The definitive ranking of every "Halloweentown" movie from worst to best
If you grew up in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, the “Halloweentown” movies probably bring back the nostalgia of October, curled up on your couch watching Disney Channel. These Disney Channel original movies are about a family of witches hailing from a place called Halloweentown, where goblins and ghouls live in peace away from the mortal world. Here is my definitive ranking of all the movies in the series from worst to best.
4. “Return to Halloweentown”
It should come as no surprise that “Return to Halloweentown” comes in dead last. In this movie, Marnie and her brother, Dylan, go to Witch University in Halloweentown. First, they tried to change the actress of the main character who we had spent our childhoods coming to know and love. Originally, Marnie is played by Kimberly J. Brown, but in this final movie of the series, they gave the role to an up-and-coming actress at the time: Sara Paxton. I’ll be honest and tell you I’ve never even finished this film; it just doesn’t feel right. On top of Brown’s absence, Marnie’s younger sister, Sophie, who played a big role in the franchise previously, is also missing in this film. Debbie Reynolds, who played Cromwell matriarch, Aggie, also barely got any airtime, and I think this movie would just be better forgotten.
3. “Halloweentown High”
This film is pretty good but is coming in third by default due to the excellence of the first two films in the series. In this movie, viewers see teenagers from Halloweentown become foreign exchange students at Marnie’s high school. While they originally spend much of the time hiding in the room Aggie has created for them in a locker, Marnie eventually encourages them to make friends and get involved at school. This movie has love stories, fun villains, haunted houses and a new unity between Halloweentown and the mortal world. It’s definitely a fun watch, and really should have been the final film in the series.
2. “Halloweentown”
This is the first film in the series. This is the film that introduced us to the Cromwell line of witches and the town you’d be lying if you said you didn’t want to live in: Halloweentown. We meet the big and bad Kalabar, who will be the villain of the first two films of the series. In this movie, Marnie and her siblings follow their grandma home from Halloween in the mortal world and discover she lives in Halloweentown, a place filled with monsters, vampires, witches and other ghoulish creatures. When Kalabar puts Halloweentown residents into sleep paralysis in the movie theatre, Marnie and her siblings, with the help of Luke, must figure out how to save Halloweentown and the citizens living there. This is one of the first movies I watch every October and only comes in second because of the genius and fun new characters the sophomore film in the series brings.
1. “Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge”
In this film, Kalabar returns in a magical disguise – he’s much younger, now Marnie’s age, and is going by Kal. He and his fake father, a golem made of frogs, infiltrate the Piper Halloween party and are able to steal Aggie’s spellbook. With the spellbook, Kal is able to take away the magic of Halloweentown. The whole town becomes black and white and boring, including the residents in it, and the Cromwell magic doesn’t work when Marnie and Aggie return to Halloweentown to save the day. This film is ranked first not only because it has the best plotline in the series but because of Gort, who is the junkman of Halloweentown. Anything you lose ends up at his house, and Marnie, Aggie and Luke must go to his house to find the second copy of Aggie’s spellbook in order to reverse Kalabar’s spell. Gort is a treasure to the Halloweentown franchise and bumps this film just above the first film in the series.
All of the “Halloweentown” movies are streaming on Disney Plus.
