Spelled as "Halloween Town", it is a setting in the animated musical film The Nightmare Before Christmas directed by Tim Burton and released in 1993.

Halloweentown is the name of a fictional community in three movies aired as works for television on The Disney Channel (presented as "Disney Channel Original Movies") between 1998 and 2004.

Synopsis

The basic premise of Halloweentown is that fantasy beings such as trolls, living skeletons, and humanoids with varying numbers of heads, limbs and sensory organs are real, but separated themselves from Earth's history to escape humans' fear and persecution. These characters created their own community, Halloweentown, a thousand years ago in an alternate space. Travel between Halloweentown and the ordinary, historical world (which Halloweentown residents call "The Mortal World") is only possible with magical aid, and only at regulated times (until the events of the second movie create a less restricted traffic channel).

Although magic is present in many of the details of daily life of Halloweentown, it appears that only a limited number of persons actually practice or control magic. These people are completely human in appearance, and called witches if female and warlocks if male.

The three Halloweentown movies concern episodes in the lives of the Cromwell/Piper family. Magic is hereditary in this family. The family matriarch, Agatha Cromwell, has been a pillar of Halloweentown society for centuries. Her daughter, Gwen, married a mortal and chose to leave Halloweentown for a life in the Mortal World. At the time of the movies she is apparently widowed. She has decided to raise her three children (Marnie, Dylan, and Sophie) apart from magic, and thus rejects contact with Halloweentown and the influence of her mother.

Halloweentown (1998)

In the first movie, Halloweentown (1998), oldest daughter Marnie, approaching the age of 13, discovers her heritage and follows her visiting grandmother Agatha into Halloweentown to pursue her identity as a witch. The family foils an evil plot by the town's mayor, a warlock named Kalabar, who it seems used to date Gwen when she grew up in Halloweentown.

Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge (2001)

In the second movie, Halloweentown II (Kalabar's Revenge) (2001), the family foils an evil plot by Kalabar's son Cal. His goal is to cast a spell at a Halloween costume party that will make mortals take on the permanent physical appearances suggested by the masks they wear at the party (example: a man in a cyclops mask actually becomes a cyclops). The purpose of this is to make mortals become the very things they mock every October 31.

Halloweentown High (2004)

This one begins with Marnie being summoned to a gathering of the Witches' Council where she is to thanked personally for saving Halloweentown (referring likely to an event that takes place between the second and third films). The Council reluctantly agrees to allow Marnie's newest plan to go forward: she has permanently opened the portal between the two worlds...now she wants to join those worlds. She proposes to do a little experiment on this first by inviting 12 high schoolers from Halloweentown to attend high school in the mortal world. Some members of the council feel this will endanger Halloweentown as a whole, never mind just the 12 students. Marnie jokingly says that she would bet "all the Cromwell magic" that this will work if given a chance. This turns out to be a huge mistake, as the Council instantly accepts the "bet". Marnie has until midnight on Halloween to prove her theory correct, or she, her mom and grandma all will lose their powers.

Needless to say, Aggie in particular is horrifed at this prospect (Marnie's defense: "I thought it was just a figure of speech!"), but they press ahead with the program anyway. They are also made aware of a possible sabotage attempt by Knights of the Iron Dagger, a long-absent, yet still terrifying anti-magic cult that wants the mortal world to be closed off from Halloweentown. However, this group has supposedly been missing for 1000 years, so Marnie and her family feel the Knights aren't much of a threat.

The next day, the students arrive ("from Canada"), and Marnie is their "tour guide" at the high school. She sees one boy that she thinks has strayed from the pack, and it turns out to be a boy named Cody who just moved into the area...and into Marnie's romantic sights. Aggie is at the high school as a substitute teacher (and backup to Marnie) and can't seem to go more than a few minutes without almost blowing her cover: she uses a monster face to scare an obnoxious student into silence during one classroom lecture, and during a science experiment accidentally produces a live parrot:

Aggie: It isn't an exact science, you know...

Marnie: Yes it is! It is a science! That's why they call it 'Science 101'!

Aggie later shows Marnie the secret location where the 12 students can come and "be themselves" by removing their human costumes and looking like the creatures that they really are. They don't like the human suits but Marnie warns them that humans aren't ready for who they really are yet.

The next day, Marnie is again torn between the increasingly heated relationship with Cody (it is very obvious these two like each other), and keeping an eye on Aggie, who continues to have trouble keeping her magic hidden; at one point Marnie learns that Aggie produced a llama in one of her classes, another kid was turned into a lamppost, and yet another kid's ear disappeared. This increasingly frustrates Marnie and relations between her and Aggie sour.

Aggie and Marnie also notice an ominous sign: a giant iron dagger painted onto a school sidewalk...the Knights are there after all. Meanwhile, Cody asks Marnie on a date, which she quickly agrees to.

That weekend, Aggie and Marnie take the students to what they consider the most distinguishing feature of the mortal world: the mall. The kids quickly take to this, and Dylan, a hopeless nerd in most cases, seems to be winning over Natalie, one of the students who, unbeknownst to him, is actually a hairy pink troll. At the mall, Marnie runs into Cody (who followed her there), and Aggie seems to have made plans with the school's principal, Phil Flanagan.

Marnie and Cody are having a chat at the mall's food court when they hear a series of screams. Marnie and Aggie break their respective dates and see the source of the screams: a huge purple lightning cloud and the 12 students all in thair actual Halloweentown forms. They all rush back home to the Piper residence.

When they get home, Marnie is immediately summoned to a very angry witches council, where they blast her for letting things get so out of hand. Marnie angrily insists she will still be proven correct and adjourns the meeting. That night, relations between Marnie and Aggie get even worse as Aggie chides Marnie for having made any bet.

The next day, things go from bad to even worse for Marnie. First, she discovers that the school locker that serves as the entryway for the secret hideout has been forced; based on the damage, it looks like someone really wanted to get in there. Marnie goes to tell Aggie, and their relations sink to an absolute low as Aggie suggests Marnie may be overlooking another cute guy as a suspect for all that is going wrong (as was the case in the second film). After that, Marnie is confronted by Cody, who demands to not only know why Marnie is always disappearing, but also what's in that locker. Marnie instantly thinks Aggie might be right, that Cody IS the Knight in question. She tells him to stop what he's doing, and he is hurt, saying he just wanted to get to know her better because he likes her ("I didn't know that was a crime," he says as he storms out of the room). Just when Marnie couldn't feel any worse, she goes back to the clubhouse only to learn that one of the students has been kidnapped, probably by a Knight.

That night, Marnie and Aggie call a cease-fire and agree to focus on the problem at hand: the missing student. At one point, Cody shows up with flowers for Marnie, but never gives them to her since Gwen, who like everyone else at the Piper household is extra paranoid, catches Cody before he gets to the front door and mistakenly freezes him. Eventually, the spell wears off and Marnie takes him home on her broom, forcing her to tell him she's a witch. He has trouble accepting this until he realizes that he is holding on to a girl while sitting on a broom about a mile over the ground. When Marnie returns home, Gwen has apparently re-embraced her magic and jumps into a witches glass to hunt down the missing student. Meanwhile, Aggie and Marnie plan to use the upcoming Halloween carnival as a trap to discover who is behind all of this.

Shortly before the carnival, Principal Flanagan begins to exhibit suspicious behavior when he expresses outright disgust that the kids "from Canada" are still there. An investigation shows that Flanagan himself is the Knight (Marnie delights in the irony that it is now Aggie who overlooked a man she liked who turned out to be the suspect). At the carnival that night, there is indeed an attack, just as Marnie and Aggie hoped, although it quickly gets out of hand. They learn that it is Edgar Dalloway, head of the Witches Council and father of one of the students, that is the other conspirator. Flanagan organizes a "Frankenstein"-type lynch mob to hunt down Aggie and Marnie, and when pinned down by the rabid throng, the students reveal their true selves, and Cody shames the crowd into accepting the students. At this point, Dalloway, who just took away the Cromwell magic, instantly has it ripped from him when the rest of the council intervenes, having seen the acceptance of the students themselves, and Dalloway is stripped of his title and banished to a witches glass of his own (the student that was kidnapped had been trapped there herself and is now free). The portal is reopened and tons of kids from Halloweentown cross over and enjoy the carnival with their new human friends. Marnie flies off on her broom with Cody, and they finally get a chance to kiss.

Cast

The Halloweentown movies preserve the same cast in all the major roles in all three installments:

• Judith Hoag : Gwen Piper
• Kimberly J. Brown: Marnie Piper
• Joey Zimmerman : Dylan Piper
• Emily Roeske : Sophie Piper
• Debbie Reynolds: Agatha Cromwell

Crew

• Directors
  • Duwayne Dunham : Halloweentown
  • Mary Lambert: Halloweentown II (Kalabar's Revenge)
  • Mark A.Z. Dippé : Halloweentown High

• Screenwriters
  • Paul Bernbaum : Halloweentown
  • Jon Cooksey , Ali Matheson : Halloweentown II (Kalabar's Revenge)
  • Paul Bernbaum , Daniel Berendsen : Halloweentown High

External links

• Halloweentown II (Kalabar's Revenge) at the Internet Movie Database
• Halloweentown High at the Internet Movie Database (Note that the external article incorrectly uses the title "Halloween High.")