Day 19: 31 Days of Horror: Halloweentown

Want to guess what my favorite Debbie Reynolds movie is? If you didn't guess Halloweentown, then you obviously haven't seen this movie or don't like silly Halloween movies that Disney made. I happen to love the majority of them, except for the one about a Mummy, that one was boring! Debbie Reynolds played one of the coolest witches ever, Aggie Cromwell!

Halloweentown begins with the soon to be 13 year old Marnie Cromwell arguing with her mother, Gwen, about going to a Halloween party. For her entire life, as well as her siblings' lives, none have been allowed to participate in ANY Halloween festivities. No dressing up, no trick-r-treating, absolutely nothing. They are the only house on their block that doesn't handout candy. Marnie doesn't understand why this is, but her mom still refuses to let her go to a party and refuses to tell her why. Dylan, Marnie's nerdy younger brother doesn't understand why she is so obsessed with going to the party anyway. Dylan  is a complete suck-up to their mom, so Marnie starts arguing with him, too.  

However, Marnie's argument with her mother and Dylan is cut short once a visitor shows up at their door. The visitor happens to be their grandmother, Aggie, who is Marnie's favorite! Her brother and little sister, Sophie, are just as excited as she is to see their grandma as Marnie is. Gwen is displeased to see her mom, despite not seeing her for a while, because her mom is a bit more eccentric than she thinks is necessary. Aggie ignores her daughter and continues to have a nice time with her grandchildren, bringing a bunch of candy, decorations, and costumes for them. She then asks if she can read the kids a bedtime story before she has to leave again. Although reluctant at first, Gwen allows her to, but is furious when she realizes that her mom is telling the children about a place called Halloweentown.

Confused and curious, Marnie sneaks downstairs and overhears her grandma and mom talking about something very strange, Marnie's training to be a witch! Perplexed by what she's hearing, Marnie listens some more and learns that something evil has been invading Halloweentown. Aggie asks Gwen if she would be willing to come back with her and help find out and defeat whatever it in order to save the residents of Halloween. Gwen refuses to come and help, so Aggie does some magic to annoy her and then leaves. Marnie rushes upstairs to change her clothes and tell her brother what she just saw. She tells him that she's going to go after grandma and follow her, in order to go help her fight the bad thing. Dylan isn't sure how to respond, but despite his doubts, he decides to go with Marnie to follow their grandmother back to wherever she's going. As they follow their grandma, they are shocked to see as a bus magically appears before their eyes. The two board the bus from the back of it, careful to not approach their grandma at first in case she ends up taking them back home right then and there. However, they become a bit freaked out when the bus suddenly takes off and seems to be transporting them to a different spectrum in the world, which is exactly what it is doing because they land in Halloweentown.

Once they are off the bus, they end up losing their grandma in a crowd, but end up finding that their little sister followed them onto the bus. Together, the three kids end up finding their way to their grandma's house with a little help from the friendly town mayor and taxi driver. However, shortly after their arrival, their mom shows up and is enraged, convinced that her mom took them there behind her back. Gwen quickly makes her children come with her and leave their grandma behind, so that they can go back home. Unfortunately for Gwen, the bus isn't running back any time soon, so she decides to go to the mayor for help, but is sidetracked when Marnie takes off after her grandma again due to her belief that her grandma is in danger. Marnie's instincts end up being right and watches as both her grandma and mom are attacked by the evil cloaked man in the local movie theater. It's up to Marnie, Dylan, and Sophie to do whatever they can in order to collect the ingredients to activate Merlin's talisman to defeat the evil wizard and save both their grandma and mom. 

I love this movie! I have to watch it every single October in order to celebrate Halloween time properly. It's got a cool story-line that it follows. Yes, it's a bit corny, but that's just part of the fun of watching it.  Awesome movie!