User Reviews

I just saw it, and well while Sara Paxton gave it her best, it just didn't cut it. She didn't have the same 'girl next door' quality or the quirky little mix-ups that Kimberly put into the character. Sara was really quite bland in comparison to Kimberly. Also, there were definite problems with continuity. Where did their younger sister go? There wasn't even a mention of her let alone an appearance. Their mom kept going on and on about having nobody left at home, well where the heck did she vanish to? And her grandmother, well there was only a very brief cameo of her which was also very disappointing. The story line had promise, the costumes needed a bit more, and it would have been fun to see more of the characters developed in III (especially the cute troll with Dylan) although it as nice to see Ethan in this one as well. I really quite liked the other three; they got me in the mood for Halloween, but overall, this one definitely left me wanting more.

I gave this movie a score above 1 simply because of the visuals and acting. Loyalty to a fan base seems to only apply to the Science Fiction genre since fantasy serials always seem to fall victim to dramatic character shifts with no premise. Where Kimberley J. Brown's character was mature and analytical for her age, Sara Paxton's character is reduced to an analogy of a beauty school dropout.

I saw Marnie's relationship with Ethan in Halloweentown High as rather adversarial, so where did this love interest come from? I was concerned about the use of both Cromwell and Piper as Marnie's last name until I read the Wiki about the series. It seems that Cromwell is her hereditary witch line, and Piper is her mom's married last name.

Personnaly i loved this movie. It had a good plot, interesting characters, mystery, romance, must i continue. Of course it had its down sides, yes Sara was a little to peppy to be Marnie, but did an OK job, and it shouldn't have told you about the teachers being evil so soon, it would've made it more intense if they kept you guessing longer. Yes it was no where near as good as 1 and 2, so if you hated 1 or 2 i recommend you don't waste ur time. But hey if u still want to give it a try i admire u 4 that. Now I must say that to like this movie you have to keep an open mind while watching it, if your not the open mind kind of person don't even try watching it, i wont admire you if you do.Another hing if your the kind of person who 1.hates movies with fiction 2.hates halloween movies with no scary parts 3.hates romance 4.hates sequels then i suggest you don't watch this movie, but again i admire you if you give it a chance. Overalll i think this movie deserves a seven out of ten!! sincerely:nancy_lavignasse

This 4th movie is a pure embarrassment to the other Halloween town movies. As if the numerous goofs were not enough, the acting was simply atrocious. Sara Paxton is definitely NOT a suitable replacement for Kimberly J Brown, and does not follow the characteristic of the previous Marnie-who was confident, bold, brave, smart, and could speculate deception. The Marnie portrayed by Sara Paxton is a cowardly, timid, and ditsy character which is an embarrassment to the real Marnie. The whole movie should have never been made; it was as if the completely disregarded the first three movies! And since when did Marnie and Ethan have a love interest? That was not even merely hinted at in Halloween Town high! This movie was purely disappointing. ---And by the way, what is their last name-Piper or Cromwell?!?

Marnie Piper is given a scholarship to Witch University, a very prestigious college in Halloweentown. Accompanied by her brother, Dylan Piper, Marnie quickly adjusts to life at Witch University. She makes three friends, Aneesa (a genie), Ethan Dalloway, and a troll whose name is almost not pronounceable, and three enemies, Sage, Saphire, and Scarlett Sinister. As the film progresses, Marnie becomes aware of a conspiracy led by a secret organization called "The Dominion." The Dominion plans to harness the Cromwell magic locked away in a stone container by Splendora Cromwell, one of the earliest Cromwells, and take over Halloweentown. What follows is betrayal, romance, time travel, and Disney Channel suspense.

Like many, I was a little disappointed that Kimberley J. Brown did not reprise her role, but Sara Paxton did a very good job in her stead. Paxton's Marnie is different from Brown's Marnie; this Marnie is a bit more invigorated and definitely personifies teenage angst.

While Judith Hoag and Joey Zimmerman return as Gwen and Dylan Piper, Emily Roeske (Sophie Piper) does not have a role in the movie, and Debbie Reynolds (Aggie Cromwell) only has two cameos. While in my opinion, the loss of Roeske is not very tragic (she was barely in the third movie), I was surprised that Reynolds did not have a larger role.

The Sinister sisters (Kelly Cockrell, Katie Cockrell, and Kristy Wu) seem rather one dimensional. Scarlett (Wu) is the only sister who does not seem next to lifeless. I was also surprised that Sage and Saphire (Cockrell and Cockrell) did not have larger roles; their apparent purpose in the movie is to accompany Scarlett, who, of course, walks in the middle as if leading the pack.

I would write about the teachers and other faculty members that Marnie and Dylan meet at Witch University, but this website does not mention the names of at least two of them. What I can write is that Dr. Grogg is falsely benevolent, Dr. Goodwin (Leslie Pomeroy) has an aura of menace, Silas Sinister (the Sinister sisters' father) is repetitive and rather flat, yet imposing, and Professor Periwinkle, who was a friend of Marnie's grandmother, is very likable.

Ethan's (Lucas Grabeel, reprising his role from "Halloweentown High") character seems to have completely changed. He went from static and pompous to unusually flirtatious and caring. That was not a bad change; it was just unexpected. Aneesa (Summer Bishil) is a newcomer, but fills out her role very well.

But enough about the characters. The story was very good. There were a few pop culture references (some of which seemed a little anachronistic) such as "ring tone," "G-Unit," "shimmy," and "Spiderman," but their usage was funny. And every so often there was a shot of Judith Hoag yelling odd things at a birdbath or a toilet. The whole time travel storyline was very interesting; it was marred ever so slightly by the fact that Splendora Cromwell was not as ancient an ancestor as she would be expected to be. Overall, though, the movie was very enjoyable, and I feel that it was the best Halloweentown installment to date.

Oh ... my ... god...What in hell's name has happened to Halloweentown!? Seriously, Halloweentown was just like this little downtown village like area, and Grandma Aggie's house. And now ... now it's transformed into this massive downtown Chicago area, and from out of nowhere here's this Witch University. And Marnie?!?!?! What the hell happened to our beloved Marnie, replaced by Sara Paxton, and not our beloved Kimberly J. Brown, because of scheduling complications ... BULL CRAP!!!! She was probably just sick of Disney and there horribly famous sequels. The first two films were great. The third was kinda pushing it, but this has no excuse. First off, the special effects were lame. The plot was lame, the fact that Grandma Aggie is a minor character is lame, the now Marnie was lame, and the fact that she didn't destroy the thing in the end so Disney can have another sequel is lame. I'm a big fan of Halloweentown and all, and have loved the movie since I was a kid, but seriously ... Disney doesn't understand the concept of you CAN have TOO MUCH of a good thing.

All the characters have totally different personalities then they did in the first 3 movies, and all their personalities were unoriginal and annoying. The first movies were more about witchcraft and Halloween; this one seemed more about the woes of a high school student. "Oh no, I have to follow the rules and the popular girls are mean to me." It was trying to be a cross between Harry Potter and Highschool musical... It was more like a cross between a Harry Potter Fan-fic written by a 12-year-old girl and ...Highschool music. When it shouldn't of been any of these things, it should have been Halloweentown! Sara Paxton's acting was terrible, not that it would matter with the terrible plot. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse... Jesse McCartney started playing in the background. You know it's a bad Disney channel movie, aimed at little preppy girls when it has people from; Highschool Musical (though I'll admit that he was in Halloween town before Highschool Musical, but it seems like his acting gotten worse since then),it has someone from dumb Disney channel TV shows and has Jesse McCartney.

For anyone who watched the 2nd Halloween town...This movie was like watching the people from Halloweentown when they were taken over by the gray spell...

They just walked around acting like stereotypical humans.

I'm just going to pretend like this movie never happened and that there's only three Halloweentowns. I would suggest not even bothering to watch this... Unless you find all Disney TV shows and TV movies to be exciting and interesting...Or if you're a 8 year old girl who has nothing on their mind other then boys and clothes. If that's you then I'm sure you'll love this movie. If you liked the other HalloweenTown movies don't torture yourself by watching this...

It wasn't exactly wow good but it was OK.The end was kid of short but in the beginning they kinda got straight to the point. I wish Disney would make there movies a little longer and people might be more interested.The acting was good and so was the special effects.

This movie is good probably for 10 11 or 12 year old. If you are much older than that I'll advise you not to waste your time and turn to MTV. This might because little kids want to see something with witchcraft magic and slobbering monsters.

I think most of you would rather watch High School Musical and I know why, the singing was good and so was the acting but, I'd rather watch this movie.After this movie you might want to watch more Disney movies or just give up after watching this movie.

Well this movie was about a freshman college student who finds there are secrets behind her school and the amulet her grandmother had locked in a box one-thousand years before. The amulet can make people do anything...........including turn the town into slaves!

This movie was, well, OK. The change from the original Marnie (Kimberly J. Brown)to the new Marnie (Sara Paxton) wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. But the "new Marnie" doesn't have the same spark as the original one did. She just doesn't have that Marnie spirit. It was a great disappointment when the very important Aggie Cromwell only showed up in one little scene. The storyline was predictable but still interesting. Yet the ending was another huge disappointment. With "The Power of Three" Marnie, her mother, and her brother destroyed "The Gift" like Aggie wanted to right? Wrong. Apparently Marnie sent it into a book of her brother, Dylan. The book even had the Sinister snake on it. I mean you all saw the sparks and fireworks. "The Gift" was supposed to be destroyed. I mean the story could have had more of Ethan Dalloway in it and her new genie friend. I mean her and Ethan never kissed, it just left them walking away together. But the one thing i liked was when Marnie goes back in time and sees her grandmother, her grandmother looks just like her. I feel that this symbolizes that Marnie is like her grandmother in many ways. But the "new Marnie" isn't like Aggie at all. No one sees the "Marnie spirit: or the "Aggie spirit" that everyone sees in HT1-3.And no one even knows how Aggie really is since Aggie barely shows up in the Movie. How could Disney Channel exclude the 2nd most important character in the series out of "Return to Halloweentown". It just doesn't make sense. Well as everyone should know, the ending of a movie is more important than the movie itself. Its like an essay, and weak conclusion means a weak essay. Overall this movie is just "Ok". Nothing great, nothing special. It has none of that Halloweentown spirit that glowed so bright in the previous 3 movies of the series. Disney Channel could not have ended it worse.

This is the only film in the Halloweentown series not to feature Kimberly J. Brown as Marnie. Brown herself has claimed that not only was she available, but she wanted to finish out the series. Instead, series creator Sheri Singer would just state that Disney and Brown's camp couldn't come to terms and make a deal work. That said, Joey Zimmerman, Debbie Reynolds, Judith Hoag and Lucas Grabeel did all come back for the film. Sophie, who was played by Emily Roeske in the previous Halloweentown installments, is mentioned but does not appear. It was directed by David Jackson, who also made the Yasmine Bleeth-starring The Lake.

Marnie decides that instead of college that she'll attend Witch University in Halloweentown on a full scholarship. But when she starts classes, she learns that all they do is study Shakespeare and the history of magic. She makes a new friend - Aneese the Genie - while reconnecting with Ethan and running afoul of the Sinister Sisters, the daughters of Silas Sinister.

The reason why magic is no longer taught? It's all Marnie's fault. Witch University was originally established exclusively for warlocks and witches to learn how to use magic. But Marnie destroyed the portal between the worlds, most of the magical children went to college in the mortal realm.

There's also the matter of a locked box in the dungeon of the school that only Marnie can open, with a sinister group called the Dominion working to force her to break open its seal. Once open, it allows the Sinister Sisters to control Halloweentown. As you can imagine, everything works out - this is a Disney Channel movie, not the usual Filmirage gorefests we watch around here and even sets up future tales.

Due to the recasting, most fans of this series kind of wish this movie never existed.

This was one of the worst Halloweentown movies ever made. The characters were so flawed and replacing Kimberly with Sara Paxton was the worst idea Disney could have thought of. Replacing main characters will never work, Disney! Taking out major characters to fit in floppy characters will never work, Disney! ~Angie, the grandmother and putting in the obviously fake wigged Sara~ Creating relationships that never existed.. sickens me! Ethan never showed any interest in Marnie in the third movie. You can't create feeling out of thin air, Disney! Oh and Disney, Sara Paxton needs to go. Ethan's character should leave too.. he isn't needed.. at all. Bring back Luke!