It Still Stings: Return to Halloweentown Is a Terrible Conclusion to a Beloved Franchise

Editor’s Note: TV moves on, but we haven’t. In our feature series It Still Stings, we relive emotional TV moments that we just can’t get over. You know the ones, where months, years, or even decades later, it still provokes a reaction? We’re here for you. We rant because we love. Or, once loved. And obviously, when discussing finales in particular, there will be spoilers:

For years, the Halloweentown franchise had delighted viewers as teenage Marnie Piper (Kimberly J. Brown), her brother Dylan (Joey Zimmerman), and her sister Sophie (Emily Roeske) discovered the secret universe of Halloweentown where their grandmother Aggie Cromwell (Debbie Reynolds) lived. Along the way, they discovered witchy talents that their mother, Gwen (Judith Hoag), sought to bury until they disappeared. Together, they all (eventually) embraced the magic and came together as a family to save Halloweentown and the mortal world from evil threats and dark magic. Then, the final film, Return to Halloweentown, premiered and destroyed everything that made the franchise so magical and beloved.

First and foremost, Return to Halloweentown’s undoing began with the terrible decision to recast Brown’s Marnie with actress Sara Paxton. No offense to her, truly, but the character lost just about everything special about her in this final film, becoming rather two-dimensional. (This isn’t necessarily Paxton’s fault, but seems like a mix of both the actor’s choices and a bad script.) Marnie’s sole personality trait became being the “good girl” and following the rules, which was so unlike Marnie, who was sneaking off to a different universe at the age of 13. In fact, much of Marnie’s growth in the original films was centered around her standing out. She was weird and interested in things (like ancient runes) that her peers didn’t understand. She always broke the rules; she snuck off to Halloweentown, opened the portal between the worlds after midnight on Halloween in the second film, and then sought to change the world by intermixing humans and monsters in Halloweentown High. 

To make the whole situation worse, original actress Kimberly J. Brown wasn’t even invited back to reprise her role in the film. In a video uploaded to her YouTube channel, she discusses why she did not return, saying the claims that she was working on something else at the same time were not true and she had discussed returning before Disney opted to go in a different direction. This is a major shame, especially as Brown embodies Marnie through and through, which only aided the success of the first three films.

In comparison to its predecessors, Return to Halloweentown was a significant misstep in the franchise, delivering a film that, objectively, just wasn’t very good. The plot didn’t make sense, ignoring and altering much of what came before, and it didn’t showcase the best of any character. The story begins with Marnie being accepted at Witch University in Halloweentown, leaving the mortal world to study magic (much to her mother’s behest) with brother Dylan at her side (as their mother demanded he accompany her). When she gets there, it’s not at all what she imagined. The use of magic isn’t permitted as it would be unfair to the other creatures attending the school, but the shallow mean girls—the Sinister sisters—use it constantly without consequences, ganging up on Marnie to make her life a living hell.

All the while, a secret group—the Dominion, consisting of multiple faculty members—manipulates Marnie into using an old Cromwell heirloom, the Gift, to enslave the creatures of Halloweentown and rule it. It’s a darker turn for the franchise that doesn’t mesh with the messages of the other films or the history of Halloweentown whatsoever. It forgets Halloweentown’s original purpose, ignoring that it was created for creatures to escape vindictive and dangerous humans. Instead of reiterating its themes about humans and creatures living in unity, it focuses on separating the creatures from each other, all while changing Marnie and the other characters to fit the story. It relies on tired tropes (like the mean girls versus good girl Marnie) and unspoken secrets about Aggie’s so-called past to build a story that, ultimately, falls flat.

The final nail in Return to Halloweentown’s coffin is its unsatisfying ending. After “destroying” the Gift, Dylan finds it hidden in one of his books, meaning it could come back to cause trouble for the Cromwells once again. Additionally, this was only the first two months of Marnie and Dylan’s college experience, while Gwen didn’t deal with her own issues about her kids leaving home in any capacity. All in all, the story feels like a waste of time, and the film doesn’t understand that the previous movies worked because it was about the entire family working together rather than revolving around Marnie on her own as some chosen one destined for greatness or being coerced by the promise of being the world’s most powerful witch, something she never cared about or would have been interested in previously.

And much like the decision to recast Marnie, the late and iconic Debbie Reynolds’ absence was a choice that left this final film floundering. She appears in a few very short scenes at the beginning before disappearing, as she is exploring other dimensions with Sophie while they continue her training. Considering the damage the final film inflicts on Aggie’s character with the secrets she kept and her almost becoming the Queen of Halloweentown using the Gift (despite knowing what was going on and doing nothing to stop it until she locked the Gift away), it’s even harder to accept this lackluster film as our final look at these characters.

Reynolds’ Aggie Cromwell is probably the reason the franchise was so successful to begin with, as she warmly welcomed the audience into this family and to Halloweentown, becoming the grandmother everyone wanted to have. It’s sad and disappointing to recognize that, even if we were to get another Halloweentown film one day, Reynolds has passed and we’ll never see Aggie (the real Aggie, considering their history of recasting) again. We’ll never get proper closure on this character or with this story, making Return to Halloweentown more of a disappointment than it already was in its gross misunderstanding of the true magic at the heart of this beloved franchise. 

Jay Snow is a freelance writer. He has published many places on the internet. For more of his thoughts on television and to see his other work (or to simply watch him gush again and again over his love for the original Charmed) follow him @snowyjay.

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