I do not want to watch a movie that will give me nightmares on Halloween, I want to watch a campy animated movie with a good soundtrack and characters that give me gender envy.

Though Halloween is usually associated with horror and slasher movies, I don’t think it is fair for people who have a low horror or gore tolerance to miss out on all of the fun.

One Halloween movie that I find myself returning to year in and year out in “Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular.”

Produced by Mainframe Entertainment Inc. and released Oct. 22, 2003, “Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular” is the quintessential comfort Halloween film.

The movie is based on a comic series written and illustrated by Jill Thompson. Thompson co-wrote the script for the film and had creative influence over the project.

The story follows Hannah Marie (Britt McKillip) who is being babysat on Halloween by her older cousin Jimmy(Alex Doduk) and his friends. Jimmy has the bright idea of trying to scare Hannah into going home so that he doesn’t have the burden of watching his little cousin. Unfortunately for Jimmy, Hannah is not scared and instead learns to overcome her fear of monsters with the help of her “scary godmother.”

Before I get to the rest of the review, I am going to acknowledge the elephant in the room and say that the animation is BAD. It looks awful and is probably the scariest thing about this movie.

Part of this was because the studio wanted to keep with a style that resembled Thompson’s comics while also being 3D animated. The other part is because this movie is a CGI movie produced in 2003.

The story, music, jokes and characters of this movie are so good that I do not believe that the animation takes away from the film at all.

First of all, the characters who are children act like children. They do not go on a quest to save the world from monsters, they aren’t out doing lines of illegal substances (I’m looking at you, “Euphoria”), they’re just kids who are excited to go trick or treating on Halloween and that’s refreshing.

Hannah Marie is such a delightful character. She is sweet and genuinely looks up to her cousin Jimmy despite him being genuinely horrible to her. She sees the best in people and grows throughout the movie.

Then there is Scary Godmother (Tabitha St. Germain). Every time I see Scary Godmother I face the queer dilemma of, “Do I want to be her or do I want to be with her?” And the answer is both.

Scary Godmother is a mentor and guide for Hannah. She takes Hannah over to the Frightside to party with her friends and “Broommates.”

Side note: the word play in this movie is such a highlight because none of it feels cheap. It all feels like it is part of a dialect spoken in The Frightside. They are not playing it up for Hannah or the audience’s sake, that is just how they talk and I love it.

At first, Hannah is apprehensive about meeting all of Scary Godmother’s friends because they are all monsters, but one by one she learns that monsters aren’t bad.

The first person Hannah meets when she’s in the Frightside is Mr. Skully Pettibone (Scott McNeil). I could write a thousand word essay on how Skully gives me gender envy, but I don’t think the editors would appreciate that. What I will say is that Skully is a gay skeleton who works in the closets of old houses. He’s truly an icon.

The rest of the characters are equally as vibrant and fun as Scary Godmother and Skully, but seeing them in action is more fun than reading about it. How the writers managed to develop these characters so much in only 47 minutes is the eigth wonder of the world.

I think part of the reason they were able to make such fun and relatable characters is because there is not a single moment in this movie that is wasted. Every single scene further develops the plot and the characters and directors making feature length films should take notes.

Another thing the movie has in its favor is the soundtrack. The two most notable songs are the main theme and “Halloween Dance.”

Both songs give a goth club dance party vibe. I would unironically listen to both of these songs on a daily basis. I need them injected into my ears, they are so good.

If this movie has one million fans, I am one of them. If this movie has one fan, it is me. If this movie has zero fans, I am dead. Play this movie at my funeral.

If I could give this movie infinity out of five mustangs, I would, but because I can’t, I will give it five out of five mustangs.