Nostalgia Nook: Halloweentown

It’s October! You know what that means—time for ghosts, goblins, witches and other spooky things. It means it’s time to discuss a Halloween movie!

Hop on your broomstick and avoid the SPOILERS!


Marnie (Kimberly J. Brown) and her siblings, Dylan (Joey Zimmerman) and Sophie (Emil Roeske), are never allowed by their mother, Gwen (Judith Hoag), to celebrate Halloween. It isn’t helped by her mother, Aggie (Debbie Reynolds), who only comes on Halloween. She encourages them to celebrate the holiday.

But wait! There’s more! Aggie is also a witch! Gwen is a witch as well but she chose to leave that behind when she married a non-magical man. And her plan was to keep her children from it. Aggie wants to train Marnie, though. Marnie overhears this and decides to follow her grandmother home, along with Dylan. They sneak onto the bus Aggie boards and get transported to Halloweentown. Neither notices Sophie until she gets off.

They lose their grandmother and get some help from the mayor, Kalabar (Robin Thomas). He puts them in a cab driven by a skeleton named Benny (Rino Romano). As he takes them to Aggie’s, he tells them more about Halloweentown and it’s inhabitants. Including Luke (Phillip Van Dyke). He tells them to stay clear of him. Luke used to be a goblin but made a deal with a dark entity to become handsome.

As the kids are reunited with their grandmother, their mother discovers they are gone. Gwen catches a bus to Halloweentown herself and goes to find her children. She argues with her mother about returning and Marnie’s magical education. Marnie wants to stay. Especially now that she knows she could be a witch and has a broomstick.

But Gwen is determined. She tries to catch a bus back, but there doesn’t appear to be one even though Halloween isn’t over yet. So she goes to talk to the Mayor and is surprised to see it’s Kalabar. Apparently, they used to date. He says he’ll arrange some way for them to get home. She thanks him.

Marnie still doesn’t want to go and her grandmother is on her side. Gwen and Aggie argue, going to a nearby theater. There, though, they fall victim to a curse spreading over Halloweentown. It’s up to Marnie and her siblings to save the day. They find an unlikely ally in Luke, who has realized the error of his ways.

Working together, they realize that Kalabar has cast a spell on Halloweentown in order to achieve world domination or some other cliché villain motivation. Marnie uses some of her growing magical powers to reverse the spell. Free, Aggie and Gwen join the rest of their family to face down Kalabar. Cromwells save the day!

Wait, it gets better! Gwen agrees to let Marnie be trained as a witch. But she’ll be handling her education back in the mortal realm. Along with Aggie, who she invites to live with them. While Luke has been returned to his goblin form, Marnie is still his friend. Happy endings all around!

This movie is a beloved Disney Original. And I know I watch it every Halloween. It also got three sequels, which we will discuss later. Kimberly J. Brown was a rising Disney Darling and pairing her with a legend like Debbie Reynolds provided magic. Halloweentown was also a positively eccentric world, filled with the type of creatures—sort of a Hogwarts or Diagon Alley for the Disney Channel. We all wanted to go to Halloweentown, much like we all wanted to go to Hogwarts.

I hope everyone enjoys their Halloween! I know Hallmark plans to start their Christmas movie that night. I’m not planning on watching them that night…mostly because I hope to be partying! But expect some reviews on Hallmark movies starting next month.

See you then!

Next month: Chicken Run