Return to Halloweentown

Return to Halloweentown
Return to Halloweentown
Directed by	David Jackson
Written by	Max Enscoe; Annie DeYoung
Produced by	Don Schain
Starring	Debbie Reynolds; Sara Paxton; Judith Hoag; Lucas Grabeel; J. Paul Zimmerman; Summer Bishil
Distributed by	Disney Channel
Release dates	October 20, 2006

Return to Halloweentown is a Disney Channel Original Movie that premiered on October 20, 2006. It is the third sequel to the DCOM Halloweentown. In this sequel, Marnie Piper (Sara Paxton) and her brother, Dylan Piper (Joey Zimmerman), go to Witch University to attend college in Halloweentown. While at college, dark forces try to control her magic.

Plot Summary

In this movie, Marnie Piper is extended a full scholarship to Halloweentown's "Witch University", a prestigious school built out of an old Cromwell family castle. Gwen is doubtful at first, but allows Marnie to go if Dylan can go along with her. They head into Halloweentown, and are driven by Benny the Skeleton to the school. There, they meet the Sinister Sisters. Dylan falls in love with the trio's leader Scarlett immediately. Marnie begins to levitate her suitcases, but they collapse when Dr. Grogg recites the school's newest rule: No Magic. Marnie becomes upset, stating that the whole reason she wanted to go to a witch school was to use her magic.

Marnie goes up to her dorm room and is visited by a hologram of her grandmother Aggie. She explains that there is something going on in Halloweentown, but a disruption causes Aggie to disappear. Marnie receives a letter to meet with her Resident Advisor. She knocks and enters into the RA's room, but does not see anything but a lamp on the floor. Suddenly she is whisked away into the Genie's lamp where she meets Aneesa, her Resident Advisor. Aneesa gives Marnie information about what's happening at Witch University.

During one of Marnie's classes, a silver box with the words "S. Cromwell" on it presents itself to her, as if it belonged to her. The box is confiscated by the fossil himself, Dr. Grogg. Then it is revealed that Grogg, the Sinister Sister's father (Silas), and some of the teachers are in a group called "The Dominion" that Ethan's father used to be involved in. Later on in the movie, "The Dominion" plan to try to get Marnie to open the box, which supposedly hold a special Cromwell "Gift".

After the class, Marnie goes to one of her teachers, Professor Periwinkle, who tells her that S. Cromwell stood for Splendora Cromwell. She speaks about how she was Splendora's best friend. Marnie asks Dylan to help her find more information about Splendora. He leads her to a library where all of the books are about the Cromwell family history. He reveals that he has been using magic to "speed read", which gives an explanation to him skipping a grade. He speed reads through all of the books in the library, and discovers that Splendora hid "The Gift" in that silver box for a thousand years. The scene cuts to a lair, where Silas and the rest of The Dominion reside. It is revealed that they are watching Dylan, and they decide to use him in their plot to take over Halloweentown.

While Marnie is on a date with Ethan, she witnesses the Sinister Sisters at an ice cream parlor with Dylan, using him to do their homework. She becomes upset, and tells Dylan get away from them, but it becomes evident that he is under a spell by the Sinister Sisters, and he won't come along with Marnie. The Sisters and Dylan exit the ice cream parlor, with Marnie and Ethan following. They get on Ethan's broomstick to fly after them, but the broom crashes and turns into a snake- the evil symbol of Sinister Industries, a company ran by Silas Sinister. They realize that someone- or something - is spying on them.

Meanwhile, The Dominion, frustrated that Marnie hasn't opened the box yet tell her that she would be saving Halloweentown if she acquired "The Gift", saying that the prophecy is meant to protect the city. Marnie tries to break the spell that Dylan is in so that he can assist her, but needs more help. Meanwhile, Ethan, who overheard her conversation with "The Dominion" comes to try and stop her. However, she tries to ask him to help her break the spell on Dylan, but Ethan says that he can't. He then tells her the truth, but she thinks that he is lying, so he won't get in trouble for using magic on campus. She gets upset with him, and decides to go to Professor Periwinkle and asks her for help. Professor Periwinkle helps Marnie go 1,000 years into the past to find Splendora and ask her about the Gift.

Marnie travels back in time to find a young girl who resembles her closely (everything except for hair color), refusing to become Queen of Halloweentown. This girl, Splendora tells Marnie that "The Gift" is a curse. Marnie learns that The Gift was a necklace that had great power to give the wearer complete control over any person--but it could only be worn by a Cromwell witch. She also says that "The Dominion" wants her to use The Gift to control Halloweentown, and turn those not witches into slaves. Marnie realized that Ethan was telling the truth, much to her embarrassment. Marnie asks Splendora why can't she just destroy the gift, but she tells Marnie that, since it took three Cromwells to create, it could only be destroyed by three Cromwells. Marnie then learns that Splendora is her grandmother, when she says that she wishes to change her name to Aggie, after everything ends. Splendora gives the key to the box to Marnie, because she says that she will train her herself. Then, Spelndora helps send Marnie back to Halloweentown.

When Marnie returns, it is Halloween night and she needs to find two more witches that have Cromwell blood to help her destroy the Gift. Marnie finds Dylan under the control of the Sinister Sisters, who turn him into a dog. Marnie calls on her mother for help, and Gwen quickly rushes to the scene. Gwen has been waiting all this time for her children to say they need her, she felt as if they had "flown away from the nest" and forgotten about her. She is very excited to help out and quickly changes into witch's clothes. Marnie, Gwen and Aneesa watch Dylan on a witch's glass that resembles a laptop computer, and soon Marnie is transported to the Dominion's Lab. Silas explains that Marnie can be Queen for one night, if she will wear the necklace and make all of the creatures slaves and at midnight the spell will be permanent . He tells her that if she doesn't use the Gift to put Halloweentown under their control, then Dylan will be a dog forever. Marnie, Gwen and Aneesa make a secret plan to stop the Dominion.

That night, Marnie tricks the Dominion when she receives the Gift. Instead of making all of the creatures slaves, she orders Aneesa, Dylan, and Gwen destroy the gift to save Halloweentown. The Dominion try to escape, but they are caught and trapped in a witch's glass by Professor Periwinkle, who reveals that she has been in the "Halloweentown Anti-Dominion League" for ten centuries. It is later found out that Ethan is now a mortal since because of his father's crime his father was forced to give up his magic and so Ethan decided to renounce his own. When Gwen finds out Ethan is now mortal, she smiles, telling Marnie, "I knew there was something I liked about that boy!" . Since their father is captured, the Sinister Sisters lose their powers as well, which means that they're now mortal. One of them even exclaims sadly, "We might as well be ugly!" At the end of a hectic adventure, Gwen decides to let Dylan and Marnie stay at Witch University. The last scene reveals that Marnie didn't really destroy the Gift, and that she actually gave it to Dylan, and because all spells cast at midnight are permanent, The Gift now belongs to him. He quickly hides it in a book, not ready to handle its power. Dylan's door closes and the credits roll, leaving a nice cliffhanger for a possible sequel.

Cast

Actor	Role
Sara Paxton	Marnie Piper/Young Splendora Agatha Cromwell
Judith Hoag	Gwen Piper
Lucas Grabeel	Ethan Dalloway
Debbie Reynolds	Splendora Agatha Cromwell
J. Paul Zimmerman	Dylan Piper
Summer Bishil	Aneesa the Genie
Keone Young	Silas Sinister
Kristy Wu	Scarlett Sinister
Christopher Robin Miller	Young Troll
Kellie Cockrell	Sage Sinister
Katie Cockrell	Sapphire Sinister
Dan Young	Dr. Ichabod Grogg
Eliza Wren	"Geeky" Girl
Leslie Pomeroy	Dr. Goodwin
Millicent Martin	Professor Periwnkle
Darren Ewing	Morose Cashier
Robin DeSantis	Fairy

Cut Scenes

There is a scene in the trailer where Marnie and Dylan are in a strange room holding identification cards showing to a pumpkin headed figure as Dylan says in the background "I want to go to a real college". It has also been said by Lucas Grabeel and Sara Paxton that they filmed a kiss for the end of the movie, but for some reason was cut in the editing.

Release Dates

Country	Channel	Date
United States	Disney Channel	October 20 2006
United Kingdom	Disney Channel UK	October 29 2006

Trivia

Sara Paxton has replaced Kimberly J. Brown, who played Marnie in all the other Halloweentown Movies as the role of Marnie in this movie.

Darren Ewing (from cult classic Troll 2) makes a brief appearance as Morose Cashier.^[1]
Joey Zimmerman is credited as "J. Paul Zimmerman".
Emily Roeske's character, "Sophie" does not make an appearance in this movie, as she is witch training with Debbie Reynolds' character Aggie who only appears briefly in this movie.
Professor Periwinkle says her family and Marnie's family were friends since before Halloweentown but a little while after that, she says that she met Splendora a little while after Halloweentown was made. This could be due to Professor Periwinkle's family having been friends with the Cromwell family before Splendora was born and Professor Periwinkle could have been away somewhere from before Splendora was born until a while after Halloweentown was created.
It reveals that Marnie's grandmother's full name was Splendora Agatha Cromwell but after stopping the Dominion's plan to take over Halloweentown, she shortened her name to Agatha "Aggie" Cromwell.
Aggie is 1018 years old because Halloweentown was created 1000 years ago and she was 18 at the time.
The premiere scored 7.6 million viewers, just under High School Musical.
The DVD is to be expectedly released on August 28 2007. The DVD cover is on top of the page.
Some of the music featured in the movie includes Right Where You Want Me performed by Jesse McCartney.
They say "since the dawn of time" a lot in the series, when Halloweentown is only 1000 years old.

Goofs

In Return to Halloweentown, Gwen's, Marnie's, Dylan's, and Sophie's last name is changed from "Cromwell" to "Piper". (Explanation Piper is their mom's married name, and Cromwell merely refers to their herritage.)
When Gwen uses her credit card at the supermarket, she swipes it with the magnetic strip facing up.
Splendora tells Marnie she has faith in her because she will train Marnie herself one day. This was a mistake in the script, because there was no way Splendora could have known that. Unless she made an oath to herself beforehand that she would train her granddaughter, even before Marnie was born (or something to that effect).
In the previous three movies, every day was Halloween in Halloweentown, but in this one, Halloween was actually on October 31. (Maybe when Aggie said that every day was Halloween in Halloweentown she meant it metaphorically)

Explanation: In the second movie, Halloweentown: Kalabar's Revenge, at the end of the movie, Marnie, Sophie, and Dylan created a new spell that opened the portal between Halloweentown and the mortal world permanently. In the third movie, Halloweentown High, they explain that since Marnie aligned the two worlds together with the permanent portal spell, time moves in equal proportions for both worlds.

When Ethan goes to the gargoyles asking who has been paying them for their spying on Marnie, the shot is from his back, he is seen with both hamburgers in one hand, then the next shot this time from his front, he is shown with one hamburger in each hand.
Marnie claimed she needed a time spell, but in the second movie she used one multiple times. (Explanation Marnie has a tendencie to forget incantations from other languages or are just hard to say)
In the scene where Marnie is taken through the computer after finding a transformed Dylan, you can see that Gwen is crouched toward the computer, but in the next frame while Marnie goes into the computer, we see Gwen suddenly standing up and then crouching down towards the computer again.
When Marnie is in Aneesa's bottle, Aneesa tells her she was the first accepted to Witch University. A few minutes later, Ethan and Aneesa are explaining the no magic rule, and about the school, which was originally witches and warlocks only. Aneesa is a genie, so how could she be the first? (Unless she was the first genie.) Explanation: Aneesa said she was the first genie accepted.

Cultural References

"The Power of Three" is a term (and power) made famous by the Halliwell Sisters (Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and later Paige), known collectively as the Charmed Ones, in the Supernatural Drama Series Charmed. Interestingly, Sophie, Marnie and Gwen's last name is Piper, who is one of the Charmed Ones.
Coincidentally, "The Power of Three" is also half of the rap group in the 2004 Mark Waters comedy Mean Girls.
Professor Periwinkle is heard saying, "Ah, Splendora Cromwell, now that's a name I haven't heard in a very long time". Marnie responds, saying "You're not going tell me that's you, are you? Because I'm getting a really weird Star Wars moment here".
Gwen uses the line, "With power comes responsibility," to which Marnie retorts that she "stole that from from Spider-man!".
Marnie twitches her nose to use magic which is a reference to the TV series, Bewitched in which Samantha, the main character does the same to use her own powers.
Marnie crosses her arms and blinks to use magic which is a reference to the television series, I Dream of Jeannie, in which the main character Jeannie does the same to use her own powers.
At one point, Marnie says 'Beam me up, Genie', which is a reference to Star Trek.
In the part where Dr. Grogg comes into the classroom, he makes a reference to G-Unit.
When Marnie visits Splendora in the past, Splendora mentions that "Even my father once said that King Arthur hated the whole royalty thing.", to which Marnie responds, "Was your father Merlin?!". Splendora responds "No, Marvin, Merlin's cousin".
When the three villians were captured together in the mirror is this is a possible reference to Superman, when three other villians were trapped in another dimension.

References

^ "Darren Ewing". IMDB.com. Retrieved 2006-11-04.

External links

Official

Unofficial/Information Sites

Trailers

Return to Halloweentown Trailer (DisneyChannel.com/Videos)

Preceded by The Cheetah Girls 2	Disney Channel Original Movies	Succeeded by Jump In!

[DE-1] "Darren Ewing". IMDB.com. Retrieved 2006-11-04.

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