User Reviews

An absolute classic for anyone who grew up in the prime of 90s/2000s Disney originals. Endlessly rewatchable, great concept, and full of good and slightly cheesy acting. Being normal is vastly overrated.

I just have to say that I have seen both Halloweentown and Halloweentown 2 with my nieces and I found them to be very cute and all around wholesome entertainment. I'm 21 and I've seen quite a few movies in my life from dramas to horror films to comedies and action flicks, but I find that family movies are my favorite. I don't know if it's just me, but I like watching a ridiculously happy movie sometimes instead of always watching something "heavy" or philosophical or even too realistic. I like Halloweentown because it's something I can watch with my nieces that they think is sort of scary without it really being scary. It's just a fun little tv movie. I'd also like to comment on what a self-proclaimed witch/wiccan posted earlier. Of course, real-life witches do not fly on brooms or cast spells or do most if not all of the things done in the film. In many ways, Wicca is a sort of religion. It's a way of looking at life and focusing on the energy of nature. It goes back to paganistic times and the rituals and ceremonies of that time. With that said, I also see no harm in portraying witches as capable of magic and the ability to fly. Where's the harm in it? Now if the film portrayed witches/Wiccans as devil worshippers or evil people, I would have been upset, because that simply is not the case. I myself am not a Wiccan, but quite a few of my friends are and I've read a lot of literature on the subject. Halloweentown isn't an autobiographical film or a documentary, and I think it has every right to take artistic license when portraying the fantastical world of witches. (Sorry for writing so much, but I tend to go off on tangents.)

Seriously, this movie is still good. I grew up on this movie, and recently watched it again. It still made me smile more than I imagined, and cringe less than I thought. Love it.

This was a great movie. It was entertaining and intelligent. Great sets... good acting (as well as you can expect in a Disney TV movie)

Kimberly J. Brown did a great job as the character of hopeful Marnie. Joey Zimmerman did a nice comical job portraying the extremely dry Dylan. But in my opinion, Emily Roeske stole the show as Sophie. She was adorable and the most intelligent character.

Nicely developed plot... and Debbie Reynolds just shines as the kooky grandmother!

I'd definitely recommend this movie... it's a great way to pass a lazy afternoon.

I really liked this movie for what it was; a really cheesy DCOM. It's a good time.

There's a fun universe here with decent BONES (ya see? Because spooky?) for plot, but man did it miss a few key ingredients along the way: a compelling story, effective humor, likable characters. Seriously, this family is insufferable; I truly couldn't decide who I liked less: the bratty kids, the pushover mom, or the arrogant grandmother. And the climax is hilariously corny & anti-climactic. I feel like I would've loved this as a kid...though my 7-year-old couldn't have lost interest quicker, so what do I know?

This is the best Disney holiday movie of all time. Cute characters, good story line, great acting. I enjoyed this movie as much as my kids did! Everything seemed to work for this movie. Good directing, incredible sets, great writing. My family can't wait for this one to be released on video.It's too long to wait until Halloween every year to see it.

Halloweentown is a classic Disney Channel Original film for the spooky season and even revisiting it as an adult, there's so much fun to be had. This film is full of charm as the cast bring feelings of excitement and awe as they take us through this mystical journey. With a Harry Potter-esque plot, the whimsical nature of this tale give it a similar feel to its wizarding counterpart. The visuals pull you into Halloweentown as all of the townsfolk look impressive and the wackiness of their appearances adds to the experience. It's often looked over, but the iconic theme pairs with Halloween as well as Jason or Michael Myers. Younger or older, this is a must watch for the Halloween season.

Debbie Reynold's chirpy acting was on par with the average children's movie. However, the acting of the younger actors, especially Kimberly Brown's, is horrendously wooden. Their seemingly nailed-on, unchanging smiles are more disturbing then any of the Halloweentown frights.

Early on, the movie assuredly alienates the audience they were targeting to relate with Marnie Cromwell. A 12-year old clasping a children's board book and gushing that it was about "Vampires, werewolves, and witches ... all of my favorite things" would have been amusing except that her delivery was so stilted that I was embarrassed for her.

Though the plot does make attempts at themes such as sibling jealousy, it also weaves in themes such as the shunned high school sweetheart that only clutter a movie for children.

Though not as bad as the dialog, the costuming is half-hearted, with some of the monsters wearing masks and 'monster' hands without even an attempt at makeup covering their bare necks.

An animated Pinocchio delivered his lines smoother and showed more emotion then the flesh and blood actors in this movie manage to.

I love this movie. I first seen it on vacation with my Grandmother when she just happened to stumble upon it while channel surfing. As soon as she seen it, she stopped and went back to it. It's a movie that catches people's eye. I was maybe 9 or 10 when I first seen it, and now I'm 15, and I still love it! I wait until Halloween every year just to see the movies. Kimberly J is a brilliant actress, and she played the perfect Marnie. I would definitely recommend this movie, and all of the others that follow (Halloweentown II:Kalabar's Revenge & Hallweentown HIgh). The are great films for ALL ages. Buy the DVD's, because once you've seen them, you'll want to watch them over and over again! Guarantee it...

This movie introduces us to three kids who sneak off to another world called Halloweentown, a place where ghouls, ghosts and creatures of all sorts roam and live happy lives.

This movie is very much beloved by many. I get it. It's the first installment of a fun little series. But this first movie is also the weakest of the four Halloweentown movies. Before you freak out, hear me out. For many, this is one of their yearly go to Halloween movies. It gave us a fun new world to explore. It has a cool concept and there is some charm here, but there isn't much depth to be found in this story. This movie lays out a foundation to be built upon but doesn't work so well as a stand alone movie. The story is lacking while so much else is over the top. The design of the Halloweentown residents, the special effects, the villain and the acting are not the best that Disney Channel has given us. It also doesn't help that the lead character is a 13 year old with a bad attitude. How I was raised, you didn't talk to your mother that way and get away with it. This hurts her likability factor. Perhaps the reason why people love this first movie so much is the nostalgic feeling it gives them because they grew up watching it.

The fact that it's a "kid's movie" is no excuse for such an unadulterated piece of garbage. The plot is paper thin and brimming with holes. The acting is wooden, like the actors just showed up and started winging it. Debbie Reynolds has a perpetual "why did I agree to this" expression on her face (and who could blame her?) And the costumes. Oh my god. I literally thought the monsters were supposed to be regular people walking around trick-or-treating with cheap masks, but no, they were supposed to be actual monsters. No effort went into the costumes at all.

I mean I really stuck though it hoping it would get better, but in the end I was just relieved it was finally over.

I love these movies! They are terrific Halloween movies. I Hope they make a third movie. I recommend to anyone who loves Halloween to watch these two movies. It's so good to see Halloween movies that are light and not dreadfully dark and scary, I like how it's set in "Halloweentown" and really brings the characters to life.

13 year old Marnie Piper is tired of her mother Gwen (Judith Hoag)'s strict rules against going out on Halloween. The youngest one, Sophie, wants to go trick or treating. Middle child Dylan is a rule follower. After a visit from grandma Aggie Cromwell (Debbie Reynolds), the kids follow her onto the magic bus back to Halloweentown. The town was created to seperate the magical beings from human mortals. Aggie has been battling an unseen evil in town. The Cromwells are a family of powerful witches but the kids' mother have tried very hard to keep them from developing their witch powers. Luke is a bratty teen and Kalabar is the mayor of Halloweentown.

This is really for little kids. It's not even for tween girls. It's a little too silly for that. There is nothing scary except for really young kids. The acting is fine for a kiddie movie. Mostly, the Halloweentown looks a little cheap which is fine for little kids and they can see themselves as one of the kids on an adventure.

This and Hocus Pocus will likely be the greatest Halloween movies of all time. Some disney movies are just that great.

Review: 'Halloweentown' is a family-Halloween film directed by Duwayne Dunham. So, this might not be the best quality film in the sense that it is a Made-for-TV movie and was only ever shown on the Disney Channel. Though the movie has a beautiful story that I strongly believe everybody who watches it can get behind. The film focuses on Marnie (Kimberly J. Brown) a 13-year-old learns she's a witch, discovers a secret portal, and is transported to Halloweentown with her grandmother (Debbie Reynolds). A magical place where ghosts and ghouls, witches and werewolves live apart from the human world. But she soon finds herself battling wicked warlocks, evil curses, and endless surprises. The child acting in this movie is horrid, yes, and the acting all around really isn't bringing any standout performances. Although I do think that Kimberly J. Brown does play a great Marnie and brings a lot of heart to the movie. The story has a lot of potential, revolving around a secret world, family drama about an ancient lineage of witches, and more. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't even run for a full 90 minutes and most of it is spent introducing our characters, their relationships, and showing off Halloweentown itself. We don't get a whole lot of incite on the villain and what his motives are to go back to the mortal world aside form him being bored with Halloweentown, which I didn't buy into. Overall, this is a movie I watch every Halloween with my family. It has something for everybody with it being heart, humor and maybe some scares if you're a young child. 3.5/5

This movie was bad and overrated I felt very disappointed and really embarrassed on how much people love this movie, but this was very boring, silly, absurd and ridiculous. I didn't really like this movie it was very cute and a bit funny, but the humor in it didn't catch my giggles the acting was okay, the script was pretty poor and the directors did a very poor job for the film. Sorry Halloweentown and 1998 movie fans but this was just too bad and the story was just very weak and lame. I did not really like this at all it was very boring and I don't care about the wicked stuff or this review, but I just didn't really like it so I'm not going to say many stuff for this I just didn't really like it, it is about 3 kids going around saving Halloween but clever enough? Well, expectedly poor or whatever that means.-_-

I really enjoy all three Halloweentown movies though the only thing missing from Halloween High was Marnie's friend Luke. Maybe he's too old to be in High School anymore but that doesn't mean he couldn't have come over to give some moral support. ;-) These movies maybe intended for kids but I really enjoyed them! When the first two came to TV, I taped them and had a neighbour copy them onto a few more VCR tapes for other kids I knew. A Halloween movie that's not at all scary is something I enjoy. I can't wait to buy all three movies on DVD! :o)

I am having someone I know who lives in the U.S. pick up a copy of each movie for me and mail it to me. Though I'm the only with a VCR copy of Halloween High and one day hope to pass the third installment onto all of my neighbourhood kids since I know they enjoyed both Halloweentown one and two.

I like Halloween, so I tend to check out Halloween movies, even ones made for kids, and something a lot of people have a lot of nostalgia for is Halloweentown. Conceptually, Halloweentown is a breath of fresh air amidst most kid-focused Halloween movies, all of which usually fall in to a few narrow categories (Halloween is ending forever, kids accidentally raised the undead, monsters come out for one night and befriend the children, etc.).

The story has a lot of potential, revolving around a secret world, an ancient lineage of witches, and more. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't even run for a full 90 minutes and most of it is spent on table setting, by introducing our characters, their relationships, and showing off Halloweentown itself. It's not until the last 20 minutes that the movie's villain finally gets introduced, giving the lacking plot some much-needed forward momentum.

Most of the cast is colorful and fun, and the makeup effects for the monsters are great. Most of them are just rubber masks, but for a place called "Halloweentown" it's fitting that the place would look like a costume shop exploded. Not all characters are welcome, though, such as the little brother, Dylan. He's a total skeptic and a huge know-it-all, basically the worst kind of person you'd find on the internet, and he spends all of Halloweentown trying to come up with excuses as to why magic and monsters aren't real. Not a single person in the movie seems to like him, not even his own family, and it's a sentiment I also echo. Halloweentown would be better without that nerd trying to "um, actually" away all the fun.

It'd also be a better movie with a better soundtrack. The music used throughout Halloweentown is what gives it most of its corny, "90's Saturday Morning" flair. It's bouncy and cartoony, but in a way that just makes the movie feel cheap. The idea of "music for a kids movie" doesn't mean it has to sound so dopey.

But still, for its target audience, it's probably good enough. It's definitely more about looking at funny costumes and a silly world where Halloween is forever. Though there is a potential for a deeper story here, the narrative feels more like something that was added out of bare necessity than anything else. And for younger viewers, that's fine. There just isn't tons here for anyone older than, say, 14.

It's a cute simple 90s movie naive kids going on wacky adventures. No clue why my 39 year old mother told me her 17 year old son to watch it with her... but it was okay. Cgi has mostly aged poorly, acting was god awful but I don't know why'd you come into a movie called Halloween town and expect anything else, it was campy, fun and 90s. Good for kids but if you're not a child and not a parent no point watching this lmao. There's no huge messaging the comedy is okay but not very funny for the most part, the 13 year old girls the funniest character but still not that funny it's just a simple standalone film. Wait... they made 4 of these????? I don't know how but I for some reason want to watch them... screw that lmao.

Every October, my family & I watch the Halloweentown series. In this movie, on Halloween day, Marnie beg her mom to let her go trick or treating but her mother refused stating it's dangerous, grandmother Aggie comes to the mortal world unannounced to reveal she is a witch and start Marnie witching lessons so she won't lose her magic, but her mother Gwen is against it because she wants her children to have a normal life. As Aggie was leaving back to Halloweentown, Marnie, Dylan & Sophie follow her. It's such a cool fantasy world I understand why Marnie is obsessed, I wish they would use this as a theme at Halloween Horror Nights.

I first watched this when I was in my tweens on Disney channel, and I remember absolutely loving it. Later on, I also watched Halloweentown II and Halloweentown High as well. It is a very light-hearted, fun movie to watch, especially with young children. Its child-like innocence is what really makes you smile.

For a movie made in 1998, the setting is not bad and halloweentown was a pleasure to see with its vivid colors and cheerful creatures. The children did a great job of acting.

I am 21 years old now, so I do feel a bit old watching this, but it still manages to hit the young, innocent wonder I had for Halloween as a kid.

... but it must have been more than what I got. I know this is a children's film, but that doesn't mean it has to be bad(certainly not this bad). I don't recall when I last watched such a poorly produced film... if I ever have. The plot is nonsensical babble. The pacing is non-existent. The characters are empty, paper-thin clichés. The acting is incredibly poor and overdone, though I guess the actors had such bad material to work with, they couldn't have done much better. The effects are hideous, with little to no attempt made to hide how they are achieved. The costumes and make-up are just pathetic... no effort is made to hide where the masks end, and most of it is just so see-through that even children, I'm talking small ones, will be able to tell. The writing is quite poor; I could never figure out if Halloweentown is supposed to be the direct opposite of our world(what with the always closed cinema), or everyone who lived there were monsters. The world, fascinating as it may seem to very small children was, as another reviewer also points out much more competently presented in The Nightmare Before Christmas. The humor is painfully unfunny, and jokes are repeated ad nauseum. The tone is childish at best, and half of the actors even look like they're ashamed to be doing the film. The script, oh dear, the script... what the heck is the 'highschool sweetheart' cliché doing in a children's film? How many 7-year-olds even know what that is? I'd guess it was an attempt at drawing in the older crowd as well(give the parents something to enjoy), but when the film is this poor, how many people above the age of 10 will watch? How many below, for that matter? I'm sorry, but this is just so far below average that it astounds me that it spawned two sequels. Avoid at all costs. I recommend this only to kids who are incredibly easy to please. And even they should be allowed to watch something of higher quality. 1/10