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.
On a pumpkin farm, various pumpkins, assorted plants, and their friend Jack the Scarecrow are standing around waiting for Halloween, when suddenly, bats Bella and Boris go to tell Jack that they found something strange in the Pumpkin patch. A square Pumpkin who goes by Spookley. One of the Pumpkins, Little Tom, immediately starts bullying him for his strange shape, and gets everyone but Jack on his side.
Regardless, Jack encourages Spookley to participate in the Jack-a-lympics to be this year's Jack-O-Lantern for the farm, and Spookley decides to try his best. Can Spookley compete and earn the respect of his peers?
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:
- Adaptation Title Change: Downplayed, as The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin was just shortened to Spookley the Square Pumpkin.
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: In the book, the farmer used Spookley's seeds that created many colorful and unique pumpkins, but in the film, Spookley was picked by the farmer to be the Jack-o-Lantern.
- Adaptational Ugliness: In the book, the scarecrow looks clean and humanlike, in the film, Jack is rougher and resembles a scarecrow more, but he doesn't look THAT ugly.
- Adapted Out: The children and the unique pumpkins who appears at the end of the book don't appear in the film.
- Age Lift: The farmer is an adult in the book, but he's a noticeably old man in the film.
- All of the Other Reindeer: The other pumpkins bully Spookley for being square.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Bella and Boris are pink and purple bats respectively. The spiders are also purple.
- 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.
- Artistic License – Biology: Boris wants to eat bugs, but Bella insists that they should instead eat granola. If you actually try feeding a bat nothing but granola, you'll get a very dead bat.
- Ascended Extra: The Scarecrow was mearly a background character in the book, in the film however he's more proactive and the Big Good.
- Berserk Button: Don't call Little Tom "Tiny".
- 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.
- Big Guy, Little Guy: Big Tom and Little Tom fit this to a T.
- Bowling for Ratings: One segment of the Jack-a-lympics consists of bowling, using the pumpkins as bowling balls, and Eggplants as pins (not that they like to be called that.). Big Tom and Little Tom are disqualified for using their stem by accident, while Spookley can't really do anything because of his shape and gets laughed at.
- Brooklyn Rage: While Little Tom isn't violent, he's certainly mean and has that accent.
- Canon Foreigner: The bat duo (Bella and Boris), the spider trio (Edgar, Allan and Poe) and the Honeydews exists solely for the animated film.
- Carnivore Confusion: The bugs and bats are fully sapient. This is resolved by how bats are shown to be able to sustain themselves on granola. And granola is made from plants ... but plants are also sapient. That said, only a select few plants seem to act have any form of sentience.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Big Tom and Little Tom "cheat" at most of the events and get disqualified for them. Though for the bowling one, it seems a bit unfair. (They knock down the pins with their stem since they're conjoined by it, which Jack decides doesn't count.) They also don't cheat at one but lose anyways because Big Tom doesn't fit throw the hoop they were aiming for. Almost makes it seem like the events were designed against them.
- Conjoined Twins: Big Tom and Little Tom are a plant equivalent of this.
- 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.
- The Dividual: The Honeydews are never seen without each other.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Spookley doesn't even win once at the Jack-a-lympics, but his cuboidal shape protects him from a sudden storm where he saves everyone, earning their respect, and the farmer decides to choose him instead of the actual winner Bobo.
- 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.
- Fantastic Racism: Little Tom does not like square pumpkins and causes the rest of the pumpkins to despise Spookley. He also doesn't like Santa's cat just for being colored different.
- "The Hero Sucks" Song: The other pumpkins sing a song taunting Spookley for being square and not fitting in.
- I Am Not Weasel: The eggplants did not take kindly being called "pins".
- Interspecies Romance: Poe the spider has a crush on Bella the bat.
- Jerkass: Little Tom makes it very plain when he dislikes something.
- No True Scotsman: The other pumpkins, who are round, are essentialists who think that only round pumpkins are real pumpkins.
- Pink Is Feminine: Bella is a female bat who has pink fur.
- Predators Are Mean: Boris likes to sadistically scare bugs before eating them; Bella nags him out of it.
- 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))
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the book, three pumpkins were off to bay in the storm; here in the film, all pumpkins survived.
- Sinister Geometry: Played With, as Spookley isn't mean by any measures, the other pumpkins initially treat him as such.
- Sweet Tooth: Edgar, Allan and Poe have a liking of candy. Boris also gives up meat eating because he likes candy too much.
- Triumphant Reprise: The pumpkins sing a positive version of "The Hero Sucks" Song at the end of the film.
- Vanity Is Feminine: Bobo is a vain female pumpkin preoccupied with winning and beauty.
- Vegetarian Carnivore: Bella urges Boris to be this, much to his dismay.
- 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."