her suffering instead of helping, Goliath bumbling constantly, and how easily one of their warriors was overcome by the appeal of stardom.
- Alien Among Us: Teresa and Goliath.
- All There in the Manual: Some backstory elements can only be learned on the official website
. However, at least some information contradicts the actual show (for example, how Teresa found names for herself and Goliath), so their canonicity is dubious. - Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: A surprisingly onesided example. Despite all the normal abuse he endures Goliath is extremely relieved and affectionate with Teresa after she escapes being trapped in the mirror dimension. Teresa is less then enthused but tolerates it for a least a couple of hours before trying to pry him off her leg.
- Becoming the Mask: In "Lights, Camera, Invasion!" Teresa convinces the town to act in a movie where they are the victims of a monster. Naturally, it's a ploy to capture and enslave the townsfolk, and the monster is a Kemii soldier. However, the people's adoration compells the Kemii to change his role from villain to hero.
- Bumbling Sidekick: Goliath to Teresa. In "Saving Goliath" this trope gets deconstructed though: Teresa gets so tired of her sidekick's incompetence that she plans on replacing him for a new one, and the episode's plot resolves around Max and his friends coming up with schemes to convince Teresa that Goliath is still useful, fearing that any potential replacement for Goliath would be much harder to defeat.
- Caring Gardener: The people of Cucurtown are proud of their agriculture, which makes the town a perfect target for an invasion of Plant Aliens.
- The Dog Bites Back: While Goliath takes the brunt of Teresa's shabby treatment, a few episodes have him taking vengeance somewhat.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Simon serves as this for the team. Unfortunately, most of his inventions have at least one major flaw.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Since Max can't prove that his adoptive siblings are aliens, he is forced to share many family activities with them, such as going to the movies together.
- Happily Adopted: Sort of. Victor and Laura treat their adopted children as good as their biological son, if not better. Teresa and Goliath are just happy to use their new family to infiltrate human society.
- Human Disguise: Teresa and Goliath's human-like appearances are essentially costumes. We never see their true forms, but Max does in the pilot episode, and is horrified.
- It's Always Spring: Cucurtown seems to have only one season, as seen in the Halloween and Chistmas Episodes (though the heroes produce an artificial snowfall for Christmas).
This might be the reason why this town specializes in gardening and vegetables. - Living with the Villain: A given, seeing as Teresa and Goliath are essentially Max's step-siblings.
- Love Potion: In "Crazy In Love", Teresa learns that Love Makes You Dumb, and crafts a spray that causes people to fall in love with the first thing they see. She makes Goliath fall for a squirrel, Max's dad fall for a bee, Pixel fall for Max's mom, Violet fall for Max, Simon fall for a fast food drive-up speaker (Designed to look like a clown), and Max fall for an over mitt. Luckily, the spray's effects can be undone by soaking the victim in water. At the end, Teresa reports that love is simply too unpredictable to deal with.
- Not So Above It All: In "River of Esmerelda", Teresa discovers telenovella, and despite finding the show terrible, cannot stop herself from being mesmerized by it. The heroes use this to keep her distracted from one of her plots.
- Once an Episode: Almost every episode ends with Teresa sending a report to the Kemii mothership, in which she describes her latest experience with humans and asks the Kemii to invade soon.
- Only Sane Man: Both Max and Teresa often become this for their respective sides of the conflict.
- Origins Episode: "Progress Report" focuses on Teresa recounting her and Goliath's first days on Earth.
- Plant Aliens: The Kemii.
- Police Are Useless: Cucurtown seems to have only two police officers, who are just as Genre Blind as the rest of the town.
- Sibling Rivalry: Max's conflict with Teresa and Goliath looks like this to their parents, but it is actually a conflict between humans and aliens.
- Status Quo Is God: Both human and aliens have their small victories, but neither side ever actually defeats the other.
- The Stinger: Every episode has one, usually focusing on the antics inside the Kemii mothership.
- Superstition Episode: Played with. In "Eyes Closed Friday", Teresa discovers the concept of superstition, unknown to the Kemii, and tries to use it in her favor by creating new superstitions, in which the townsfolk of Cucurtown start believing when, with the help of Goliath, she makes the superstitions come true. This is part of an elaborate plan for the Kemii to deliver Teresa a giant robot without being noticed, so she manipulates the Cucurtown citizens into closing their eyes for an entire hour, when the robot is due to be delivered.
- The Unintelligible: Goliath cannot speak in any human language, meaning only Teresa can understand him.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Teresa and Goliath are adored by the townspeople, which means that the heroes can only rely on themselves.
- Weirdness Censor: Even when the citizens actually notice something unnatural, they always brush it off.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: In "Fear Itself", Teresa learns about phobias and builds a device that can scan a mind and project a hologram of that phobia. The phobias seen throughout the episode range from normal to absurd. Simon is afraid of heights, Violet, public speaking, Pixel fears cows wearing party hats, and Max is afraid of the dark. Teresa herself turns out to be afraid of ventriloquist dummies.
- Word Salad Title: It actually refers to the reports Teresa sends using an alien device, which looks like a pumpkin.
