Halloweentown High

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Halloweentown High

Halloweentown High promotional advertisement
Directed by Mark A.Z. DippĂ©
Produced by Sheri Singer
Steve White
Written by Paul Bernbaum
Daniel Berendsen
Starring Debbie Reynolds
Kimberly J. Brown
Joey Zimmerman
Judith Hoag
Emily Roeske
Music by Kenneth Burgomaster
Distributed by Disney Channel
Release date(s) October 8, 2004
Running time 83 min.
Language English
Preceded by Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge
Followed by Return to Halloweentown
IMDb profile

Halloweentown High is a Disney Channel Original Movie released in October of 2004 to go along with the holiday of Halloween as did the previous films. This is the second sequel in the Halloweentown series and it was followed by one other, Return to Halloweentown in 2006.

Contents

[edit] Plot Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Taking place soon after the previous movie, Marnie Piper (as first noted by this movie) prepares to begin a new school year. She asks the Halloweentown Witches' Council to work toward openness between Halloweentown and the mortal world. She proposes to bring a group of Halloweentown students to her own high school in the mortal world. The Council agrees, but only after Marnie mistakenly bets "all the Cromwell magic" that her plan will work ("It was just a figure of speech!"). If she does not prove she is right by midnight on Halloween, her entire family will lose their magical abilities.

The Halloweentown students arrive, magically given human appearances to disguise their true non-human natures. School begins with Marnie acting as tour guide for the exchange group ("from Canada"), Aggie substitute teaching so she can be available in case of need, a romantic interest for Marnie in new student Cody, and a possible threat from the Knights of the Iron Dagger. The Knights are a long-absent anti-magic cult that wants to keep the mortal world closed off from Halloweentown.

While Aggie proves unable to teach any subject effectively (she keeps letting her magic take over: she conjures up a parrot in science class, and later we learn a llama was produced, one kid was turned into a lamp post, and another lost one of their ears), the Halloweentown students keep to themselves, hiding in the refuge that Aggie magically creates for them. Marnie gradually encourages the kids to join school activities and make new friends.

Marnie's progress in interrupted by a warning that appears to be from the Knights of the Iron Dagger, then by a magical incident at the mall that results in the Halloweentown students assuming their natural appearances, by a break-in at the secret magical locker, and finally by the disappearance of one of the students.

Meanwhile, Marnie's developing relationship with Cody parallels an unexpected romance beginning between Aggie and the school's principal, Phil Flanagan. Aggie suspects Cody of being the cause of the trouble, and tries to convince Marnie to halt their relationship, but Marnie in turn suspects Flanagan. They eventually discover that Phil is the Knight in question; he was told prior to the students' arrival that he was the last of the Order.

Edgar Dalloway, head of the Witches' Council and father of one of the students, is the real root of their problems. He wants to keep Halloweentown isolated from the mortal world, and used Flanagan to ensure the failure of Marnie's project. This, he hoped, would cause a negative reaction in Halloweentown and keep the portal between Halloweentown and the mortal world closed.

The Halloweentown students use the school's Halloween carnival to improve mortal attitudes toward magical folk. Their haunted house depicts the ordinary lives of creatures that have typically been used as monstrous images in the mortal world; ironically, this is in the form of displays like the "Monster Tea Party" and ogres "picnicking in their natural setting", and winds up boring to the carnival goers. Gwen meanwhile uses a witch's glass to hunt down a missing student who Dalloway imprisons.

At the school Halloween carnival, Edgar Dalloway launches magical attacks against mortal students by bringing the inanimate monsters in the haunted house to life. Damage and panic spirals beyond Marnie and Aggie's ability to contain it including one where a reanimated skeleton grows 30-feet. Flanagan incites a mob to corner the Halloweentown students. The students reveal their true selves, and Cody shames the crowd into accepting them.

Dalloway claims the Cromwell magic, but Gwen has shown the evening's events to the full Witches' Council. They return the Cromwell magic, Gwen returns with the student Dalloway had imprisoned, and the Council imprisons Dalloway (At this point the series diverges from real history quite dramatically, with the existence of Halloweentown and its inhabitants becoming known to the population of Earth).

The portal between Halloweentown and the mortal world opens in the middle of the haunted house, and crowds of kids from Halloweentown cross over to enjoy the carnival together with mortal world kids. Marnie flies off for a romantic broom ride with Cody while flying over the carnival and they kiss.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Characters

  • Marnie Piper (Human/Witch)
  • Splendora Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell (Witch)
  • Dylan Piper (Human/Warlock)
  • Sophie Piper (Human/Witch)
    Sohpie Piper is played by Emily Roeske. She is the youngest in the family. In the first movie, she used her powers most than anyone and remembered the spell to help activate Merlin's talisman. In the second movie, she helped her sister, grandmother and brother open a portal between the two worlds that can be opened at any time during the year. They used this portal to stop Kalabar and save their mother. In the third movie, she was a minor character and did not use any magic. And in the fourth movie, she never made an appearance, although she was mentioned to be with her grandmother for witch-training.
  • Cody (Human)
  • Principal Phil Flanagan (Human/Knight)
  • Edgar Dalloway (Warlock)
  • Ethan Dalloway (Warlock)
  • Gwen Piper (Witch)
  • Natalie the Troll (Troll)
    Natalie the Pink Troll is portrayed by Olesya Rulin. She is one of nine "exchange students" that Marnie Piper welcomes into her mortal realm in order to prove to the Halloweentown Council that humans become more accepting of magical creatures. In her natural state, Natalie has bright pink fuzz upon her pink epidermis. Similarly, she has long, pink, coarse hair. She also has long pointed ears which are sexy in an exotic way. In her free time, Natalie enjoys participating in the Science Club, where she holds the title of co-president. Natalie excells at human learning, represented by her schedule full of AP classes; it is this that initially draws Dylan Piper to her.
  • Pete the Werewolf (Werewolf)
  • Cassie the Witch (Witch)
  • Chester the Ogre (Ogre with Forest Giant from mother's side)
  • Nancy the Wood Nymph (Nymph)
  • Bobby the Gremlin (Gremlin)
  • Layla the Cat (Werecat)
  • Will the Zombie (Zombie)
  • Yeti (reanimated)
  • 6-Armed Man Council Member
  • Vampire Council Member
  • Mummy Council Member
  • Pumpkin Head Council Member
  • The Candy man

[edit] Quotes

  • Girl coming out of the Haunted House:The ghost didn't even say 'boo'!
    Aggie: Boo? [looks at Marnie]How many ghosts do you know that say 'boo'?


[edit] Goofs

  • When Gwen puts the grasshopper cereal in the cupboard, she closes the door and the "glass" window flaps open, revealing that it is just a sheet of plastic.
  • When Marnie and Aggie look through the window and see the dagger, the window looks like it was recently rained on, yet Aggie starts the rain afterwards. Also, when the principal walks in he says the rain came out of nowhere.
  • When Edgar Dalloway was taking the family's magical powers into himself, he was facing Marnie, Aggie and Dylan, but he only took Marnie and Aggie's powers and not Dylan's. (He probably didn't know Dylan had powers. Most of the audience didn't know if Dylan had used his powers or lost them. Example: When Marnie zapped Dylan up to the ceiling, Dylan didn't zap himself down.)

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

  • In the movie there is a serious personality change in Gwen, in the first two movies she did not like nor use magic. But in Halloweentown High she accepts magic and uses it often.
  • Dylan seems a little too excited about the Haunted House the gang prepares for the carnival. In previous movies, his character is not really into the "whole Halloween thing."
  • As confirmed in Return to Halloweentown, Dylan does off-screen magic during this movie (speed reading).
  • Sophie appears only three times in the movie and does not do any magic.
  • In Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge they moved into a new house, and it looks like in this movie they have moved again. Which means that they have been in a different house in every movie.
  • This is the first Halloweentown movie, and possibly the only one, not to go into Halloweentown. However, the first scene when the Council is introduced and Marnie is transported through a portal suggests the possibility that this scene may have taken place in Halloweentown.
  • In the second Halloweentown movie there was a door to magical Aggie's room that could disappear and reappear due to the magic of Aggie, Sophie, and Marnie. These rooms appear to be all apart of a building but can only be opened by magic. Yet when Marnie tries to open an extra hallway "she messes up the house." This power also explains the magical locker and the hallway to the council.
  • Lucas Grabeel's character wants to be in a play and a great actor then he appears in High School Musical as an award winning actor.
  • The actor who played Cody was in an episode of CSI:Miami the following Monday, with the movie airing on the weekend and later in the week he had appeared on TV for almost everyday that week
  • In the past two Halloweentown movies, Halloweentown and Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge, the portal to Halloweentown was opened by saying a spell. However, in this movie, no spell is said to open the portal, which probably means that Halloweentown can now be summoned without a magic spell.
  • Three of the cast members appeared in High School Musical: Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans, Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielsen, and Todd Michael Schwartzman as one of the basketball players. Their characters in the Halloweentown movie are: Ethan Dalloway, Natalie the Pink Troll, and Pete the Werewolf, respectively.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Tiger Cruise		 Disney Channel Original Movies Succeeded by
Now You See It...
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