This October marked my 10th anniversary as a celebrity judge for Brookfield Zoo’s annual Boo! At the Zoo costume contest.
During three weekends of Halloween celebrations, I judged more than 1,225 costumes paraded across the outdoor stage. The categories included best animal, best group, most original and weirdly awesome. This year’s winners included participants from Northwest Indiana.
Taking home top prizes this year were costume nods saluting Starbucks, the cast of the 2017 Disney Pixar animated film “Coco,” Lego blocks (cleverly re-created with cardboard boxes, vinyl tablecloths and colored plastic cups), a tribute to the cast of the 2009 Disney Pixar animated film “Up,” and a converted stroller rebuilt as Tom Cruise’s jet from the 1986 film “Top Gun” (complete with garden lawn ornament “goose” as co-pilot).
Ray and Samantha Brazeau, of Merrillville, were beaming after their 5-year-old son, Elijah, dressed as a mouse cradling his wedge of cheese despite having his tail caught in a trap, won for best animal costume. Last year, the Brazeau family won in the group category dressed as characters from Disney’s “Pinocchio.” This year, plenty of skunks, jellyfish, inflatable dinosaurs, flamingos and chickens crowded the ranks for best animal costume.
Some of the favorite retro costumes this year included Pac-Man, Mario Bros., Where’s Waldo, Rubik’s Cubes, a disco ball, the characters from the 1980 film “The Shining” and groups paying homage to the excitement of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, as well as strollers converted into vintage airplanes. There also were a number of little girls in the garb of iconic Rosie the Riveter from the vintage “We Can Do It” wartime poster.
Other films such as “The Lord of the Rings” and Disney’s “The Incredibles,” as well as families dressed up as a beekeeper and beehive, history’s famed presidents and a s’mores campfire, were clever favorites, with category winners such as the Alekna family, who dressed up dad to be a fuzzy black sheep with mom and children in the guise of the burlap bags of wool, like the storybook rhyme.
For the odd yet interesting category of weirdly awesome, a dung beetle, a pig farmer sporting a pig’s head gnawing on a human hand and wearing bloody overalls while holding a pitchfork, and “tube man” wind socks such as the ones seen in used-car sale parking lots were the big 2018 winners.
More than 72,000 visitors attended this year’s Boo! At the Zoo, sponsored by Ferrara Candy Co. with more than 16,000 guests of all ages coming through the zoo gates Saturday.
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
