Ponyo Costume Fail

We had some costume drama this Halloween. It started in September, when LB got her hair cut, and I snapped this photo of her:


"Wow," I thought to myself. "That is one angry girl."

And then I realized that she looked just like one of those Yoshitomo Nara paintings- the angry little girls with knives and cigarettes:


Genius! A totally original, awesome Halloween costume that would be the envy of every hipster parent in San Francisco. I went on Ebay and promptly bought an orange dress.

But when it arrived and LB tried it on, I realized, well, she just looked like a girl in an orange dress. A cute one, but certainly not very angry. For a half second I considered rolling a prop cigarette, but really, I'm actually a pretty responsible parent.

A couple weeks passed, and then one of us suggested she could be Ponyo for Halloween. Ponyo is the first movie LB saw in a movie theater. We took her back in August, and it left a huge impression on her. Ponyo is the story of a magical fishy creature who becomes a girl. She wears a red dress that I reasoned could easily be orange, since I didn't think anyone else had actually seen the movie. I knew it would make LB happy, even if she was really just a girl in an orange dress.

This is what Ponyo looks like as a girl:


This is Ponyo as a fish:


We decided that DB would make an image of Ponyo as a fish that I would sew or glue to the front of her dress- indicating Ponyo's transformation from fish to girl. I knew that no one would know what she was, but at least I could say we made the effort.

Last weekend, I went to a local wine bar with a friend of mine (where I inadvertently talked smack about someone who turned out to be sitting at the fucking bar!), and when I came home, DB had cut out all these pieces to make a Ponyo mask. It was adorable. I voiced my concern then that I didn't think LB would wear a mask all night long, but he promised to make a new one to sew on her dress if she didn't like the mask.

Then all week long, I begged and pleaded for him to complete the mask so we could make something for her dress if we needed to. And when did he make it? Fucking THURSDAY. By Friday, it was clear she would not wear the mask at all, and DB refused to make a new one for her dress. Instead, he rummaged around in the closet and found her old squid costume from 2 years ago. He cut the legs out, and voila, costume.

However, I'm really impressed with the Ponyo costume we came up with. LB refused to wear it even for one picture, so all I have is an image of what could have been...


The 2 slits above the "nose" were for her eyes so she could see. All that work for nothing. No wonder everyone just buys $15 costumes at Target. Not worth the aggravation!

Squid costume and Halloween details to follow later.