Spookley the Square Pumpkin is a 2004 animated film about, well, a square pumpkin. It is based on the book The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano.
The film is often aired on Disney Junior during October. In December 2019, it returned with a sequel, Spookley and the Christmas Kittens.
Provides examples of:
- All of the Other Reindeer: The other pumpkins bully Spookley for being square.
- Animated Adaptation: Of the book The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin.
- Animation Bump: The animation in the sequel is much more vibrant and fluid. It helps that it was made in 2019, when CGI was far more advanced, as opposed to how primitive the first movie looked, even for early 2000s standards.
- Anthropomorphic Food: All of the food in this movie can talk.
- Big Good: Jack the scarecrow is this to the pumpkin patch. He's gentle and kind, with a down-to-earth personality that helps him resolve conflicts in the pumpkin patch.
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Broken Aesop: The moral of the story is that you shouldn't judge a book (or a pumpkin) by its cover. The problem? Spookley is chosen by the farmer based solely on his square shape! On top of that, pumpkins in real life are always judged by their looks, since they may not be the right size or shape to make a Jack O' Lantern. - Dance Party Ending: The movie ends with the entire cast dancing to "Transylvania Twist".
- Disqualification-Induced Victory: Big Tom and Little Tom are repeatedly disqualified in the 'Jack-a-Lympics' contest for using their vine to give them an unfair advantage, leaving third-place finisher Bobo, a vain female pumpkin, to win most of the events.
- Elephant in the Room: While the characters talk about how important pumpkins are on Halloween, they never once bring up the fact that pumpkins are annually chopped up and gutted for the holiday. Even weirder, Spookley is seen glowing at the end, implying there's a candle in him, but he's clearly alive and hasn't been cut open.
- "The Hero Sucks" Song: The other pumpkins sing a song taunting Spookley for being square and not fitting in.
- Interspecies Romance: Poe the spider has a crush on Bella the bat.
- No True Scotsman: The other pumpkins, who are round, are essentialists who think that only round pumpkins are real pumpkins.
- Recycled In Space: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer but with PUMPKINS!
- Shout-Out:
- There are three spiders, named Edgar, Allan, and Poe.
- Bella and Boris are named after Universal Horror movie stars - Bela Lugosi (Dracula (1931)) and Boris Karloff (Frankenstein (1931))
- Vanity Is Feminine: Bobo is a vain female pumpkin preoccupied with winning and beauty.
- Whole-Plot Reference: A holiday-themed story about a character who is bullied for being different until he finds a way to put his different feature to good use? It's just Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer but with PUMPKINS!
- Writing Around Trademarks: The Jack-a-Lympics are "not affiliated in any way, shape or form with... those other games."
