Return to Halloweentown

Release Date: October 20, 2006

Watch Date: October 29 – October 30, 2023

“By now, everyone knows Marnie Piper (Sara Paxton) is a witch, so it comes as no surprise when she wins a full scholarship to prestigious Witch University in Halloweentown. Excited about learning alchemy and amulets potions and portents, Marnie travels through the portal to become Witch U’s most famous coed. But everything is not what it seems. There’s a new school rule: No magic allowed! Marnie also learns about an ancient prophecy…and it turns out she holds the key to revealing the ultimate secret. With the help of old friends Ethan (Lucas Grabeel) and Benny the Skeleton, and new friends Professor Periwinkle and Aneesa the Genie, will Marnie make the right choices in time for Halloweentown’s 1,000-Year Anniversary Celebration?”

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    Bob hates this movie.

    I don’t really blame him, but he didn’t have to be as mean about it as he was.

    It’s a bad movie, and I would never pretend that it isn’t. Marnie isn’t Marnie anymore. Aggie is barely in it. Luke, once again, does not return. The prophecy is incredibly lame, the twist predictable, the chemistry between Marnie and Dylan gone – because the actress has changed. The love interest from the previous film has disappeared and a character from the last movie, who barely spent time with Marnie, suddenly has a crush. Marnie seems to have a thing for the previous film’s villains son. It’s a type. The villains are flat, to the point that it’s almost insulting. This is a bad movie.

    But it wasn’t ‘Ad Astra’ levels of bad and Bob should probably not act like it was, the big baby.

    There’s still moments that make you laugh, and my nostalgia glasses refuse to let me hate it the way that I probably should. But would I skip it given the option? I would, and have, most years. But it felt weird to not end the franchise this Spooky Season. Besides, we weren’t sure, with Halloween being the chaotic day that it is, that we would even get to watch a movie on Halloween so it seemed smarter to go out with a bang. Even if that bang was more of a fizzle. Or a bad bang. Like…a bombing? And not a firework.

    That got bleak, but that’s the mood this movie puts me in.

    It drags, it’s slow, and that’s even more evident after the speed of the last one, which had so much to cram in. I said it in my last write up, and I’ll say it again. This movie didn’t need to exist, the fact that it does is why there are no more, better Halloweentown sequels, and in my personal canon it has nothing to do with the original trilogy, which were perfect despite what Bob says.

    Skip it, if you can.