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While 1998's "Halloweentown"
was a very cute and entertaining little Halloween movie, the sequel "Kalabar's
Revenge" is much darker and slightly more adult in tone and atmosphere
this time around. What's interesting is you can sense the seeds for "The
Witches of Waverly Place" within this sequel, and it's not a far off
prospect that what with Kimberly J. Brown getting older with each movie,
Disney wanted to pass the wand over with a new franchise about magic and
wizards. "Halloweentown II" sets down on Halloween a few years after the
fight with Kalabar where things have changed but are still the same.
Grandma Aggie and daughter Gwen are still at war over living life as a
Witch, the daughters are struggling over their allegiances and son Dylan
is still concerned with being average. During a big Halloween night
party, new neighbors Kal and his dad appear looking to befriend the
Cromwell family. Gwen is instantly attracted to Kal's dad, as Kal and
Marnie find a common bond. A moment of weakness allows the obviously evil Kal to steal the Cromwell spell book, and upon discovering her magic bag
isn't working anymore, Aggie heads back to Halloweentown. Marnie and
Aggie discover the town is being sapped of its creativity,
individuality, and magic. Kal is Kalabar's son and is looking to suck
the magic out of the town. Much of the sequel involves the shockingly
fantastic chemistry between the cute Kimberly J. Brown and the wonderful
Debbie Reynolds, both of whom are two generations of Cromwell's battling
with the new villain Kal.
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Kimberly J.
Brown had sheer potential to be a Disney regular and works
wonders here as the older and wiser Marnie seeking a line
between normality and embracing her destiny as the head of
the Cromwells. She's very soft spoken and a great antidote
to the normal overbearing Disney characters. Reynolds grasps
the role of Aggie with as much zeal as possible providing a
very whimsical attitude to an already entertaining heroine
holding her own in a youth oriented fantasy flick. |
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As well I also enjoy
the emphasis on the character of Sophie who goes from a little
sister to the key to saving the humans from Kal's horrible spell
providing a sense of heroism and giving a very entertaining
performance not reliant on cute one-liners. There's much more visual
style this time around as we're exposed to some interesting imagery
of the town in black and white, and the two witches journeying
through alleys and dark mansions looking for Aggie's mythical spell
book hoping to bring the town back to life once more. On the mortal
world, Kal has cooked up a plot where all of the party goers in the
school Halloween dance are going to turn in to monsters at the
stroke of midnight. So with only four hours left, Marnie and her
friend Luke have only a little time to restore the magic, break the
spell, and save grandma Aggie who is also being sapped of her magic
as time goes on. The ultimate carnage inflicted by Kal's master plan
is rather devious and once the party goers turn in to vampires and
monsters it's pretty spooky and rather wicked, especially
considering the special effects are better this time around. "Halloweentown
II" is the better of the entire series, and I had just as much fun
with this as I did its predecessor.
One thing that
really seemed just obligatory for the sense of creating tension was
mother Gwen's inability to comprehend a master plan at work. She
went face to face with an evil Warlock, has been to Halloweentown
and even implements her magic during the film, but she still finds
it impossible to believe her kids that Kalabar may have returned and
is planning something on this holiday? It's out of character and
seems just there to create difficulty for the characters and little
else. It's pretty far-fetched for a character who seems to have seen
it all in regards to magic and monsters.
Where the original movie
was about celebrating Halloween, "Halloweentown II" is much darker and
focused on narrative with the battle of good and evil and carrying on
the storyline. Kimberly J. Brown and Debbie Reynolds are about as
likable as ever, and this is obviously a superior sequel and the best of
the "Halloweentown" movies by far.
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