You're sitting at home on the couch with some popcorn, candy, and probably a drink. You're in front of the TV watching the Disney Channel and at approximately 7pm a movie comes on. It's a new movie, a kid-friendly Halloween movie, a "Disney Original" movie, what is it? If you said Hocus Pocus, YOU ARE SO WRONG!!! (Stay tuned for that one), nope I'm talking about "Halloweentown".
"Halloweentown", in my personal opinion, is definitely one of the better kid-friendly Disney TV movies made. For a 90s TV movie this was actually pretty good in terms of acting, effects, writing, plot, and overall production. Now does it have some negatives? Absolutely! There are plenty of cheesy moments to pick on, but that's to be expected. For those you who haven't seen the movie, let me give you a quick run down of the basic storyline.
It starts off with us meeting three children and a single-parent Mom (oh yeah, this follows the typical Disney legacy of having only ONE parent!). The oldest child at 13, Marnie, wants to go trick-or-treating with her friends but her mother Gwen won't let go for reasons that Marnie doesn't understand. Dylan who is the middle child, is basically a nerd and doesn't care about Halloween one way or the other. Finally we have Sophie, the youngest of three, who stares at the window insisting that "someone's coming". While the children are at home with Mom, they are visited by Grandma Aggie who comes with gifts, candy, and Halloween surprises for the children even though the Mom is against it. Marnie later discovers that her Grandma and Mom are actually both witches when she over hears them talking in the kitchen. She also learns that she too is a witch but is on the verge of losing her powers because she hasn't received her power training before her 13th Halloween (which is that night). Grandma Aggie actually comes to ask Gwen to help her defeat an evil force back in her home of, you guessed it, "Halloweentown". When the Mom refuses to help Aggie leaves and the children follow her on a magical bus to Halloweentown. They run into all sorts of adventures and meet new characters as they work together to defeat an evil spirit who turns out to be Kalabar, the mayor of Halloweentown. Grandma Aggie, Gwen, and the children all pull their powers together to destroy Kalabar and return home with Grandma Aggie living with her daughter and grandchildren.
So there you have the basic storyline of Disney's "Halloweentown". One of things I like about this movie is the concept- it's actually an original idea and not some fluffy cliche. It's a movie about a town where all the monsters and scary creatures live and they live just like humans do! They work, they have kids, go shopping, etc. I mean Halloween is just one night, what do they do for the rest of 364 days of the year? So yeah, it's a cool idea. I also like the actors in this movie a lot. Grandma Aggie, played by Debbie Reynolds, is a well-beloved actress and has that kind, yet strong spirit to her. She was a perfect cast for this role and is funny, witty, and very smart in her role as Grandma Aggie. Kimberly J. Brown plays the role of Marnie and has the typical pre-teen personality incorporated into her character. She's also smart, but displays that stubborn effect when she and her Mom have an argument in the first part of the movie. Another thing I like about the movie is that for 90s the special effects used weren't too bad. The scenes showing the flying bus and the part with Aggie and Marnie flying together, look pretty good and don't stick out like intense graphics do in today's movies. I think the special effect I like the best involves the evil shadow creature (aka Kalabar) as he appears in the movie theater to attack the family. He just sort of floats in and hovers while the others just take it all in. I have to say also enjoy a lot of the funny moments in "Halloweentown"- I mentioned Marnie's fight with her Mom in the first act of the movie, another part I love is when Marnie confronts Kalabar and gives him the best insult ever! Here's a video to demonstrate why I think it's so funny:
Now, so at not to be bias there are some things that I find a bit off with "Halloweentown", my biggest problem is the costumes. I really, really, really hate the costumes. Except for what the main characters are wearing, everybody else looks like they went to their local Walmart or Halloween USA store, bought a costume, and showed up on set. I get it, TV movies typically don't a have a huge budget to work with, but still a little bit of effort would've been nice! The other thing I don't like is the story progression. We don't really know what the problem is in Halloweentown until about half way through the movie. Plus there's this thing involved "Merlin's Talisman" and it serves really as nothing more than a candle for the giant pumpkin in Halloweentown. That's it, no explanation or anything as to what that has to do with Halloweentown or how it will destroy Kalabar. It's not a magic wand, there's no spell for it (except for turning it on), it's just a useless movie prop and doesn't really have a place in the story. I mean the family could've easily just zapped the guy with their powers, but instead they had to focus on turning the light in the Talisman on. Really people?
Other than that, Halloweentown was actually a pretty good movie production for it's time. It had some cheesy moments and a couple of times where you were just left to wonder, did that just happen? But it also had a really good plot, great cast, and some of the best quotes ever! The crew and cast of Halloweentown should be proud of themselves because this movie stood out to a lot of kids. The sequels weren't quite as a good as the first movie, but it is what it is. So go ahead and relive your childhood! Watch Halloweentown and you won't be disappointed.
*"Halloweentown" is the property of Disney Channel and The Walt Disney Company. Video used was pulled from clips available on YouTube. Pictures used are from Google Images. No Copyright Infringement Intended.
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