Halloweentown High

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Halloweentown High

Halloweentown High promotional advertisement
Directed by Mark A.Z. Dippé
Produced by Sheri Singer
Steve White
Written by Paul Bernbaum
Daniel Berendsen
Starring Kimberly J. Brown
Debbie Reynolds
Joey Zimmerman
Judith Hoag
Emily Roeske
Lucas Grabeel
Olesya Rulin
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 for the holiday of Halloween. This is the third in the Halloweentown series. 2.43 million viewers tuned into this movie in the U.L placing it 5th in its timeslot.

Contents

[edit] Premise

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 in a remote student locker. Marnie gradually encourages the kids to join school activities and make new friends.

Marnie's progress is 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 (Marnie wonders what caused "that puff of smoke", but this is an error by the writers since the "puff" was really more like a huge purple lightning cloud), 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, Ethan Dalloway, 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 seen as monsters in the mortal world, including 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 whom 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 a reanimated skeleton which grows 30-feet. Flanagan incites a mob to corner the Halloweentown students. Cody shames the crowd, the students reveal themselves, and the crowd accepts them for who they are. Flanagan also renounces being a knight and accepts Aggie.

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 whom Dalloway had imprisoned, and the Council imprisons Dalloway in another witches glass (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 and, while flying over the carnival, they kiss.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

In the movie there is a serious personality change in Gwen: in the first two movies, she does not like nor use magic, but in Halloweentown High she accepts magic and uses it often.

Sophie appears only three times in the movie and does only simple magic.

In Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge, the family moved into a new house, and they appear in this film to have moved again, meaning that they have been in a different house in every movie.

In Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge, 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 part 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.

This is Olesya Rulin's and Lucas Grabeel's first of four films together. The other films are High School Musical, High School Musical 2, and High School Musical 3: Senior Year.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Halloweentown series
Films
Disney Channel's Hauntober Fest
Preceded by
Tiger Cruise		 Disney Channel Original Movies Succeeded by
Now You See It...