Earlier in the month, I looked at the first two Halloweentown movies and enjoyed them as they focused heavily on the theme of family that we saw with a few of the earlier reviews from the month. That's not so much the case here. This is perhaps the most lighthearted entry in this franchise that we will be covering. And we'll, I'm okay with that but it doesn't feel like a Halloweentown movie. There are elements there but this is the only movie in this series to never go to Halloweentown. Which is severely disappointing. Also, this is the last movie to have Kimberly J. Brown as Marnie as she would be replaced in the fourth and final installment in this series. This was actually meant to be the last film in the Halloweentown trilogy but Disney Channel aired one last one in 2006 and when we get to that one, I'll explain why that one really felt like an afterthought. Also, enjoy Aggie in this one, if you watch it as Debbie Reynolds only makes a cameo appearance in the last movie. Oh, and this is also the last movie in which Sophie appears. And this is what her contribution amounts to.
Sitting on a couch doing as much work as an extra. So, that's quite annoying as while she was just a little kid in the first two movies, Kalabar's Revenge gave her a meaningful role and showed that as a witch, she could hold her own alongside her grandmother and big sister. Ah well.
The Plot
This movie feels off compared to the previous two movies. That might be because as I stated it doesn't take place in Halloweentown and the closest that we get to this is the Halloweentown Council.
Uh, no, they're not all witches. Some of them look like this.
They summon Marnie, who we see was fuming at the beginning as she thought that they were going to be mad about her keeping the portal between worlds open. Turns out, they're fine with that but they are more concerned with the proposal that our young witch made about bringing a group of Halloweentown students to the mortal world. This is all due to something that they fear known as the Knights of the Iron Dagger. A group of knights that wished to destroy all things magical.
I dunno, this idea is a little odd to me. Now, this is labeled as a fantasy series. Fair enough and I guess that one could argue that this is an urban fantasy series. Think something like Once Upon a Time or Buffy The Vampire Slayer. But this installment is odd as the first two had characters from our world traveling to the fantastical world but now, they're bringing fantastical creatures to the human world. Something just feels lost there, it kinda feels like one of those movie adaptions of a cartoon where the characters enter the human world.
Granted, it's better than something like that but having a human antagonist (or so we think) go after Halloweentown residents just doesn't feel as threatening. Which fair as the two examples I listed above had human antagonists at one point in their history but at least with OUAT, they were the least threatening villains in the series.
I wish that this didn't bug me as much as it but magical villains are just more interesting. Which, we do get one of those as the main antagonists but the Knights are built up so much throughout the film, that you are led to think they're the main villains. Okay, so what's the main idea here? Well, the story is about integration and how we as a society should everyone despite their differences. That's not a bad idea and I get it but it is still a little disappointing that the Halloweentown kids have to hide behind human disguises. I get it and this brings up another large issue, these Halloweentown kids are meant to be the big focus of the third movie but they really don't have much personality that allows them to stand out on their own.
These students aren't bad and we do get some interesting insight into their life during a trip to a mall when they see a Halloween display and are offended at how their kind is depicted. Which is a good way of showing how these characters want to be accepted for who they actually are. However, our young characters are constantly being attacked by the Knights. Starting with a warning of a giant dagger at the high school and then a cloud of purple smoke removing their human disguises at the mall. Oh, and while this is going on, Aggie has taken up a teaching job at the high school but is unable to effectively teach any of the classes that she's assigned to. This was done as a means of having Aggie keep an eye on the Halloweentown students but it really felt like a waste of both Debbie Reynolds and this character. If you'll recall from my review of the second movie, I mentioned one of the greatest elements there was the love between Marnie and Aggie as you could feel a real grandmother/granddaughter relationship between the two. This movie takes that away and has Marnie and Aggie constantly bickering as they assume that both the love interests for one another is the Knight. Indeed, Marnie has a new love interest here, a young man named Cody and he's alright (though he won't be in the fourth movie and Marnie will yet again, have a new love interest). And for the first time in this series, Aggie has a love interest, the principal of the high school. And it turns out, that he's the Knight.
He's found out when Aggie discovers this ring in his office, thanks in large part to her new bag that acts like a reptile.
It turns out, however, that the head of Halloweentown Council, Edgar Dalloway, and father of one of the students was the one that informed Phil (the principal of his lineage).
Principal Phil Flanagan:For centuries, my family has been keeping a vigil, a vigil to ensure that our world remains pure of the magical. I'm the last remaining descendant of a noble order.
Dalloway:Please. You wouldn't have even known that the Knights of the Iron Dagger existed if I hadn't found you and told you!
Principal Phil Flanagan:But I'm still a knight, right?
And his son, Ethan had helped with most of the events but we see that it wasn't exactly willing on his part. At a Halloween carnival, that the movie had been building up to, a Haunted House that the Halloweentown kids had put together as a way of teaching the mortal world about their culture but they are less than impressed. Dalloway comes and attacks the mortals by bringing the fake monsters to life as he wanted to keep Halloweentown isolated from the mortal world. It doesn't exactly work as in a moment that doesn't feel completely earned, Cody shames the humans for turning on Marnie and the Halloweentown students. Dalloway takes the Cromwell magic but Gwen, who had been a mission on her own, showed what Dalloway had been up to to the Council and the Cromwell ladies take their magic back.
I just don't know. This is not a bad movie and I can see what it's going for but I don't think it ever comes fully together. I may have my issues with the darker tone of Kalabar's Revenge but that still felt like a Halloweentown movie, this here felt like it could be any old Disney Channel movie. And well, that's an issue somewhat as Halloweentown is one of the older DCOM film franchises with the original being the fourth Disney Chanel Original Movie and for a time, these movies were Halloween staples for the channel. This movie almost felt like, it took out everything people liked about Halloweentown and didn't offer anything new or if it did, it didn't dig deep enough into it.
With that outta the way, let's look at the characters.
Characters
Main Character
Marnie played by Kimberly J. Brown
Marnie was pretty good as usual. However, there is one thing that bugged me and it can be seen with the clip that YouTube uses as the trailer clip for this movie.
Marnie is still a level one witch. That feels really odd as the second movie came out in 2001 and this one in 2004. That feels a bit odd as the second movie seemingly implied that Marnie was going to stay behind in Halloweentown with Aggie to continue her training and that movie established one year in the mortal world equates to a century in Halloweentown. So, shouldn't Marnie's training be a bit more advanced than it is? Ah well, she's still fun.
Supporting Characters
Aggie played by Debbie Reynolds
Man, I really wish this wasn't Reynolds last outing as Aggie. Firstly, she is good as always with a quirky personality that we've seen all throughout the series but as I mentioned in the plot section, the heart of the relationship between Aggie and Marnie felt missing as this movie took this wonderful relationship and instead had grandmother and granddaughter sniping at one another. And that is just so disappointing, considering the previous two films showed us how much these two love one another. And here, the sniping and suspecting of one another's love interest really seemed to undermine the relationship that we've seen.
Gwen played by Judith Hoag
Gwen felt the most off compared to how she was characterized in the first two movies as someone that had embraced magic as part of her life but didn't exactly feel the need to use it because she preferred being a human. Yet, this movie has her using magic more than any other time, we've seen thus far including for simple things such as using marshmallow spiders to put in a cup of Cocoa for Marnie. And Gwen even asks a question along the line of...
"What did I ever have against magic in the first place?"
Not the exact wording but this does sum up, Gwen's character and the, well not misunderstanding of Gwen's character as the writer of the first Halloweentown returned to write this installment but still, the abundance of magic use by Gwen really felt like it went against the character that was set up in the previous movies.
Dylan played by Joey Zimmerman
Oh yeah, that. It's from when Dylan made a comment about one of the Halloweentown students and was left up there all night. I may not have been the biggest fan of Dylan in the last two movies but he doesn't have a whole lot to do here, other than possibly have a crush on a troll girl but in a shallow moment is turned off from how she really looks but they agree to be friends in the end.
Cody played by Finn Wittrock
Well, this character sure did exist. There were some cute moments, where he tried to go on a date with Marnie but there really isn't much else to his character other than that. And they must've known that as he was dropped from the fourth movie altogether.
Notice, how I haven't said much of anything about the students from Halloweentown in the character section. That's because like I said, sadly none of them stand out on their own. The most interesting thing that can be said about any of these characters is that after this movie, two of these actors would go and appear in Disney Channel's biggest cash cow of the time, High School Musical.
So, there's that and the one on the left actually looks like this as she's the pink troll I mentioned.
So, that's cool but I really wish that the rest of the students had something more to them.
Villains
Phil Flanagan played by Clifton Davis
I really did like Phil and was hoping to see him and Aggie get together. Finding out, that he was the Knight was disappointing but he had a quick change of heart as he realized what he was doing was wrong. It's a bit weird to say this but he almost felt too nice to be a bad guy. And I think this can tie into what I mentioned about humans being less interesting threats than those of magical threats that heroes can go up against.
Edgar Dalloway played by Michael Flynn
Again, not a bad character but from Kalabar to Kal to him is a major stepdown as Kalabar and Kal posed real threats that could be felt all throughout their respective movies. I get that, as the head of the Council, he had to keep up a veneer of professionalism amongst the Council as he couldn't let his plan get out. But even then, there was no real menace to this character.
My Final Thoughts
This just didn't feel like a Halloweentown movie and that may be in part because it doesn't take place in Halloweentown. And that ties into a larger issue, there's nothing Halloween about this movie and this being from a film series of Halloween movies, that's an issue. This one feels like it took so many missteps that I can't suggest it. Join me next time as we close out our look at this film series as I look at...
Return to Halloweentown
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