The Adventures of Princess Sydney: Night of the Pumpkins (2004)

“Princess Sydney is so lonely… When she hears about the Great Pumpkin Ball, she gets excited – what a wonderful opportunity to make new friends! But there’s a catch: She has to find a witch to turn her into a pumpkin. Her search takes her to strange and scary places, where she meets a wacky bunch of characters.“

– Night of the Pumpkins DVD Description.

The Adventures of Princess Sydney: Night of the Pumpkins, another entrant in the Princess Sydney series, is a Canadian animated film brought to us by Direct Source Special Products Inc., Filmoption International, and Tooncan. Sonja Ball voices the titular Sydney, having previously voiced characters in Samurai Pizza Cats, Arthur, and Spookley, the Square Pumpkin. Bruce Dinsmore, who appears as Smarty the skeleton, voices Binky Barns in Arthur. Pauline Little, the voice of Coco the Owl, also voiced Cailou’s Grandmother in Cailou.

Some thoughts from me (Potential spoilers below…)
It’s been a long while since I took at look at something from The Adventures of Princess Sydney. Because I found her Christmas adventure a bit boring I wasn’t really jumping at the chance to take a look at her other offerings. I’m glad I finally bit the bullet, as Night of the Pumpkins was a lot worse (Which for the purposes of this blog, means a lot more entertaining).

Right off the bat, the plot is ludicrous. On a complete whim, Sydney decides that she wants to be turned into a pumpkin so that she can attend a Halloween ball. It’s not really explained whether or not this is a permanent change, it never gets brought up. It’s hilarious to think that Sydney was willing to give up her life as a human to exist as a pumpkin.

Sydney assembles a group of rag-tag friends while on her journey. There’s an almost Wizard of Oz vibe to it all, with each friend being added one by one. The ending has a similar feeling, with Sydney realizing that she doesn’t need to be turned into a pumpkin after all because she made plenty of friends along the way.

The big draw for this one are the songs. While the songs in The Tree Gold Coins are kinda funny in how awkwardly cacophonous they are, the songs in Night of the Pumpkins are outright hilarious. They reek of someone trying to be ‘hip’. I’ve yet to see a rap song in a direct-to-DVD animated movie done right, and Night of the Pumpkins has several rap songs (Each one more terrible than the last).

I should note, I have also watched Princess Sydney’s third film The Legend of the Blue Rabbit (The fourth Sydney film is still ambiguous as to whether or not it actually made it to DVD). I’m not going to be showcasing The Legend of the Blue Rabbit on the blog because Sydney ends up being out of focus for the majority of the movie. Stick with Night of the Pumpkins, it’s the clear winner out of the available Princess Sydney movies.