Spookley the Square Pumpkin is a 2004 CGI Halloween children’s film about a pumpkin with a peculiar shape.
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 A poor attempt to make a Halloween version of the classic Christmas film, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
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Synopsis
Based on the book The Legend of Spookley The Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano, which stands to become a Halloween classic, this cheerful animated event unfolds in a similarly charming way.
One day in the Pumpkin Patch, something unprecedented occurs: a pumpkin is hatched that looks nothing like the other pumpkins! He's orange all right, but his shape is square, which makes the rest of his kind ostracize the poor little guy. Spookley the Square Pumpkin doesn't let it get him down, though, and he finds encouragement from other friends, such as Edgar, Allen, and Poe, three highly entertaining spiders. Then there's friendly Jack the Scarecrow, and his little bat friends, Boris and Bella, who reassure Spookley that anyone can be the Pick of the Patch come Halloween. Unfortunately, Big Tom and Little Tom don't see it that way, and they undertake to do everything they can to stand in Spookley's way. But when disaster strikes and a terrible storm sends all the pumpkins helplessly rolling--all save one, however--Jack realizes that sometimes it comes in handy to be different.
Why It Has No Halloween Charm
- Despite it being based on a children’s book titled “The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin” the movie has some things that are not true to the source material.
- In the book, all of the pumpkins make fun of Spookley. However, in the movie, only two pumpkins make fun of him, Big Tom and Little Tom. Instead, the pumpkins sing about how weird Spookley looks.
- The ending is also completely different from the book.
- The designs, while decent, look weird, as the non-pumpkin vegetables look like VeggieTales rejects.
- The way the movie opens is rather unnecessary as it shows two bats, Stella and Boris who are essentially framing devices for the movie. Boris is hungry and tries to eat a ladybug but Stella, who is his sister wants him to become a vegetarian. However, they’re distracted by the pumpkins and fly over the pumpkin patch.
- Scientific Inaccuracies: The beginning of the movie gets one thing wrong, it’s stated that it’s almost Halloween yet the beginning shows Boris trying to eat a ladybug. This is not possible because ladybugs typically come out in the spring and summer, not the autumn. Also, bats don’t just eat bugs but fruit, blood, amphibians, and small mammals.
- Hypocrisy: Big Tom and Little Tom are the only pumpkins making fun of Spookley but they have a deformity themselves, they are conjoined twins. This makes them hypocrites.
- The film is also mean-spirited because not only do the Toms brothers pick on Spookley, but the pumpkins make fun of him by singing a song about how different he is.
- Plot holes:
- Why is the Spookley the only pumpkin in the entire patch with a Halloween-themed name?
- Also, during Spookley’s song, there are pumpkins in the background that are non-sentient. How does that work? The movie never explains why.
- Why are the pumpkins excited about Jack-o’-lympics when it means that they’ll get picked to be carved into jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween? That means they die, however, they don’t seem to understand that that’s their fate.
- Why is the Spookley the only pumpkin in the entire patch with a Halloween-themed name?
- The prize is a candy corn crown, which is a very bizarre idea of a prize, what does Candy Corn have to do with Pumpkins?
- Somewhat mid-way in the film, Spookley gets “friends”, three spiders who are Timon and Pumbaa from The Lion King (if Timon and Pumbaa had one more friend) named Edger, Allen, and Po (named after the famous poet), and the two bat siblings Stella and Boris (both of which appear early in the film and were the ones who discovered Spookley in the first place), which seems like it would be heart-warming. However in the case of Stella and Boris, the latter two barely interact with Spookley and in the case of Edger, Allen, and Po, their friendship with Spookley feels one-sided because they only want Spookley to win so they can eat the crown for themselves, which is what they do after Bobo wins the Jack-o’-lympics as they ditch Spookley. It’s like if someone pretends to be your friend for a contest so they can take your prize because they want it super bad, that is a terrible reason to be someone’s friend and it comes off as incredibly selfish and mean-spirited.
- Miss Opportunity: Among the Pumpkins is a female pumpkin named Bobo, and given how she does not make fun of Spookley and seems to act nice to him, you would think that this would lead to a strong friendship with Spookley and Bobo, yet that never get implemented.
- There's an overabundance of musical numbers, some of which barely impact the film's narrative and are only there to pad out the film's run-time.
- No real villains, aside from the Tom Brothers, yet they later reform after the climax.
- Also, the Jack-O’-Lympics are painful to watch because Spookley keeps comedically losing and the Toms keep getting disqualified because they are using their Vine to play. This is unfair and ableist, it’s like disqualifying a handicapped person from a marathon because they used their wheelchair to participate.
- To add salt to the wound, one of the trailers even spoils that Spookley loses the Jack-O’-Lympics.
- Laughable dialogue such as: “Is it wrong for a bat to fall in love with spider?” and “Is it wrong for a spider to fall in love with a bat?”. It also unintentionally supports interspecies relationships.
- The “Transylvania Twist” is a laughable parody of Monster Mash.
- One of the Posters is a bit misleading as it shows the cast at night-time, but most of the film takes place in the daytime.
- The climax is incredibly forced because a storm comes out in the middle of nowhere and Spookley has to save the pumpkins and Jack the Scarecrow.
- Weird ending: Spookley saves the day, the bats get to eat the crown, and the farmer finds Spookley beautiful and he glows. But it’s nonsensical because he’s not hallowed out and he looks like he has a light inside of him.
Redeeming Qualities
- Bobo, one of the pumpkins, is a very fun character because she’s a Southern Bell stereotype she also wins the games and she lets the bats eat the crown.
- The animation is pretty good for its time.
- Some people might enjoy it.
- While muddled in the story, it does have a good lesson: Accept differences and you are specie of who you are.
- There are a few funny moments here and there.
Reception
Despite receiving more positives than negatives, Spookley the Square Pumpkin has been critically panned by internet critics such as Bobseux and currently sits at a 4.6/10-star rating on IMDB. The movie also gained a cult following in the early 2010s when Netflix put the movie up on their platforms. The movie even got to the point where the merch was made and it even has its own YouTube channel.