Many years ago, probably when it first came out, my wife and I watched Halloweentown. I remember disliking it somewhat because I don't have a strong affinity for the holiday of Halloween and thought the story was a little childish. But my wife liked it enough that she had us watch a couple of the sequels back then. Well, this year on Halloween she wanted to watch something for the holiday and I thought I'd give this another shot for her sake and do my best to have a good time with it. Sadly, there's nothing good about Halloweentown. Even the great Debbie Reynolds is forced into an overly corny role as a more sanitized version of Endora from Bewitched.
Everything about Halloweentown screams low-budget made-for-TV kids movie. The costumes are not great, the sets feel small and cluttered with Spirit Halloween stuff, and the acting is like watching an elementary school play. I can give them a little bit of a pass because they are targeting the film to a young audience, but it shouldn't be necessary to talk down to kids as much as this film does. The plot is extremely basic and there is very little in the way of surprises. This film also falls prey to one of my big movie pet peeves that tends to sour most magic-based movies for me: There aren't well-defined rules to what the witches can and can't do. One minute they can seemingly perform a complicated task by making a rhyme, but then later they need multiple different items or a potion to perform the simplest spell. I can see the entertainment value in the Halloweentown franchise for little kids, particularly if they like Halloween stuff, but for me it is a total dud.
Everything about Halloweentown screams low-budget made-for-TV kids movie. The costumes are not great, the sets feel small and cluttered with Spirit Halloween stuff, and the acting is like watching an elementary school play. I can give them a little bit of a pass because they are targeting the film to a young audience, but it shouldn't be necessary to talk down to kids as much as this film does. The plot is extremely basic and there is very little in the way of surprises. This film also falls prey to one of my big movie pet peeves that tends to sour most magic-based movies for me: There aren't well-defined rules to what the witches can and can't do. One minute they can seemingly perform a complicated task by making a rhyme, but then later they need multiple different items or a potion to perform the simplest spell. I can see the entertainment value in the Halloweentown franchise for little kids, particularly if they like Halloween stuff, but for me it is a total dud.