(mostly) Studio Ghibli pumpkins
Last night, we carved our pumpkins.
Our kids have really gotten into the Studio Ghibli movies of late. Lisey started it by watching My Neighbor Totoro on her own, and then she hooked Mr. FG by getting him to watch it with her.
Now a steady stream of Studio Ghibli movies from Netflix have been hitting our mailbox in time for Friday night movie watching.
Zoe wanted to carve the cat from Kiki's Delivery Service, but we were unsuccessful at obtaining a pattern. So she settled for a cute hamster instead.
Joshua carved the cat bus from Totoro, and Sonia chose No-Face (from Spirited Away).
And of course, Lisey chose Totoro, which ended up being really hard to carve, but she hung in there with the help of Joshua and Mr. FG.
These might show up in the related posts widget, but in case they don't, and in case you're curious, here are our 2013 pumpkins.
In case you're really into looking at pumpkins, I'll throw in our 2011 pumpkins too (holy moly, Joshua looks so young!!!)
Ah, Studio Ghibli, how I love thee! My wife actually walked down the aisle at our wedding to "The Merry Go Round of Life" which is the theme to Howl's Moving Castle, which is her favorite Ghibli film. Also, the book is fantastic (Diana Wynne Jones should be on every teen's reading list if they like fantasy at all.)
Whisper of the Heart is my personal favorite. There's no magic or fantasy (outside of a story the girl writes) but instead it's probably the best and sweetest coming of age story I've ever seen. Definitely check it out! You'll never think of John Denver's "Country Roads" the same way again. 🙂
Also, while not totally Studio Ghibli the older kids might like Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro. It's directed by Miyazaki and it's probably the best thing in the Lupin universe. The rest of Lupin can get a little rough (violence and well, just Google Fujiko Mine) but Castle of Cagliostro has nothing really offensive in it.
Again, another pre-Ghibli work to check out is Sherlock Hound. It's all on Crunchyroll for free (and I think maybe YouTube as well.) It's a great show that I plan on showing my proverbial future kids.
The pumpkins look awesome! If we celebrated Halloween, which we really don't outside of watching a Godzilla movie and our annual listen to "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, we'd want to do something like this. Enjoy!
I have to tell you that as we were carving these last night, it occured to more than one of us that you would highly approve of our pumpkin choices this year. 😉
Lisey's currently reading the book version of Howl's Moving Castle! And she just told me that Whisper of the Heart is in our Netflix queue.
Excellent! There are two other books in the series, I think, so the story is expanded a lot more than the movie. I'm also flattered that people know my entertainment choices. 😛
Incredibly carving -- amazing films. My neighbor Totoro is one of my favorite films (Spirited Away is the favorite of the whole family). Thanks to the imagination of those films I think the kids forgive the dust bunnies that accumulate under their beds, since now they see them as little, impish spirits. Such beautiful works of art. Thanks for sharing happy movie memories and pumpkin homages to Studio Ghibli work!
Great pumpkin carving skills!!! Great pics too!
Great work! I adore your family's taste in so many things:) We have two pet cats in our family: Satsuki and Totoro, both named from the movie.
Those pumpkins look great!
We'll be doing our pumpkin last minute and I'm pretty sure we'll be going with the triangle eyes missing teeth template! We had pretty pumpkins a couple years, maybe when the Little Miss is a little bigger we'll be able to again.
Ohhh we love Studio Ghibli but we never thought to put any on pumpkins that is so cool. Whisper of the Hear is amazing - my 14 year old daughter and I love it and she watches it about once a month because it is so romantic in a sweet and innocent way. My Neighbor Totoro was my first Studio Ghibli movie and will probably always be my favorite.
Fabulous job everyone! They look great. We are fans of Ghibli too. Happy Halloween!
Ha! Here's what I DON'T do--carve pumpkins! I have my hubby do it with the kids and they do not turn out nearly as fantastic as yours--and I'm sooooooo okay with that! Pumpkin guts=ewww! But I admire the artistry of yours.
Thank you! Ours used to be the triangle-eyed sort until we bought one of those kits with the little saws. They make it sooo easy to branch out a bit.
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Haha, I had to use Google translate. 😉
Fabulous as always!
We carved today - had friends round and we did it altogether. But not in quite the same league as yours! 🙂
It raised a question though. And this may seem very silly but...
Our pumpkins were labelled 'carving pumpkin', and we were curious as to what that meant. However we're guessing they contain less flesh? There was me thinking I'd have loads of flesh to use up!
Over at mine (in the comments not the post) I've explained why I'm not that familiar with pumpkin. As a small child we carved suede instead. Now I'm wondering if I just had an unusual childhood experience of Halloween. But really I don't think pumpkins were commonly carved in the UK until relatively recently.
Around here (the midwest in the USA) you can buy "pie pumpkins" which are used for cooking. The larger ones that you carve are called Jack-o-lanterns and I'm guessing that's what your "carving pumpkins" are. The pie pumpkins are quite small but the flesh is better for cooking/baking. I didn't realize there was a difference when I was in college, and used a Jack-o-lantern for making a pie. I had a very very flat filling for my poor sad pumpkin pie! The Jack-o-lanterns are edible--no worries there--but the pie pumpkins (I think they are also called sugar pumpkins?) will give you better cooking results. I don't know if you have this option, but we can buy canned pumpkin, which is what I do. Much simpler.
Thanks Kris - the subject of whether we could actually eat them was how the conversation started. My friend asked if they were edible. I hadn't thought about it previously, and had always used the flesh up from the carving pumpkins. Then when we cut them open it kind of became apparent why they weren't great as a 'food stuff'. I haven't seen canned pumpkin around in the UK. But I'm sure it's only a matter of time 😉
Great movies. Great pumpkins!
I am so happy you and your children have fallen in love with these films!Our family has watched them for years and still get excited when we decide to do a Ghibli marathon.Great pumpkins!This post made my day.
I love these pumpkins! My kids all dressed up as Studio Ghibli characters for Halloween this year. 😀
Nice! My kids would have loved to see that.