RuthieDear I was never a huge fan of the first two Halloweentown films - the first one felt clumsy and choppy, and the second was just plain dull. I actually prefer Halloweentown High over the others. First of all, the plot is executed without any awkward dragging bits (think about the long time travel sequence in Halloweentown II, or the anticlimactic ending of the first film). The Halloweentown setting is a good idea that was not used to its full potential in the previous movies. Now, the focus is on the characters, which I think is a great improvement. It lacks visual excitement, but makes up for it in the storyline. And for once, the villain is not a cheesy coot intent on gaining power. His goal is to keep the two worlds separate, not world domination. Kimberly J. Brown delivers another fabulous performance, and I wish she could have been in the fourth movie as well. Her grandmother is just adorable, flirting with the principle and turning a science experiment into a parrot. Lucas Grabeel, of High School Musical fame, steals his scenes (although I laugh whenever I see his cowboy costume) as the troubled and somewhat annoying Ethan. The only performance I found to be wooden was that of Cody, Marnie's love interest. He seems to have two default facial expressions. Many critics of this movie have pointed out inconsistencies such as Gwen using magic, or their last name changing. To set things straight, Piper is the last name of Marnie's human father, so she and her siblings bear that name. Cromwell is Gwen's maiden name, and the name of the famous family she comes from. Marnie considers herself a Cromwell now that she has witch powers. As for Gwen and her magic, it's character development. She is beginning to appreciate her background more, and as she accepts the truth about her mother and daughters she begins to accept the truth about herself. All in all, I enjoyed this movie a lot. 9/10.

aeondolphin This movie is no were near as good as the rest of the series. Now, right away they start talking about Marnie's "punishment" for opening the halloweentown portal, this is impossible since it happens almost two years after. Lastly not going to halloweentown or having a big magical confrontation killed the fun of this world for my friends and family. Most didn't care about a magical fun-house. In the story Marnie had to "fight this magical knight, they never fought and the story had almost nothing to do with halloweentown. Now the same humor is there I do enjoy myself with that. But after Halloweentown II, I expected more, more magic, more kalbar or evil warlock/witch things. But they didn't have it, so as a summary: This movie is nice but couldn't possibly stand up to the previous movies

mwahlq This Halloween Town was again worth the time. Disney hit a home run with the casting and fine tuned the show for its audience. Lucas Grabeel stood out in this debut as Ethan, a warlock worth watching. He has much to offer the acting world and is going to go places in Hollywood and his newest release, High School Musical may be the launching pad. The show was fun and the Disney audience loved it. The Halloween Town High premise of creatures disguising themselves as high school students and trying to fit in when their peers find it hard to fit in themselves is a refreshing twist from the other roles available. Disney once again found a new vehicle for some talented young actors. Way to go, Disney!

saturniia As both a fan of the first two Halloweentown movies and a student of Communication Arts, I was very much looking forward to the third movie in the Halloweentown series, especially since said series is supposed to end as a trilogy. However, the movie's narrative proved that this is not the case.The first problem one encounters is that the flow of the story doesn't match up with that of the previous two movies. Sure, the flow of the trilogy goes from a childish good and evil narrative in the first move, through a revenge plot in the second movie that fits Marnie's status as teenager, into a reasonably adult diversification theme that metatexturally speaks of Marnie's selfishness. The problem, however, lies in the fact that our young protagonist goes about this in a way that is not structured in the exchange students' best interests.SPOILERS BELOW!Furthermore, Gwen, Marnie's mother, uses magic. This may not seem like a big thing to a first-time watcher, but throughout both earlier movies, it has been proven that Gwen actively *chooses* not to use her powers, especially while in the human world. The frivolous use of magic in a scene where Gwen and Marnie interact isn't only odd, it's actively confusing. The only times Gwen used spells in previous movies was as self-defense.Also, certain characters who had a strong presence in the first two movies were noticeably absent. One can understand the under-use of Emily Roeske's Sophie, because the character is noticeably younger than her siblings and therefore probably still in middle school, but the absolute absence of Luke is inexcusable. This is a character that not only plays a major role in the first two films and is a fan favorite, but also the character who throughout the first two movies was positioned as having a crush on Marnie and, in the second movie, being her friend. While one can understand that contract negotiations and so on may have prevented Phillip Van Dyke from appearing in the movie, to completely forget the character's presence and importance is unforgivable. Even a single line explaining the character's absence would have been preferable. That would have explained why the parents and other more sophisticated viewers of DCOM didn't get any sort of triangle between Marnie, Luke, and Marnie's human boyfriend, which would have been infinitely preferable to the plot we were presented.In conclusion, while the story is good enough on its own, and the costumes and special effects are magnificent, the movie's shortcomings handicap its impact. The movie is skewed, and appears to have nothing to do with Halloweentown so much as Marnie's selfishness in particular. This is, by far, the weakest of the three movies, while it had the potential to be the best. Disney undershot its goal this time, folks. 3/10 stars, for beautiful costumes and set design.