Halloweentown Movies

Every October I look forward for Halloween movies. The Halloweentown series is on my list. You can’t go wrong with Debbie Reynolds, she is the best. Agatha “Aggie” Cromwell is a great witch from Halloweentown and she has come to the mortal world to train her granddaughter Marnie on how to be a witch. Marnies mother, Gwen, does not like that idea. Years ago Gwen gave up Halloweentown to marry a mortal and she is happy with her mortal life. Marnie has her own opinion and decides to disobey her mother and follow her grandmother to Holloweentown. Marnie’s Brother Dylan and little sister Sophie follows her and their grandmother. Once there Aggie suspects that something is wrong with her town and they set out to fix it. Gwen finally realizes that her children are gone and she goes to Halloweentown to find them. Unfortantly Aggie and Gwen get caught and they are put under a spell with other creatures from Halloweentown. It is up to the kids to help save them and Halloweentown. They found a spell that would work but they need find interesting ways into gathering the ingredients. Luke pretends to be their friend and betrays them only to help them to save Halloweentown. After freeing Aggie, Gwen and other people from the spell, they need to defeat the evil force. It turns out to be the Mayor Kalabar and he wants to invade the mortal world in fear. In the end it takes all the Cromwell to use their powers to stop the Kalabar and bring the town back to its glory. Aggie decides to go back to the mortal world and live with her daughter and grandchildren and help with Manie’s training.

In Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge brings Marnie and Aggie back to Halloweentown. Aggie's magical bag stops working so she suspects something is wrong in Halloweentown. Aggie and Marnie travels to Halloweentown to discover someone has used the “Grey Spell” and turned almost everyone in Halloweentown "grey."  The spell was in Aggie's spell book which they find out has been stolen. It turns out to be Marnie's new friend Kal who happens to be Kalabar’s son. Aggie has another copy of her spell book but it is missing. Aggie and Marnie meet up with Luke and Aggie suggest that they visit Gort's house.  When you lose something it always ends up at Gort’s house. Aggie, Marnie and Luke search for the book in Halloweentown while Kal creates a Golem to distract Gwen. It is up to Dylan and Sophie to save their mother so they can help Halloweentown. Kal's plan is to have everyone in the mortal world dress up as monsters and then put a spell to make them monsters. He also seals the doorway between Halloweentown and the mortal world. Marnie finaly finds a way to stop the Grey spell and with the help of Aggie they free Halloweentown but they are too late and the doorway is closed. Aggie and Marnie are able to communicate with Dylan and Sophie and together they use their power to open the doorway permanently. Together they are able to defeat Kal and turn everyone back to normal. 






In Halloweentown High Marnie starts her new school year and she brings some new friends. She asked the Witches’ Council to let her take some Halloweentown students to her high school in the mortal world. The Council agrees but Marnie mistakenly bets all her families magic that they students will be safe. The students consist of a witch, a warlock, a werecat, a werewolf, an ogre, a pink troll, a fairy, a zombie and a gremlin. They magically alter their appearance and are introduced as exchange group from Canada. Aggie comes to the school as a new teacher. There is a threat to the school and the students from the Knights of the Iron Dagger. They find out that a member of the Council is behind the Knight of the Iron Dagger. Edgar Dalloway's plan was to make the mortal world afraid of the students so he could take the Cromwell power. To bring the students together they start joining clubs and making new friends. They also decide to join the Halloween carnival by making their own haunted house. The Knight of the Iron Dagger strikes and takes some of the students. This time it is Gwen who comes to the rescue to save the missing students. During the carnival, mortals don't like the haunted house depicting nice tea parties and picnics. Dalloway uses his power to incite a mob against Marnie and the students. As the students got mobbed, Marnie lost her deal and Dalloway takes the Cromwell power. Dalloway's son Ethan decides to change sides and denounces his father. Flanagan, who is the last Knight of the Iron Dagger decides to denounce his heritage and joins the students. The students take off their disguises and the mortals stop and thinks and ends up accepting their new friends as they really are. As the mortals accept their new friends, the Cromwells take back their powers. The Council finds Dalloway guilty and they imprison him. People from Halloweentown come to the mortal world and joins the carnival.

In the 4th movie Return to Halloweentown, Marnie who was played by Kimberly J Brown is now played by Sara Paxton. This time Marnie gets accepted to Witch University. Gwen agrees to allow Marnie to go under the condition that her brother Dylan goes to. It is discovered that Dylan who looks down at magic, only use it to study and graduated early. They find out that it is a set up. Marnie was sent to find “the Gift.” During the early times of Halloweentown Queen, Splendora was going to use the Gift to control everyone. Marnie goes back in time to stop the Dominion taking control. Splendora is revealed to be Aggie. The Dominion kidnaps Dylan in order to force Marnie to use the Gift for them. Instead Marnie destroys the Gift and stops the Dominion. The Dominion is arrested and taken away. Everyone thinks that the Gift was destroyed but instead she gave it to Dylan to protect it. As he is not interested in power, she knows he can be trusted with its power.
 
Each movie deals with prejudice and the fear of unfamiliar customs. Mortals are just afraid of the residence of Halloweentown as Halloweentown is afraid of them. In the beginning the creatures lived in the mortal world but were shoved out by humans. So the creatures and magic left the mortal world and Halloweentown was created. For more than a thousand years both worlds have lived apart from each other. Now the bad guys wanted power over both worlds and/ or revenge. Kalabar was tired of hiding and felt that Halloweentown deserved to take over the world that they once inhabited. Kal agreed with his father and wanted humans to pay for mocking them and well the Dominion just wanted absolute power. So the bad guys used fear and force to get what they wanted. The fear of the unknown is so powerful that it has destroyed so much in real life. Hate crimes are rising because people just can't accept people for who they are.

We all could learn a lesson from this series as it proves that the good guys always win when you work together. It also teaches you that we are all the same underneath. We all have the same fears, wants and need for acceptance. I hope people can watch these movies and see that the more we are different, the more we are the same. So I hope you enjoy these movies as much as I have. I am looking forward in enjoying them when my granddaughter gets bigger.

Debbie Reynolds as Agatha “Aggie” Cromwell
Kimberly J Brown as Marnie Piper (1,2,3)
Sara Paxton as Marnie Piper/Young Splendora Agatha Cromwell (Return to Halloweentown)
Judith Hoag as Gwen Piper
Joey Zimmerman as Dylan Piper
Emily Roeske as Sophie Piper