📸: The Walt Disney Studios
I give this movie 9 out of 10 vomits
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
🟢 Cast 🟢
Debbie Reynolds – Aggie Cromwell
Judith Hoag – Gwen Cromwell Piper
Kimberly J. Brown – Marnie Piper
Zoey Zimmerman – Dylan Piper
Emily Roeske – Sophie Piper
Philip Van Dyke – Luke
Robin Thomas – Calabar
🟢 Plot 🟢
Marnie and her siblings discover their spooky heritage in Halloweentown.
🟢 Non Spoiler Spew 🟢
If you want a fun lightly scary kids movie this is the one for you and little ones. I can see why kids might be scared of this movie, but it is not bad at all. A few scary moments, but nothing to stoke nightmares. It is more fun than anything else.
This movie is lighthearted, family friendly, and whimsical. I can see why it is a popular movie that people see every year when Halloween rolls around.
Halloweentown itself is so magical and fun. There are tons of fun creatures to look at who are living a normal suburban lifestyle. Everything about this town is quirky and fun.
The cast in this movie is great! Everyone was cast perfectly and I enjoyed all of their performances. The characters were also written beautifully. Normally with kids movies there tends to be an annoying character, but this one didn’t have any! The kids were capable of handling themselves.
Watching any DCOM movie always gives me such a huge dose of nostalgia. It gives off such a classic and timeless vibe. This movie is wonderful and it is a fun and easy watch. Again, a perfect family movie. And a perfect movie to get you into the Halloween mood.
🔴 Summary Spoiler Spew 🔴
We are in the middle of Halloween and it pans over to our main characters house. Sophie is staring out the window telling herself that someone is coming. Dylan comes down the stairs and tells his siblings that he does not like Halloween and he is more into documentaries and nature. Marnie, the oldest sister, asks her mom, Gwen, if she can go out to a Halloween party, but her mom says no. Their whole life their mom has not let them out to celebrate Halloween and she will not tell them why this is. Marnie is upset because she loves everything about Halloween.
This scene had me wondering what the heck because Gwen is saying no to this party, but allowed Marnie’s two friends to come over and get ready for this party. I guess I get it in the sense that Marnie is allowed to hang out with friends for a bit to make her happy, but it still sucks.
Sophie keeps telling them all that someone is coming. We pan away from the house and we see a school bus flying through the sky. An older woman steps out and her bag flies behind her. Back at the house Sophie wants a cookie, but her mom says after dinner. Sophie really wants the cookie and all of a sudden it starts to float. Her mom says to herself, “not again” and grabs the cookie before Sophie sees. The older woman then walks in and we realize this is the kids grandma, Aggie, who they haven’t seen in a year. Aggie starts pulling out endless items from her bag.
I did think it was messed up that Gwen keeps denying her kids stuff. Like just let Sophie have one freaking cookie. You are already making her sad by making her watch everyone else trick or treat. If Gwen is super against this holiday, she should be taking her kids elsewhere to make it fun. Not just staying couped up in the house.
Aggie’s bag reminded me A LOT of Mary Poppins.
Gwen tells Aggie to not tell the kids about where their family comes from. She stays where they are because they can have a normal life even though their dad has passed away. Aggie goes upstairs to tell the kids a bedtime story. She tells them about a place called Halloweentown. Where there are all sorts of creatures that live there like witches, vampires, ghosts, and werewolves.
Aggie and Gwen can be heard fighting in the kitchen so she heads downstairs. Aggie is mad because if Marnie doesn’t begin her witch training tonight she will lose all her powers. It is her 13th Halloween and that is the deadline. Aggie is happy though because Sophie is starting to display her witch powers too. Aggie starts to tell her daughter that she came not only to start Marnie’s training, but to also ask for help. Back at home the creatures are starting to turn evil and disappearing. Her daughter refuses to help her, so she leaves.
Marnie and Dylan follow Aggie. They sneak onto the bus that their grandma gets on. They arrive in Halloweentown and are in shock with everything they see. They see creatures they have read about just doing what normal people do such as shop, go to the dentist, work, etc. Then they spot Sophie coming off the bus. A man named Calabar helps them find their grandmas house. Calabar calls the taxi in town and has the skeleton driver drive the kids over to their grandma’s house. At the house, their grandma tells them about evil forces that are trying to ruin Halloweentown. She enlists their help on gathering ingredients to cast a spell for Merlin’s Talisman that she has.
This town is awesome! All of the costumes in this movie are amazing. I love that you can tell that the background actors are just wearing a Halloween mask that you can pick up at Spirit Halloween.
In town they run into the mayor again, Calabar. Aggie talks to him about a friend of hers who has turned into mean looking creature when just a couple of hours ago she was perfectly fine. He tells her to leave it alone and he will look into it. Aggie then proceeds to buy Marnie her first broom. They take it out for spin and when they get back, they see their mom, Gwen, has come to get them. She tries to leave but the bus isn’t working. She goes to talk to the Mayor and finds out it is her old boyfriend.
Aggie is walking home when she runs into a kid named Luke. He tells her that “he” wants Merlin’s talisman that he knows she has. Luke takes Aggie to an abandoned theater. In the theater is where she finds all of the missing residents. They are all frozen in time. She meets the person behind all this. The creature wants to rule all of Halloweentown. Gwen and the kids come to try to save Aggie. Sadly the creature freezes Gwen and Aggie and Luke runs out scared and not happy with what happened. Now it is up to the kids to save the town and they learn the creature does not like sunlight.
The kids go around town looking for ingredients to make a spell to make the Merlin Talisman working again. They need hair from a werewolf, sweat from a ghost, and a vampire fang. They get the hair from a werewolf hairdresser, at the gym they find a ghost in a sauna, and at the dentist they get the vampire fang. The taxi skeleton comes back, but he has the bad stuff in him and Sophie tells Marnie and Dylan not to trust him. Thanks to Sophie for remembering the spell Aggie casted earlier, Marnie and Sophie cast the spell together and they make the talisman light up.
In the movie they make Aggie out to be a powerful witch. So I did not understand why she could not just get all these ingredients herself.
They all head back to the theater, but realize they need to install the talisman into the pumpkin that is in the middle of town. On their way there the dark creature appears and reveals himself to be Calabar. He wants to go back to the human world and take all of the creatures with him.
The creature turning out to be Calabar kind of threw me off. In the movie theater Calabar could not handle sunlight. But what threw me off is that Calabar is in the sunlight the whole movie. So that didn’t make any sense to me.
Marnie runs into Luke and he helps her to trick Calabar. Luke pretends to be dressed as Marnie as she goes to install the talisman. Calabar catches on and hits Marnie with a freeze ball. But she is able to install the talisman anyway. A bright light shines and Calabar is defeated and the creatures in the theater come back to life. Calabar regains consciousness and steals the talisman. Dylan starts to get mad and he and Marnie realize he also has powers. Aggie, Gwen, Marnie, Sophie, and Dylan all hold hands and cast a spell. Calabar vanishes and the whole town cheers.
The whole holding hands thing threw me off. So, no where in the movie do they explain how powerful Cromwell witches are. Because in the very beginning Aggie tells Gwen that she needs her help because having more than one witch will make a spell more powerful. I guess Aggie did say that no one wants to get involved, but she lives in a town FULL of witches. Like you couldn’t find one person willing to help?
What threw me too is that Calabar did nothing but stand there and watch the Cromwell family quietly cast a spell. Earlier in the movie we saw Calabar throwing frozen fireballs. So why did he not use those to stop them? I thought it would have been a cool fight and it would have been a great way for the kids to start to display more powers.
They all head back home, including Aggie. Gwen tells Marnie she will continue her witch studies.
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