I want to like this movie. I do love the New Orleans vibe, the beautiful bayou, and DISNEY’S FIRST BLACK PRINCESS. But in addition to this movie just not feeling up to Disney’s standards (or, I suppose, mine), it’s not even what it promises.
Disney’s first black princess is in fact a frog for most of the movie. So kudos to whoever came up with that little workaround: how to have a black princess without actually committing to it, kind of like how they just had their first gay character without actually doing that either. Person of colour, yes, but did that colour really have to be green? Classic movie, Disney. Also, how many of the characters feel like stereotypes? There’s a pimp, and a Mamie, and one with a fat ass and missing teeth. Erm. Tug on the ole collar. The voices alone feel deeply racist. And let’s not forget the bit fat white saviour, even if he is cleverly voiced by John Goodman.
And the truth is, the setting isn’t quite as spectacular as I wish it was either: put through Disney’s rock polisher, it’s scrubbed clean of any true colour. The score is kind of cool, kind of jazzy, but the songs are unforgivable generic, totally unmemorable, un-sing-alongable.
There’s no real flair here, and even worse for Disney, no magic.
Marnie’s mom is so mean! Marnie loves ghosts and goblins and all she wants to do is trick-or-treat with her friends, but as usual, Mom (Judith Hoag) says no. Halloween is forbidden at their house. But this year it’s saved by a visit from Grandma (Debbie Reynolds), who has a bag full of candy and decorations; she indulges her three grandkids with treats and stories about Halloweentown, the magical place she claims to come from. Marnie (Kimberly J. Brown) overhears her mother and grandmother talking not-quietly-enough in the kitchen for such a big secret: their family has the witch gene and if Marnie was growing up in Halloweentown, her magic apprenticeship would nearly be over. So of course she’s going to sneak out and catch Grandma’s flying bus back to the Halloween dimension. What she doesn’t count on is little brother Dylan (Joey Zimmerman) and little sister Sophie (Emily Roeske) following. Now they’re all in Halloweentown, only Halloweentown isn’t what it once was. There’s an evil presence lurking about, and townspeople have been disappearing.
This movie was a Disney channel offering back in 1998, and it’s available to stream on Disney+. The great thing about Disney+ is that if you like this, you don’t have to look too far for all 3 sequels of the Halloweentown quadrilogy – they’re all right here, and though the lead actress eventually gets recast, Ms. Debbie Reynolds appears in all four. And that’s why we’re watching, right? To see Debbie Reynolds strutting through town square past goblins and pumpkin-heads like a super model, her cape billowing behind her. Even a hokey Disney movie cannot diminish her presence.
If you have kids I’d love to know how a 2020 audience feels about the “practical effects” in this film (that’s the nice way of saying it was super low budget, and the makeup/prosthetics/wardrobe they used weren’t even as good as the standard Halloween costumes you’d buy off the rack for a kid today. We’re used to fully CGI characters being superimposed over actors in green suits, so I wonder if bulbous noses still seal the deal.
Halloweentown is a harmless movie, it has witches and warlocks but mostly the good kind. It involves tween girls getting their broom licenses and grandma using instant witches’ brew instead of making it from scratch. It’s a non-scary Halloween offering, and those are relatively scarce these days. But thanks to various streaming devices, we don’t have to board a magic school bus to take us back in time, we can simply click from the comfort of our own homes.
magic is simple: you want something and then you let yourself have it
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 