Every Halloween, our kids get costume ideas from their favorite movies, TV shows, and stories: superheroes, princesses, and spooky characters of all kinds. To get in the spirit of the season, we asked our artists to try movie-inspired pumpkin designs. And as usual, their creativity took us places we never would have imagined.
Ingredients for movie-inspired pumpkin designs
Instead of recreating faces, the artists looked at everything: costumes, color palettes, icons, environments, and materials. Can you figure out the stories they chose based on works-in-progress?
Starting with pumpkins in different colors—white, black, and orange—gives some of the artists a head-start on their designs. And decorating artificial gourds means their creations last longer than one season.
Everyone came with ideas for their pumpkins—in some cases, including character images and their own sketches. Translations ranged from super-literal to pretty abstract.
Each artist used a variety of techniques and tools to decorate their pumpkin. With simple outlines to 3D additions, the stories started to take shape.
Time to guess: Match the pumpkin to the story
Did you figure out what characters, TV shows, and movies inspired the artists? Answers below.
Decorative pumpkins inspired by Disney’s movie, Moana.
Spider-Man crawls out of Marvel Comics and on to this web-covered pumpkin.
The Caped Crusader was inspired by the 1960s TV series based on DC’s comic book Batman.
Simple and perfect: Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Belle’s dress in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast inspired this gem-encrusted, rose-wrapped pumpkin.
X-Wing Fighters and the Millennium Falcon circle the Death Star from Star Wars.
Ariel would be impressed with all the shiny objects on this pumpkin inspired by Disney’s Little Mermaid.
SEE MORE PUMPKIN INSPIRATION: PAINTED PUMPKINS, DESIGNS WITH MARKERS, PUMPKINS BY KEEPSAKE ARTISTS AND SIGNATURE DESIGNERS AND PHOTO STYLISTS, AND MONOCHROMATIC NO-CARVE PUMPKINS. AND EVEN MORE FROM OUR FRIENDS AT IDEAS.
Your turn! We’d love to see your favorite movie-inspired pumpkin designs. Share them with us on Facebook or tag us on Instagram!
Photography by Ty Hester.