You're big into Halloween, right, I am big into Halloween. That's like you have you always been big into Halloween? Or was it when you had kids? No?
Well, remember I did tell you a while ago. One of the stories I was telling you was my I didn't celebrate Halloween at all growing up. Not even that was when we would go to Disneyland instead of trick or treating. It was like a whole you know, religious aspect of not celebrating the day of the day and all this stuff. So my first Halloween, I was twelve. Wow, Like, my costume was nothing either. It was jeans. It was like cool kid costume, like being like, oh, we're going
to be flower power, you know. I have bell bottoms like nothing, nothing, a little flower crown.
Like trying to dress up but still be cool in him but be cool.
Yeah. So no, not growing up, not at all. It wasn't until probably I think the first year I want to say I really got into it was when I was on tour with the Cheetah Girls. We all dressed up big time, found this really cool big we were out on the road and I don't know remember, it was like a haunted mansion slash at the end of it was like a club type thing. Like that was the first time really getting into you know, like a full blown costume. And of course they were we were
you know, Disney after Dark. So I was like sexy Alice of Sexy Alice of Sexy Alice.
Wow.
But since then, I've loved Halloween. I just I love things that like people put on big productions of things to go do. I love the scary you know, not scary farm here or Hollywood haunt, you know that extra stuff. That's part of what I love about Christmas too, is you go and do outside stuff that's not around all year. Right, That's the kind of stuff I love about it.
Okay, do you get now? Do you have a lot of trick or treaders to come to your house?
No?
No, I do not live in a neighborhood that has a ton of kids. So we head out to you the Grinch. No, we head out to a neighborhood down in Newport. And this neighborhood is I mean, to get through all of it, you would have to take.
Probably two and a half hours, three hours.
It's ever you would get though decked out.
It's just awesome, so fun and Monroe was Marilyn Monroe last night last year.
Nice.
She wore a tiny little blonde wig and everything, a replica of a costume I wore for Dancing with the Stars in Las Vegas. I made a full replica. And she had those little click clack plastic heels little girls wear, and I took her an extra pair, going She's gonna last like thirty seconds in these Little Homegirl. She walked around for forty five minutes in the She loved those shoes. She was killing it. She loved her dress, her white gloves, I mean everything about her. She just loved her so funny.
I hadn't. I haven't sent out a video of it, but I probably should. Leading up to this whole.
I like it. I like it, so we got it Nice.
I'll personally send it to you because I know you're not honest.
Yeah.
No, I just personally sent it to send it to you guys, so you.
Guys can enjoy it. Well. Welcome back to Magical Rewind, the show that makes you want to grab your friends, your pjs, and your popcorn and go back to a time when all the houses were smart. The Waves, Tsunamis and the high School's musical I'm Wilford Dell.
And I'm Sabrina Brian.
Well, as we've been talking about, it is officially that time of the year people, Ghouls, ghosts, goblins, and pumpkin drinks at Starbucks that have a ton a ton of calories. Make sure you check the nutrition on those labels. People. So we're doing our part and recapping the October classic d com. Yes, it is nineteen ninety eight Halloween Town
a franchise in its own right. The original installment the series aired on October seventeenth, nineteen ninety eight, and has since become a yearly tradition for many fans, becoming one of the many seasonal standards for Disney. Now, this is so cool. The entire franchise was born out of just a single question asked by the young daughter of producers
Steve White and Sherry Singer. The question was, where do all the creatures from Halloween go the rest of the year if it's not October thirty first and the rest is history? Isn't that the coolest? I justz you never know when you're gonna get that spark of inspiration, and there it is. It was actually first conceived as something very dark and scary for an older demographic for NBC who passed on it. Then it was pitched to Disney with a focus for kids, and they also passed on it.
But after the success of The Mummy centered first Halloween dcom under Wraps, which we haven't done yet but we will, they went back to White and Singer and said, Okay, about that movie you were talking about that was like Halloween.
Yeah, apparently kids let Halloween.
They do what weird? It's wait a second, kids in Halloween. I never thought to put the two together, Peanut Butter and Joey, You're crazy. It had a budget of just four million dollars, which is incredible to think about considering the amount of makeup and the costumes in the movie. And it was filmed over twenty four very hot summer days in Saint Helen, Oregon. Is it Saint Helen or Helen's It was an Oregon and it was a Saint. It is a town that now every year holds the
Spirit of Halloween Festival in celebration of this film. This also marked the movie's twenty fifth anniversary last year, and it has regular screenings every year all over the United States to ring in the spooky season. It would also spawn three sequels, Halloween Town two and No, it is not Halloween Toown two this time it's personal, which is
what all our sequels are called. This is Halloween Toown two Klibars Revenge in two thousand and one, Halloween Town High in two thousand and four, and return to Halloween Town in two thousand and six. And as you can probably guess, Halloween Town is a Disney Plus favorite around Halloween. So you can watch it right now in the streaming service or just go Bob for apples and then listen to us first. We're We're never gonna know frankly either way. So we asked this every time. What was your your
history with Halloween Town? This had to be in your wheelhouse because this is right in the Johnny Tsunami time.
Oh yes, I will say I definitely watched it, and I probably watched it a couple of times, but it was so long ago. While rewatching it, I started it going, I can't wait for this. I've got my popcorn, I've got Monroe. I'm so excited. It starts and I'm like, whoop, It's like my memory just.
What I really remember.
The storyline that kept coming going oh yeah, okay, all right, oh yeah, okay, years ago. It was I mean, it just was. It felt like rewatching. It felt like watching it for the first time, with a few things that I remember. Of course, I you know, I loved it. I had to pull myself back a little bit more this time from being nitpicky and letting myself get into because this is much like when we had the world
of you know, the superheroes and stuff. It's much like that, where it's more comical or you know, like yeah, a comic type cartoony, thank you. It is more that. And I started nitpicking things and I had to like relax, and once I did.
I mean, it just it was a blast.
That's that's great. Yes, well, okay, so before we hide on a flying bus and force our way into our grandmother's terrifying neighborhood, let's get in to the synopsis. When a young girl living with her secret witch mother learns she too is a witch. She must help her witch grandmother. We're gonna say, witch a lot save Halloween Town from evil forces. So you then you loved it. That's your early thoughts of you love this was?
This was a great one. I love. I mean as soon as it got going and I started, once it started coming back to me, I was like, okay, when they got to Halloween Town, now I'm in it.
Okay.
I really enjoyed it.
Right. This is one of the few ones that I had heard of, mostly because Kimberly's Abud your friend. Yeah, so I you know, I but I'd never seen it. But I'd heard of the film. I obviously knew the film's popularity and knew that it had spawned essentially an entire franchise. So I knew of the movie, didn't know what to expect going in, had no idea, And I
loved it. I really did, because because exactly for what it was, this was so nineties Disney Channel to me, yes, kind of the magic system that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, big fun costumes. It was. I was in hook Line and Sinker. It was great.
This was it. This was for me an incredible example of what my Disney Channel was.
Yeah, I can say again we talk about the different iterations of Disney Channel and this late nineties, big classic kind of crazy costumes and get ups and weird little brothers and little sisters and the grandmother with a secret.
It's all it's y Aby from the start. As soon as she starts her lines, it's like, Yeah, she's just so amazing.
She's just a child that just comes through the screen. We saw it in Quints, which wasn't our favorite movie but wasn't Dad, but still she was phenomenal, and I know we'll have her. We don't have her on for this one, we will have her on for one of Halloween Towns, definitely. Halloween Town was directed by Dwayne Dunham, a name we've mentioned before, as he also directed The Thirteenth Year, the movie about the bar Mitzvay that we talked about. No way it was about Mermaids if you forgot.
He was also behind the movie Little Giants and dcoms like Double Teamed and Tiger Cruz, but is best known as the Emmy winning editor of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, and Return of the Jedi. Yikes. He was originally sold on doing the movie because he was told it would have a thirty million dollar budget, so imagine his reaction
when it had just four. But it really is his complex direction with the inhabitants of Halloween Town that gives this movie some depth and makes it look like he had maybe not thirty million, but certainly didn't look like he had. Four the movie stars as we were just talking about, Kimberly J. Brown as Marnie Piper, a legendary child actor who made history by being in three Broadway shows by the age of nine. I hadn't seen three
Broadway shows by the age of nineteen. She also got an Emmy nomination at eleven for her time on Guiding Light. She was also in The decom Quins, which we just talked about, as well as movies like Bringing Down the House and Tumbleweeds. She appears in Uh this is I don't even know why. I'm sure we'll get into it. I just bear with me. She appears in the first three of four Halloween Towns with a very controversial recasting, so they recast her in four.
There's no way, just seems like there's no way recannist to recast.
That no one else was happy about, and apparently most of the rest of the cast was back, but they recast her for shame, for shame, for shame.
Hard would it be for the rest of the cast? So I don't pressure of the actor, the pressure of the actors to create this chemistry. Oh gosh, I can't believe it.
It makes no sense. I want to find out.
Right, write out, write her out.
Yeah. You know, one of our producers at a high Heart we just had in our chat in giant letters ruined me. Yes, so you it.
I imagine.
Oh that's my buddy too, So don't you dare anyway?
Yeah.
Brown has also become a bit of a Halloween expert herself, writing the twenty sixteen children's book Poppin's Pumpkin Patch Parade, Say that five times fast Pop Parade, Popins, pump I'm not on the tent, and running an Etsy shop with some Halloween town themed merchandise. She got married in twenty twenty four. We talked about that with Matres on the show, but we will get more into that a little bit later.
And what we called the Dabney Coleman Chair but will now officially be renaming the Coleman Reynolds Chair is the legendary Debbie Reynolds.
Oh wow, and she was magical.
Yeah. I mean, and people use the word legendary, they throw that around. This is a woman who deserves the moniker and it should be in bold letters and Neon signs everywhere she went. Legendary Debbie Reynolds. She was a massive get for Disney and it is undeniably the reason why this movie has had the longevity. It's had. The other cast phenomenal, but it's Debbie Reynolds. She had a
Hollywood career spanning almost seventy years. She's best known for roles in movies like Singing in the Rain, How the West Was Won, The Singing Nun, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, which got her an Oscar nomination, and Mother, But she was way ahead of her time as a multiple threat
the tabloid magnet. Was a pop star, a cabaret performer, opening her own dance studio in North Hollywood, a Tony nominated theater performer for Irene, A massive TV drawn shows like The Debbie Reynolds Show and Will and Grace, which also got her an Emmy nomination. She was also a massive philanthropist and entrepreneur, owning her own Las Vegas casino and hotel, and curating a very well regarded collection of
film memorabilia. Debbie Reynolds unfortunately died on December twenty eighth, twenty sixteen, one day after the death of her daughter, Princess Leah herself Carrie Fisher. Also for our younger listeners, that makes Debbie Reynolds the grandmother of actress Billy Lord. She is an absolute Hollywood I.
Don't know if you remember when Corbyn and I were talking about this famous Debbie Reynolds studio.
I mean it's yes, I do.
Anyone who has worked a day as a dancer in Hollywood has been.
There or should have and it's still there.
Uh yes. And what was cool back when you know I was auditioning when I was little, is you'd see Debbie behind the counter as you're checking in, you're signing in.
So you met Debbie Reynolds.
I mean in passing she was there, but it was this was her place, Like it's so cool when you felt her there, you know, it was amazing. And then after going ever back that place is just like, oh, I hope it just yeah.
I mean it's she's Debbie Reynolds.
That's awesome, yes, anyways, but it was cool for her to be like working, not someone else. She was right there.
That's amazing. Then we have Judith Hoague as Gwen Cromwell Piper, another distinguished child actor. By the time of this movie, she'd appeared on TV shows like Quantum Leap, Awesome Show, Roseanne Awesome Show, and melrose Place Awesome Show, Ooh, Michael Anyway, and the blockbuster blockbuster movie Armageddon. But she's best known wait for it, as April O'Neil in the nineteen ninety
teenage mutant Ninja Turtle's movie. She is constantly working to this day on TV, and she was seen in the movies Hitchcock and I Am Number Four, and she does appear in all four of the Halloween Town movies. So we got a anyway. I'm sorry, I'm just trying. I'm trying to move on from several things. Kim the thing of Kimberly upset me, and now I'm just thinking about Michael from melrose Place. So give me a moment. People, It'll be fine. You'll be okay, I'll be okay. I'll
breathe through it. Joey Zimmerman plays Dylan Piper. He was also a busy kid actor on shows like Earth two and Frasier I thought Earth one was better. But most importantly, he is only one of three other actors in including himself, Hoague and Debbie Reynolds. We found out to do all four Halloween Town movies. Now, we maybe getting a little ahead of ourselves, but Halloween Town had been in the
news this year. This is what we're talking about. When Kimberly J. Brown got married to actor Daniel Koontz, who was her co star in Halloween two. This time it's personal. They reconnected years later and now they are a husband and wife and they have this movie franchise to think and people think magic isn't real. The movie has a brisk eighty four minutes, and man, it felt like it was eighty four minutes. This movie felt short. It could have been longer, which I very rarely say with movies,
but it could have been. I was enjoying myself and it seemed to move by quickly. It was written originally by Paul Bernbaum. He was the dude who had first made it into the more adult version. Had credits on twenty one Jump Street and the TV adaptation of Bill and Ted's excellent adventure Strange Things Are a Foot at
the Circle k and Martial Law. He also wrote the Nicholas Cage movie Next two thousand and six, crime mystery, Hollywood Land, and then when Disney gave at the green light, they brought in John Cooksey and Ali Marie Matheson that were kind of brought it into Kit it Up because they both came from the Rugrats universe and would later go on to create the TV show The Collector together.
I loved Rugrats.
Rugrats was great. Also worth noting the score, which is very very good, is from Mark Mothersbaw, who has gone on to become a premiere name in music for TV and movies. But the cool thing is he was the frontman for what Whip It goodt?
Yes, Divo, That's what Divo is? I love that song?
Did you just say that's what Divo is?
I saw it in the paperwork, but I wasn't sure what it was. Sorry, Little There's sometimes where I can't believe you know what some of the bands, well, you know, you don't know any of them. I could probably go.
Ahead, give me one in Syne. Moving on Sabrina. Okay, let's say you can have one prop from Halloween Town and it can't be either Posters, event Sync or Devo. It could even be a costume you saw in the movie. What's the one thing you would take to decorate your home from Halloween Town.
Oh, to decorate I thought to have if it worked, I would have taken a broom. That would have been cool.
But no, we're gonna pretend that brooms don't work in real life. It's a prop from the movie, not actually being able to take magic away?
Does it have to like? I don't feel like any of the.
It's whatever you want. What do you want from the movie.
It can't be a costume, because I yes, it can.
It could be whatever you want.
Okay, I'd like her cape. That cape was cool. It's a good case, and I do feel like that cape is something that I remember from when this franchise was out, was the cape that is her cape throughout Okay, her time on that that would be a signature thing as a costume.
Oh, you're you're Marnie.
You know, I got that makes sense.
I'm sure you guys are going to get to it. But I do want to jump in when you guys mentioned the broom because I do want to say that I think it's the worst prop in dcom history.
It's awful.
It's a color broom.
It's off. That's it. Yeah, this is not the Nimbus two thousand that you buy in Diagon Alley. By any stretch of the imagination, this is insane. It's bad collar broom. It really is bad. It's like what it's like one of those really crappy rooms that they went make it pink, it'll be fine, But they don't.
They don't skimp on the other props either.
Because the thing that I would want to keep, I would want the robot skeleton cab driver. Really yeah, I want that in my house. That's god be a great prop to have.
He was better than the one that did some you know, hip hop dancing.
Oh yeah, and what was that that was in uh where where he's the cool kid and then not cool kid.
He's got the remote control a genius.
Genius, Yeah, exactly. Yes, this is.
Definitely better than the genius skeleton. But he also was a little didn't look real to me at all.
No, but I don't think he's see That's the thing that's what got in my head, or the thing that I got was it was none of them were supposed to look real. They're supposed to look like the spooky Halloween things you see on the street in Halloween, right, and this is the town they live in when they're
not doing their Halloween thing is in my head. So it's like some of the costumes were bad, some of it, but that like the pumpkinheads, but that's like supposed to look like Halloween costumes, is what I thought it was. So do you think, by the way, do you think kids would be scared by this movie back in the day.
As soon as the with the score, because the score was very good as far as bringing that creepy.
Yeah and an occasional jump scared.
The movie starts, Monroe goes, ooh, mommy, this one's scary, and I said, it's not gonna be scared baby. First of all, right, here, it's not gonna be scared. Just let it go. So that first scene it sets the tone.
Yes, said the same thing, scary. She took my hand. She's like, I'm here, baby. I'm like, i'm here, baby, It's Sue, it's gonna be scary. She was like, it's gonna okay, baby, I'm here. I know right. So yeah, I felt the same thing I felt like with an occasional jump scare that they went for, which again kind of keeps you on your toes. Yes, maybe a little more creepy than scary is how I would say. But yeah, I thought it worked.
All right.
Let's take a little trip now to Halloween Town. The movie opens with spooky, scary music that we're just talking about, and we find a lit jack O lantern by a flickering candle in the wind until it's blown out scary. Now from the darkness, we are thrown into a busy
Halloween night, tricker treaters everywhere on a suburban block. They're going door to door but avoiding one house and mass It is the Cromwell House, a family that completely ignores the holiday, even though three young children Marnie, Dylan, and Sophie live there. Their recently widowed mother, Gwen, is overprotective and very fearful of all things spooky. All the spooky
traditions just don't seem to go well with Gwen. It sounds weird, but we immediately realize there's obviously some thing bigger going on here, and don't worry there is, because we still have eighty two minutes left to figure it out. Ironically, the thirteen year old daughter Marnie is obsessed with all things weird and creepy, from lon Cheney to hieroglyphics, and she just wants to go to a big Halloween party, but she can't, and her mom simply says she has
her reasons, even if she won't tell them what they are. Okay, very quickly, very very.
This was my life. Well no, but it's also can I go trigger treating?
If you don't want your kid to go trigger treating or do the big Halloween party. I understand that that's fine.
Stay home and watch it from the window.
Not just that, but why are you letting her two other friends come over to get ready for the party?
Right?
Yeah, Like in front of her, her two friends are like, this is gonna be the best party ever. Hey, we're getting dressed up, and she's like, you can't have fun. You're not going anywhere. It was like, oh my god.
At least my parents were like, let's get out of the house. We're gonna go to Disneyland.
You also knew why you couldn't celebrate Halloween.
That's true. There was a mystery behind yes this.
They just said. She's like, you can't have fun, and that's my fault. Yeah. Her dorky twelve year old brother Dylan is a real brown noser and likes things like nature documentaries and Arbor Day, while the youngest seven year old Sophie, in very very creepy fashion, just stares out the window, dreaming one day that someone will knock on the door for candy.
Why she's so creepy wish, I don't know, although I will say this is one of my favorite sidekick brothers. We have seen, sister.
They were great, They were both good.
Oh if they didn't have Sophie, these kids would have died warely.
Yeah yeah, yeah, it would have never lasted.
Yeah, they would have been bad. What do they call it the bad way or the bad man? They would have Yeah, yeah, that would have been it.
But he had young Sheldon Vibes from the Big Bank theory. I loved this kid. I loved his character, I loved every He was amazing. One of my absolute favorite kids sidekicks.
I do not disagree. So we already talk about whether kids come to your house. They don't to be honest with you, do I find you creepy. I wouldn't come to your house either. I wouldn't trust you can Yeah, now they are grounded for the night, these kids, these poor kids, and separated from her friends. But defeated, Marnie is furious at her mom and frankly rightfully, so, hey, you can't go because I say so while we're having
your friends over to party is kind of mean. They just want to be like normal kids, having their normal lives. She knows for a fact that, for instance, her mom and dad met on Halloween, and she just wants the day to mean something to her too. And then a magical bus appears in the sky. Somehow no one on the busy block sees it, but it hovers until Debbie Reynolds steps out. I assumed it was like the night
bus in Harry Potter where muggles cannot see it. Ye, so I think Harry Potter the first book came out in nineteen ninety seven, and this came out in nineteen ninety eight, but who knows who wrote what first, but they seem very similar, like a younger version. But of the first Harry Potter book, it's kind of seems just the world you're not exposed to, and you're a kid, and you're hitting a birthday or a benchmark. This this time it's her thirteenth Halloween.
Are there normal people in Harry Potter?
Yes, Muggles. We've talked about this. The Muggles are the normal people.
Muggles are normal people.
That's what. That's what not in Muggles, that's what the people of the world of Harry Potter. The Muggles are the non magical folk. What they got it? Okay, you're a Muggle. I'm not a Muggles on magic, but you're a Muggle. Correct, that's good. Uh She's Then it hovers until Debbie Reynolds steps out. She's the grandmother of the family, Agatha or Aggie Cromwell. She pops open an umbrella and in a very d and d playing Mary Poppins kind
of way, yes, bloats to the ground. She instructs her duffel bag to join her, but it's being defiant in essence, shaking its head like a little pet dog. But eventually, and it's so cute. I want a little cute, little little pet you know, it would be my What do they call them, not safety animals, they're the mental health animals.
Oh gosh, no, I was gonna say, I can't think of the name.
What am I trying? Yeah, like that kind of thing, i'd want that.
I'm emotional support, Yes.
There it is. I want my emotional support handbag to follow me around everywhere. That would be great. Eventually, the magical piece of luggage joins her and jumps up into her arms. In my head, it had a little purr and I would name it, yes anyway.
But also cue you could just see where the string was pulling to. Oh yeah, I know, maybe I call it.
Because it's like a purse. Oh I'm clever. Back in the Cromwell home, Sophia is pining away at a plate of cookies, which, of course she's not allowed to have any of those either. It's just a mother denying all these kids anything fun, even on Halloween. You didn't allow them out of the house to trick or treat. You can't let the kid have one cookie before dinner. You can't let her have one freaking cookie.
Before dry because it's all nerve wracking that this is gonna.
I get it, But y then what then? How do you not distract your kids from from the fact that it's Halloween, like your parents did, Take them to Disney World, take them to a baseball game, do something to where I want you to sit in front of this window and think about how you can't do anything fun and you can't have a cookie. It was like, oh my god, So Sophie, it's pining away at the plate of cookie. She keeps pouting that she's not allowed to have one.
She's just chanting, I really want that cookie, until magically, behind her back, the cookie starts to float towards her. Mother whispers oh not again, and catches it and stuffs it into her own mouth. It turns out that this little girl has magic powers already.
And every mom can relate to this, because anytime you want to have one, but you know they've already had too many so they can't have anymore. But you want to have fun, it's tough. And then try to talk about it like without them knowing that.
Oh, I'm so glad that's what you meant, because when you said what all moms know about this? I thought you meant all moms know about their kids having magic powers and trying to suppress them.
It's that like you try to eat something that the kids can't have, but then they ask you a question in your mouth is full of the thing that.
Well, that's the that's the yeah. That's the famous Seinfeld bit where he says the best part of being an adult is eating a cookie whenever I want a cookie and he goes. Sometimes I'll call my mom and say, I just ruined my entire appetite, which is which is true. But hey, there is a one surprise that at least the kids are gonna love on Halloween, and that Grandma Aggie appears in their house. It's been a year since she's visited, and the kids are thrilled, but Gwen, of course,
does not look enthused. Aggie brought presence in that logic define suitcase, which I'm now calling Percival and is filled with candy, a pentagram necklace, a jar of eyeballs, a skeleton, and even a necklace of garlic to ward away vampires. So again, this is it's not just Mary Poppins, though it's also in D and D. They're called forever bags. So there's Harry Potter, Hermione has one. It's just the bags that can hold everything. These are. It's a very
famous magical trope of j I've got a bag. I've got a bottomless, endless bag. But yeah, I also had a question. She's bringing garlic to ward away vampires, but vampires are friends in town. So why do you need to ward anything away?
There's a cup that was one of my Sabrina Sea is going, wait, yeah, I thought this was part of their world. Why are we making be right afraid of friends? Yeah, they hang out, they go to the dentist.
Yeah. Also, the magical system needed some work. It was very all over the place. Yeah, she could snap her fingers and turn a dead chicken into a live chicken, but she couldn't unfreeze somebody who was still alive. Like, none of this is This is where the D and D side of me goes. Wait, but if I roll in eighteen, it'll be fine. Uh, it's it is what it is. Grandma reminds Gwen that this is Marnie's thirteenth Halloween, her thirteenth year. She's going to turn into a mermaid.
Oh wait, thirteenth Alloween. That's the lucky number. And Marnie is excited that somebody finally appreciates her weirdness. Marnie reveals she even gets deja vu a lot. Grandma seems interested, and Aggie pulls out costumes for the kids. Marnie is a wicked Sophie is a ghost, and Dylan is a Viking. Warlock, though he thinks he looks like a pimple. But Gwen is not impressed, and it is now time for bed. You can tell she is just not digging Granny being there.
The kids beg for a nighttime story from their grandmother, which Gwen eventually allows, so while the kids are getting ready for bed, Aggie admits she wants the family to move back home, especially with their dad now deceased, but Gwen loves living a normal life. Grandma only brings chaos and candy sounds pretty awesome. There's no need to fight. Gwen and the kids are here to stay, and Aggie is not allowed to talk about her home during the
bedtime story. She promises she won't, but in what Pod meets World listeners know as an optical flip, we cut directly to Grandma waxing poetic to the kids about Halloween Town. She has framed it as a fantasy with goblins, gnomes, banshees, ghosts and witches. But it's obvious this magical place where many different sorts of people exist, is real. Dylan thinks it sounds a lot by Cleveland. The residents aren't mean, they're all just normal people. Even the ugliest and slimiest
of monsters are very kind hearted. And when Dylan, who's a total hater, says this place can't be real, Grandma pulls out a Halloween town book filled with illustrations of the town and a last page that shows a drawing of Marnie flying a broom. Is this a coincidence or what? I think we addressed this before? You liked scary stuff as a kid, right, yes? Did you have a favorite like scary horror goose bumpy thing that you used to like watching when you were young?
I watched I think the scariest that I went. I like when I say I liked scary movie. That wasn't until I was older, not so as a kid. I think as far as I went was are you Afraid of the Dark?
Oh?
Okay, I was on that?
Yes, I remember you selling me that and.
Then which was a great show, by the way.
Yes, And so I think that was Goosebumps ever a show or was that just a book series?
No? I want to say it was a show as well.
It was. Yeah, yeah, it was a show.
Yeah.
Was it a book series though?
Too? Yeah?
Arl Stein okay, yes, arl Stein, okay, Yes, So that was like a favor of my book series, like what I.
Liked to there's now a new there's now one on Disney Plus as well, But don't don't leave us yet for that, keep nice nice.
But yeah, so that was kind of as as far as I think I went. I don't remember having any staple Disney movie. What about you?
No, I did not like scary movies, then I do not like scary movies now anything that messes with My problem is I'm a very visual learner, so I essentially it's not quite a photographic memory, but very very close. So if I see something and then try to sleep afterwards, I just keeping rewatching it in my head and I just so scary movies don't work for me.
Yeah, I cannot.
It's like caffeine. My body just can't take it.
Yes.
So anyway, their mom, who is at this point just a genuine buzzkill, walks in as she's telling a story. It's time for Grandma to leave. This ain't working out. This, of course, breaks Marnie's heart. She is the one person who truly gets her, and now she is leaving. But at least she has the Halloween Town book to look at downstairs. Aggie and Gwen are really getting into it. Gwen specifically told her not to talk about Halloween Town, and Aggie is scared that Gwen is breaking the tradition
of the Cromwell Witches. Gwen does not want Marnie to become a witch. She wants her to be more like her human father, but Aggie warns if Marnie doesn't at least start the process tonight before she turns thirteen, she will lose her powers altogether. They don't get into what that means by what's starting the process, because by the next day she's in a Halloween town. She hasn't studied anything,
but now she has her power. So I guess the process maybe just means accepting the fact that she's a witch and can be trained, maybe taking a bus ride on a magical bus ride. They don't. They never really get into what the training is because there is none.
So we know that Sophie the little Sister, has powers that are just coming to her naturally. Why is that?
No, it did happen to Marnie because remember, even Marnie says to her, didn't that happen to me when I was younger?
Oh?
She does? She says, did it happen to me when and and Gwen says, yes, that you were the same stuff was happening to you when you were got it?
Okay?
Yeah, And I think it's hitting the boy last because he's the He doesn't want to believe, so even being in Halloween Town like this is just a dream.
That he would be different too because he's a warlock.
Yeah, he also gets angry. It seems to be like also in Harry Potter, when things start to when when it's something emotions emotionally involved in some way, Yeah, exactly. Just then Marnie creeps down the stairs and hears all of this, because of course, if you don't want your kid to know anything, have kind of a loud argument about it in the kitchen right after they've gone to bed.
This is when she catches her grandmother turning chicken leftovers into live chicken, which is a snap of her fingers, again showing that there is no real magical system and we don't know the extent of anybody's powers. Again, this is me just being a total nerd D and D fan, But stuff like, as you're a fantasy nerd, stuff like the magical system real important but helping Marnie isn't the only reason she's visiting. She also needs Gwen's help. Her
Halloween town neighbors are in trouble. They're turning angry out of nowhere then disappearing, and she needs another Cromwell witch to help figure this out. But Gwen can't just leave her kids for a threat that doesn't even sound real. Aggie is offended and she leaves like.
She was just supposed to leave the kids of the house. There was no work. Yeah, why can't they?
She can't? It's also are you I understand that they've set it up that the Cromwells have a lot of power, But she said there's other witches, even says, why I'm asking another witch get five or six witches together? It seemed like you just needed to chant one thing like hands, and why did you not? We'll get into it. This is this is where my nerd nitpicking comes in. Has nothing to filmmaking or enjoyability. It just has me going like waity, thinking that's where that's when.
Are they going to explain? I need more details about the power. I was the same way. Well, I actually like shut my brain off to finally and I finally was able to do it. What we're getting to right now?
Okay, I again, I can shut off some of my brain. I just just just build out the and I'm hoping in that the subsequent movies maybe they build out the magical system. Yeah a little bit. Again. Gwen doesn't want to leave her kids. The threat doesn't even sound real. Aggie's offended and leaves, warning that Halloween Town could disappear forever, and on her way out, just to give her one little uh huh, she turns the fried chicken back into
regular chickens. Marnie runs off to tell her brother, who thinks she's crazy, but then they catch their grandmother leaving with the moving suitcase for the bus, and Dylan assure it's probably just a remote control toy Marnie, which I'm sure when they shot it is exactly what it was. Marnie runs off to catch her. She doesn't want to miss her chance of becoming a witch. A skeptical Dylan tags along, just in time to sneak to the back
of the bus without anybody noticing. This all so showed me something strange, magical, where you could have conversations five feet from a witch and they're not going to know you're there. You could sneak onto a magical bus. Nobody's going to know they're there if you open the back door of a regular school bus and alarm goes.
Off, right, That's what I said. One of my first thing goes It was just first of all, unlocked, right, because somebody had to open the side door. Yeah, I mean the bus driver opens as as they.
See any of the apparently they sneak unlocked.
There's no alarm. I'm not going there's no alarm. They're right there. They don't look like anyone else. They don't look like witches. I mean no, even grandma has a somewhat looking witch out.
Yeah. Yeah, if she's not a witch's at least a Stevie Nicks fan. Like we're closed, so yeah, you gotta. I mean, but that was yeah, there was There.
Was no no hiding. It was just all out there.
No. But anyway, once they're on the bus, it takes flight into the air and the kids notice they're surrounded by Frankenstein lizard monsters and witches. What the frankensigned lizard monsters in which is don't notice is the two kids sitting there in a seat in the confusion. They eventually land in Halloween Town, smack dab in the middle of their large downtown area. It looks like any old timey city, very Gilmore Girls even, but there are tons of costume
characters going about their business. Another impressive part of the movie. They didn't have a ton of money for the background actors, so they used actors over and over again, just having them change costumes to be new characters. And I instantly just the masks. Yeah, you get you go, you go around a circle, throw on a new mask. But I instantly added to my list of bucket list actor things, background background actor in some Star Wars movie, background actor
in a Halloween town. I want to be one of those, one of those characters walking around putting that on the list, throwing it into the ether now to see if that one comes back to me. Did you have a favorite monster?
I will get to one, uh in my Sabrina seas because we're right there and you're not bringing this one up, so I mean you didn't.
It's either the cop which is interesting, but I really liked this again, the skeleton driver was one of my favorites.
But yeah, and actually there's two of them coming up because one I thought was super clever, and I thought it was so adorable. I loved it.
We are off the bus now. Aggie runs into her friend Harriet, who seems quite lovely, except that she'd baked muffins for people at the headless shelter. Silly Harriet, they can't eat, they don't have mouths. Eventually, Marnie and Dylan eggs the vehicle. They're in awe of all the sites. Dylan thinks he's dreaming, but then they see their little sister, Sophie. She also snuck onto the bus because she senses something bad too. Maybe it's just this is a sneakable bus
because they didn't notice her coming on either. Just then, the mayor, a warlock named Calibar, approaches them and also pulls a lollipop out of his ear. They introdces themselves as Aggie's grandkids, and he knows their mom, Gwen. He even his eyes light up. He seems to be a little bit smitten with her. The mayor calls over Benny, a reckless and dad joke filled skeleton cab driver, to drive them to their grandma's. This is a very cool, practical robot in the movie. I loved it, it's my favorite.
On the drive, Benny warns them that this neighborhood isn't always safe, pointing to the one local thug who doesn't look like he'd be that tough to take, who thinks he's hot stuff because he's got a nose job and had a wart recently removed. But upon arrival to Grandma's, she's surprised to see them, but not as surprise that she should be, considering she doesn't know Marnie heard she's
a witch from upstairs. Anyway, since Aggie can't call their mom because they can fly and do everything else, but they haven't figured out long distance in Halloween Town, which I thought was actually kind of a fun little twist. She figures she can take care of them for a few hours and even get some training in for Marnie, kind of explaining that time works differently there. Two hours in our world could be two weeks in Halloween Town.
Very catch going, wait what, wait, hold on, how how that's only a couple hours away? What how do you know?
And yeah, and then they explain it and then, which I liked, It's like, okay, explain the magical system a little bit. We need that, we need that, but anyway, above all else though, Aggie still needs to get to the bottom of the evil in the town because she knows it's only going to get worse and they need to use bump them all. They pull it out Merlin's talisman to stop this. Did you know what a talisman
was beforehand? No? No, we're gonna play you some D and D. You're gonna start knowing what a talisman is. We'll get you there. I see you as maybe a drow. I don't know. We'll figure it out. I don't that's a.
Blue I'm probably supposed to be offended by that.
No, not at all. They're really cool. I played one for years yet No, really cool.
You could also is the D and D when you keep saying that, is that dungeons and dragons?
Okay, quit, I'm done now with this podcast. I would like to thank everybody for sticking with us as well. And how are you supposed to know? Yes, it's Dungeons and Dragons?
Okay, well, then why are you mad at me when I actually guessed?
Because it was again, it should be a no. It shouldn't be a guess it's D and D because Okay, okay, you know what, you know what we're gonna But here's what we're gonna do. One night, we're gonna play Dungeon and Dragons, and then you're gonna teach me to dance. So we're both in misery.
Yes, will, because while you were doing that, I was that dance class.
When I was sure I was.
I wasn't playing games.
Yeah you're friends. You had friends, is what you're saying.
Friends.
I was training, I was trading exactly. I was too just, and all these things said.
If I wasn't doing that, I might know some of this style.
I who wanted to go to parties and have girls attracted to me. I would much rather read books about elves that didn't affect me at all in my life.
I'm trying my.
You are, and you're doing I love it. So Haggie tries to awaken the talisman, but it doesn't work, and one of the reasons is she used instant, which is brew and she knows she which is very clever, but she knows that she needs to make it from scratch, so Marnie offers her help. Aggie needs a vampire fang, the hair of a werewolf, and the sweat of a ghost, all things they can get in town. Great way to
set up a story, because now the scavenger hunt begins. Yes, all this while back at the Cromwell home, Gwen finally realizes that the kids are gone. Now look, yeah, I mean that's gotta be rough. I've running something. I feel bad enough when I don't know where my dog is curled up. Now in town, Aggie is parading the kids around with pigface men and goblin bowlers walking by. She explains monsters tried to live with humans once, but it
didn't work out. It was essentially the dark ages. They couldn't get along and the anger turned monsters evil, which they actually aren't. So that's why they have their own town. Very cool. Then this is one of the jump scares we're talking about. They bump into Harriet Boom, the pell that Aggie saw right when she gets off the bus. But now her face is kind of mangled up and she's growling like a beast. It looks like the quote unquote bad thing has gotten to her. And that was
pretty scary. That was I thought the scariest moment for kids because it like it was the jumping out at the head coming out in Jaws kind of thing.
Yes, yeah, whoa.
Then Aggie sees made Kalibar and runs to him. He has to do something. Harriet is a wild animal now and just hours ago she was fine. Now she's going to disappear soon too. This is exactly what Aggie's been telling him about. He says, he's very concerned and she's uncovered something serious, but she has to leave it alone for now. She just he asked, just give me two days to look into it. But man, he seems shady, shaters. He's definitely hired. He's hiring something. Hey, it's just he's
hiding something. I'm telling you. He's just like, again, bring it back.
Give it he's giving me.
Willy Wonka meets Ted Bundy. Yes, because it's Willy Wonka.
Bro. Yes, it's like so weird looking just so.
He brings me right back. And you know, now that I even think about it, even the actors even look the same. He brings me right back to Michael on Melrose's place. Didn't didn't trust him then, don't trust him now?
It's the Brows.
Whatever it is, it got me yelling at my screen. Aggie consents that he's hiding something too. Meanwhile, Marnie is found the Broom shop, which is run by some sort of Elva Skelton. Hey, how's ever doing, baby? She's she's perusing the brooms. They're all very colorable rooms that looks like you get either CVS or Walmart. A lot of things we were talking about Producer Jensen hopped on that look great in this movie. The brooms are not one
of them. They really look bad. It is just bad bad. Yeah, make cool looking brooms again.
In this whole world, and we're seeing so many incredible costumes, these brooms.
Just make one if you want to do it that way, make one hero broom, like one prop broom that just looks amazing, and that's the one she wants. How can I not do that? But while they're shopping, they're bullied by that kid Luke that the taxi driver warned them about, the one with the nose job. He says he's the big cheese around town now, and Marnie says, oh, that's what I'm smelling, the big cheese now with that singer. He threatens them he's friends with some very powerful creatures
and they need to be careful. But let's find out what the Elvist skeleton has to say about Luke. He's turned into such a win Hi.
If we did it seventeen more times, that would have been what my actual I'm like, he's not, I keep going, He's not. I go, babe, get in here? Is he saying? Wiener? And George's like, yes, he obviously is saying.
How's Elvis such a wiener?
I think, why did that ever make sense for that? Because it's said later on too.
It was great he's turned in a such a wiener. Anyway, they end up buying the really terrible broom and Grandma Aggie decides to take it for a spin with Marnie. They fly all over Halloween Town, eventually landing back at the shop just as their mom, Oh Gwen arrives and she is not happy. She wants them home immediately, but Marnie says that she's there to learn and help her grandmother. She is staying and I thought, good for you. Stand up for yourself.
Yeah.
He stirs up another huge fight between Gwen and her mom, ending with Gwen taking the kids home. So she didn't win, but she stood up. Now, this was my question other than hey, I'm now in Halloween town and I know that I can be a witch. Does this officially count as her training starting? Because nobody's trained her in anything? They haven't told her anything. N She literally hasn't been given a single lesson in whatever.
She's watched one spell happen with the which didn't work, with the pot which didn't happen. Yeah, it didn't work. So this is I don't understand how she's again in training, right, And I guess I didn't realize the difference between the powers are stronger when they're little, like you were saying with Sophia, because I was going, but she's got this little sister that these things are happening very easily too. She's opening the gate on her own.
She's yeah, she's going to be a powerful witch.
Right, I'm going, how come this hasn't happened to her at all?
And they did set it up that it did, and it's kind of been beaten out of her a little bit, probably not physically, but maybe physically of her life as she's growing up. But yeah, so it just get nurtured. So yeah, exactly, it's suppressed yet so I guess we're supposed to assume that when you accept that you're a witch and then you're in Halloween Town, that's your training start. So the clock has at least started, so she has retained her powers, as I think we're supposed to supposed
to figure up. When they go to catch the bus because they're leaving now, they're greeted by a two headed clerk fighting with himself about espresso. But much more importantly, the bus is down and won't be flying. Uh oh. Gwen won't take no for an answer. She's taking her complaint to the mayor, who she quickly finds out is her old suitor, that weirdo named Kalibar who likes to pull things out of different holes in his body. He's also so happy to see her and still trying to wooer. Also,
he has an assistant. He's a human pincushion. Not important at all the story. I just wanted to.
Tell you that, I know that was one of the more not making sense.
Yeah, I think they just want to strain. Yeah, it's just weird.
She was that one literally looked like when I put together I was a twister a twister board.
Okay, Halloween.
That was like that kind of Halloween costume, right, like you're a kitchen or you're you know, a cloudy sky with a chance of rain. You have like a square gun. That was like, you know, a great Yeah they're great, but that they're not monsters.
So my Halloween costume is exactly the same every single year. I dressed like the guy who doesn't touch you at his house.
Oh, you'd be an Inja turtle.
No, I'm not even gonna get into which an injur turtle you would be. I'm not sure you can answer that. The mayor offers the Cromwell clan a tour all in hopes of eventually making out with Gwen, which seems like he wants to use some of his magic Ongwyn, if you know what I mean, But he ends up having an emergency has to deal with first. On the other side of town, Bully Luke is bothering Grandma Aggie. He points out that she's alone now and no one believes
her and is a powerful man who wants Merlin's talisman. Apparently, Luke knows who's behind all these disappearances and he wants to reveal himself to Aggie. This is a good opportunity for them Marnie sees all this goes down and runs from the mayor's office to help Luke. Can't be good news for her grandma. She's got to figure out what's going on as she leaves, her family then joins her but grudgingly. Luke takes Aggie to an abandoned movie theater, which is one of the best sets we've seen in
any d com so far. It is filled with frozen skeletons, Goofy, Harriet, and cobwebs. They're all watching a big screen showing a big, violent storm that's actually three ding into the audience. Eventually, a goblin and the cloak pops out on the screen and we meet the true villain, real Voldemort. Vibes here the black flowing robe. I mean like super creepy for a kid.
I would imagine it starts off Wizard of Oz to me. And then when that guy came out, I was like, Oh, okay, we actually have a real.
Yeah, a real bad guy, A real bad Guyuy, absolutely, because I was like, oh okay, I can see how kids might find this freaky. Yeah. Find out that he is building an army with these souls and he wants Merlin's talisman to them in motion. He claims that there's nothing that can stop him, and he starts shooting fireballs with his hands. Aggie nearly dodges them all as Luke shows some surprising concern. It appears the Goblin told him
that Aggie would not be hurt at all. He can't stand to watch us anymore, and he bounces, and that's when all the Cromwells arrive in the theater. Gwen knows her mom's in trouble, so she tries to cast her first spell in a long time, but she's clearly very rusty. She turns Luke into flowers, but she meant powers. The Goblin shoots another fireball, and this time Gwen pushes her mother out of the way at the last second, but it hits her and boom, she gets nabbed. She's frozen
in time. She's now laying in a theater seat, and as a good one two punch, the goblin man fireballs Aggie two, now freezing both grandmother and daughter right in front of the kids. Marnie, Sophie, and Dylan decide to leave at the same time, revealing that sunlight seems to stun the bad guy very important, but not really at all because that doesn't come back in any way, shape or for him ever again. And then the next time we see him as in broad daylight. So that makes
no sense. But it's a great scene for a D com. It is. It's the cool the theater.
It was very the theater. Good bad guy.
Reveal it was. It was good. But yeah, that's the sunlight that none of them.
To make up. The way they freeze was I thought pretty impressive. Great, right, you know when they when you get hit by the fireball, and then the way they go from being you know fully normal to then their freeze moment of being you know the statue, that was pretty good.
I thought so too. I thought it looked great poor.
W Reynolds, who has her finger up and we're going, oh man, all those takes. You wish you would have maybe thought a different post.
I thought she was my head.
Onthing like that, leaning on the chair, just like that, just eating popcorn.
I would have chose a different boat.
I thought they did that on purpose. I thought she was freezing pointing to where she later she was supposed to put the talisman. Oh, it turned out to not be the case. But I thought that's what it was. It was so she was really pointing go go. I thought that was the reason was to point to that. But anyway, No, Marny needs to get this witch's brew and she knows. So they know what they have to do because their grandmother told them what they had to do. So Marnie needs to get the witches brew made to
save her mom and grandma. The kid needs. The kids need to get the ingredients to empower the talisman. First, they stop by a beauty parlor owned by a werewolf. Marnie pretends to be looking for a job, picks up a hair dryer or proof she knows what she's doing. She turns it on to find out it's actually a pretty awesome flamethrower. Small fact. They did this effect with real fire, by the way, so Kimberly was just playing with fire for hours as they filmed it. Totally cool.
Now that everyone's distracted, Dylan quickly shaves the back of the werewolf's head and runs out. One ingredient down. Next stop, we go to the Halloween Town gym. Dog Faces are playing basketball and teaching aerobics. It's quite a scene. They eventually make it to the sauna and sneak some sweat of a ghost. When Dylan recites weird facts as Sophie imitates a ghost running around in the ghost can you please, can you stop that? I don't go in for stereotypes. Can you please cut that out?
Stereotype? I loved it.
It was yes, because you the days like you know, you're just making fun of me, making fun of anybody you can see through.
Can you please? Can't do anything about it because I'm stuck and the.
Kids through it so but they've they've ended up locking in their second ingredient. It's also worth noting that the ghost loses hundreds of pounds in the sweat room very instantly, and for the last ingredient, they go to the local dentist office. The dentist, who has a really creepy face mask and a huge nose, is removing the fangs from a vampire, which is perfect to steal and for the
finalizing the witches brew recipe once and for all. I love also how they talk about how he's in fact the tooth fairy.
That was my monster that I love.
Yeah, okay, yeah, that tooth fairy one was so good to me. It was I love so the.
Way they shot him, it was kind of like at a lower angle and the cameras moving in on him. It was really really cool. Yeah, they now have everything they need and they have to return to their Grandma's house, and what luck. Benny the skeleton taxi driver appears again. He's willing to drive them to Aggie's house for free, but Sophie, who has saved everybody's life, she is the
harmony of this one, isn't buying it. She reveals he's got the bad thing in him, and she was right because Bennie tries to violently pull Dylan into his cab, but Sophie brilliantly reacts by releasing a nearby dog office leash and sending him to fetch the bones. Bennie takes off, keeping them safe for now. Back at Grandma's, the kids have finished the witch's Brew, but Marnie can't remember the spell.
Who could It was in another language you heard once a while ago, and lots of stuff has happened since no one could remember that. Oh wait, Sophie, Sophie's she.
Is literally, I'm telling you she is. If she wasn't there, God, they would have been done on the bus ride, they would have died.
She's amazing. She of course memorized the spell by believing in themselves and reciting it together. They end up lighting the talisman. Then they return to the theater talisman all alight, and their mom and grandma are still frozen. Marnie remembers her grandma saying that they have to quote unquote installed the talisman, but she never really knew where, but she's smart,
so she puts it together. Since most Halloween traditions for humans were stolen from the monster's original customs, Marnie realized she might have to light up the town's huge pumpkin display with the talisman. It seems kind of convoluted in a lot of steps, and to be honest, you kind of forget there's even a pumpkin there, Like they talk about it, but then and then like it doesn't look right.
They said that at the beginning, like it doesn't look right, so they're kind of trying to put the old nugget in your cranium. But it was a little convoluted at that point.
Yeah, But the second time I watched it was like, oh, I get why they have the jack O lanard in the beginning.
Like, yes, they set it all up.
They do set it up, but it just kind of.
I agree, sometimes it gets lost. It's just so much going on. They seem like they skipped a lot of steps. They also, here's the thing, here's the problem I had. If Grandma is such a powerful witch, why not just and and these three kids who've been in Halloween Town for a cumulative total of three hours.
Have been able to get all the ingredients make the thing? And like the thing. She couldn't do this by herself.
Why couldn't she have to? I know she couldn't.
Brew this thing once by herself and try to see if the work.
To have a vampire friend that said, hey, take it any chance you've lost one? Yeah, wiggly.
These three kids that have normally live in Maine or wherever the hell they are are now in a mythical land and killing.
It kills So it's like like they've been superheroes.
Yes, yes, exactly. So I just you could have tried it, is all I'm saying. Granny, y'are awesome. God, Debbie Reynolds, I love you. Give it a shot. May make your stuff, make your stuff? Uh? Anyway, Marnie walks to the giant pumpkin, when out of nowhere, Luke grabs her and tells her it's a trap. That also made no sense because she was able to just put it in there, so if it wasn't a trap, she could have just walked up
and put it in. But he wants to apologize for earlier he didn't know the Goblin was going to hurt Aggie, and just as he apologize, a massive storm takes over the sky and the Goblin appears. He alerts them the moment of destiny has her and all that was going through my head was the dad and back to the future. You are my density. The Goblin wants to return to the mortal world. The humans have stolen it from them
and he's not going to take it anymore. He's building an army to take it back and leave Halloween Town. It's time to show humans who they really are. And then he morphs into his true identity, Mayor Calibar, who it turns out was just a d bag this entire time, which I think Aggie should have figured out immediately. Did this trick you? Did you know it was him? I mean, just kind of right off the bat, it.
Was there was no one else that could have been at all. They they didn't introduce any other maybe characters, right, there was no besides the nose job kid other than that.
Yeah, there wasn't even a red herring. It was just like there who else could be?
Obviously him? You know, unless it was going to be some unexpected person out.
Yeah, like a total differently, Yeah, but it had to have been him. The other thing I noticed was are they trying trying to say that most of the town now is under the spell? Because to them, he's making some pretty good points, and you see a lot of them nodding like, yeah, we should go and kill all these humans. Yes, yeah, So I think that's what it is, is that they're all kind of slowly starting to fall under his spell, right right, Well.
I think I think at the his his rasoning was, We're why was it the humans get to stay in the same world that we all lived in? Why is it that were in this realm?
You know what?
They're kind of probably going, Yeah, I mean, we've got such a small town, this is it.
There's nowhere to go.
I mean, you've got enough magic to make a town, make the town bigger. You can't magic up a strip, mallcy have something to do. I mean, come on, but I.
Also I'll get I guess it's okay to get to it before Sabrita seas. But these frozen zombies or frozen people in the theater, yeah, people in the theater. I don't know what was his plan with what were they going?
I think maybe those are the most powerful people in town that would be able to stop him. So he was able to take them and.
Freeze the collecting them, like as if he's going to use them.
So here's like, here's here's what it is.
Yeah, the whole battle, Like, yeah.
Maybe maybe he's collecting them to then when he gets the talisman he can really activate them all to be his minions and go take over the world. I guess that's what we'll say. I also didn't understand why shooting just at this point is he's giving his speech, just run up and stick the thing in the pumpkin. You're five feet away at this point.
Now's your time anyway.
Now Calibar. Calibar, which sounds like Caldor, which is a place I used to shop as a kid, wants to kill Marnie in order to start his world domination plan, which we're trying to figure out exactly what it is. When he believes he sees in the crowd, he shoots out fireballs, totally hitting his target. There's Marnie, but it's actually Luke. He made himself a decoy. While Marnie did go to the giant pumpkin, the goblin shoots her with fireballs just as she's about to place it in there,
because he walks over he sees its Luke. Oh no, she's at the pumpkin. He shoots her with fireballs, leaving her motionless on top of the pumpkin. But as she's fading away and we watch on with bated breath, Marnie lets go of the towsman, placing it into the pumpkin and blasting Klibar with light. Not only does this knock him down, it wakes up all the prisoners in the theater, including Gwen, Aggie, and even the weird neighbor lady Harriet. The family meets back up in the town center, so
happy to see each other. Marnie reveals it was Calibar just as nearby he's shaking off the attack. He screams at Gwen she should have been his queen, but instead she picked a human. His darkness will now spread unchecked. He steals back to talisman, and even though Aggie and Gwen team up to cast a spelling him, nothing is working. But nearby, little Dylan, the sibling without any powers, is getting very angry and also looks down and his hands
are starting to sparkle. He's actually a warlock. So finally, all the family members, a new coven of sorts, Marnie's grandma, mom, brothers, and Marnie herself combine their skills by holding hands and believing. And then Kalibar, who's just been standing there the whole time watching them concoct a plan, not even trying to fight them in any way, shape or for him, disintegrates, sending the talisman pocket. No, not a good time to shoot fireballs. I'm gonna give you several minutes to plan
my demise. Yes, but yes, they just by the belief, because again none of them are trained to do shit. They get there and boom, they save the day. In all the celebration, Gwen and Marney make up. She's everything gwenever wanted and a daughter. Marne notices very sweet moment mark this is another sweet moment. Marne notices Luke nearby, sulking under his robe. He reveals that he's turned into his old self, a magical elf monster who's just cute as a button, and I can see town villagers running
out of town with pitchforks and torches. He wanted to be handsome just to get a date with Marnie. A shocked Marnie kisses him on the cheek, which is going to cause problems later on down the line when that forms something on her lips and thanks him she will look him up if she ever returns, which we know she does because there is a Halloween two. This time it's personal. As the town gathers around the Cromwells, it's decided that Aggie will come to live in the human
world and Gwen will finish Marnie's witch training. You st out with their own broom. Yeah, that we're gonna here's here's how you do stuff. Luke is driving the bus into the sky, leaving behind Harriet, Benny and every weirdo monster we've seen for the past hour and a half. We fade out, and that is your movie. Real reviews Sabrina. Yeah, craziness, fun, enjoyed it. You gotta let y'all let God with this one a little bit, but you know what, it's absolutely worth it.
Disney movie, like I said, was my Disney Channel era is it? It was awesome, a little bit over the top as far is, like you said, more cartoony than a Johnny Tsunami, but still so good.
Yeah, I agree on undred percent. Why don't you do our five star review Sabrina?
That was all right right?
This is from Sarah M my family's favorite Halloween fun movie. I watched it on Disney and I love that my daughter and I can watch it again together. Yes, Sarah, you and I are Huntos on that great so fun?
What is Huntos together? Oh cool?
I like that.
My one star review is from Bob l and this might be the most most accurate one star review I've ever read. This movie is why Bertha took Tim Sim, Bim Yim Pim Wim Fim Dim Viim Quim and Jim away from me. If it wasn't for this terrible piece of film, I would still be a loving father. The characters in this movie were too ugly and smelly for me and my family to bear. Also, which it should be burn at the Steak. In conclusion, this movie also gave me a terminal case of herpies because of the spells.
Do not watch one star Bob. Bob's working on a whole different level of problems with.
Bob yikeb but somebody, somebody who hurts you.
I believe this is his call for.
Help, because seriously.
We need to worry about what's happening over there.
With oh Bob. Alrighty, We are now going to get to our favorite part of our podcast every week, the feature our game, the Sabrina Game. This game this week is called cost whom get it like? Costume? Thank you? As we approach Halloween or all all of Eve, which is the way you're supposed to say it, it's time to look back at last year for a little glimpse into this year. We are being asked to name five of the ten most popular Halloween costumes last year, according
to visualcapitalist dot com. We get five wrong before we get five right, we're out. Keep in mind the Australian Breakdancer was this year. Yikes.
I'll also say that you guys have five guesses. I mean, I think that's safer.
Yeah, that's yeah. If you can make five.
Okay, and I'll get If you can get three out of your five, I'll even give you a win.
What are so what are some of the top I just heard this on the news somewhere. You did, uh, I only remember, I really remember.
I'm gonna throw a guess out. I'm gonna throw a guess out. Is Donald Trump? One?
Donald Trump is not on the list. Okay, So you have four guesses left to get three?
Okay. I do think the Beetlejuice franchise is going to be a big one.
Wait, no, this is from last year.
You know this was last year.
I thought it was the No, that's why we can't take Australian breakdancer, who will certainly win this year.
I stopped listening. My anxiety took over.
We're here. Last year.
Was okay? Last year?
What was big in twenty twenty three?
What were the marvel things? What was a Marvel thing?
Oh?
Yeah, maybe maybe Captain America would be big.
Captain America Wednesday was big last Wednesday.
You got Wednesday. So you have to nail two more in a row to get a win.
Now it's in a row because your two guesses last.
Last few guesses.
Oh wait wait, I'm not guessing yet. But so this is just Spraina. What about what about like Stranger Things? Would that be one that was big last year, wasn't it?
Yeah?
But is there costumes?
I don't know.
I don't know. I don't think I can't.
Harris, if we do it, like I also throw out, I also will throw it. It doesn't have to be pop culture. I mean, there are pop cultures on here, but it doesn't have to be pop culture right right.
It could Nurse.
I'm gonna like Aerial Ariel because that came out.
No, I'm only gonna let will give one more guests purely out of out of sad bit spite.
I'm gonna say Stranger Things.
There's no Stranger Things. This is gonna blow your minds because this is so easy. But I don't know how. Okay, Barbie number one, big year?
Oh Barbie was so big? Okay? Yes, just a princess, Just a princess.
Yes, Spider Man, which could have Gwen Good instead of Captain America, a Witch, which I feel like was right on the tee for you, Fairy Wednesday Adams which you guys got, Dinosaur, Cowboy, Ninja Bunny.
Oh my God, so we were overthinking everything. Gotcha, Well, let's do it again. Okay, I'm a guest Cowboy, Bunny yep, spider Man.
Spider Man, spider Man, right, yeah it congratulations, Yes we won. I'm sure that'll edit clean.
Great. Can we do Sabrina Seas? Yes?
And listen. This one I cannot believe. As soon as I saw it, I'm like, oh, Will's gonna call me out on it. I can't wait to hear what he has to say when they get off the bus. It is me when I'm one hundred and fifteen years old as a skeleton cheetah girl. The cheating there. I had to cheetah girl, I had to toe cheetah outfit with this big hat, and I'm like, oh, here we go.
We was gonna call I didn't see it. But when you ask you that, but you did ask me about what my favorite monster was, that one was.
Oh, that's of course, that's awesome. I didn't even see it. That's great.
And the aerobics girl that's in the she had a little bit of cheetah.
I will say.
That's when I started looking at the costumes and realizing and I know you're giving the explanation that they're like trick or treating ish, Yeah, they're because it bothered me that they would only have a head and then the like for instance, Monster, the rest you could see their normal skin color under their clothes, like they didn't even have long sleeve to where you just you know what, they didn't cover it up. That really bothered me throughout the whole movie.
That made it be different in the next movies like that added a little money or something.
I thought the rest, like the heads were so impressive that they had the makeup was so great, but a lot of times when you saw the actor's real skin, it kind of broke what it was supposed to.
Gotcha?
And then did you This is more of a question when he kept miss saying her name, Sophie, what was he saying? I listened so soapy?
Okay, Sophie, could he Sophie.
Couldn't couldn't hear that? I did not get That came up a couple of times, Sophie, like what is he?
Because they were trying to make him seem like he's Convivio and all that kind when in fact you knew he was, Like you got to be the bad guy, You're the only dude we've met in.
Town exactly exactly the Wiener thing killed me.
Oh god, it's not the best.
She also has copy it says, copied the ingredients from Grandma's book.
When did that happen? Well, when when did.
She got off camera?
It was never a moment that she could have literally wrote down all these things. No, that that was insane. And then it's two more when Marnie's on the pumpkin. Now that we've seen Sophie rescue the rest of the family several times, the times I thought it was gonna be Sophie that like snuck in and actually put it in or justic it was like her magic was going to actually do it. Like Marnie at this point is useless. I love Kimberly, I love you, but Marnie has become
useless in this movie. I hope for Sallie. Sophie is, as you know, kind of upset. And then the last I thought you were going to talk about this too, You and Jensen neither one brought this up, which I thought was such a funny thing. What he says, I guess that I didn't turn into a handsome prince. And she says no really, no, no, she's just no, it's just you know you didn't. But it was so funny, like like nice moment. I mean, you're still cute. I still like, yeah, you're handsome.
I think you look better this way or something that.
Yeah, she says, no, no.
No, you're right. And there's a smell now.
Luke, you also smells.
Let's get that y all right, and thank you for those And now we must rate our film. We've got one out of ten, one being the worst and ten being the best, of course, like human beings and our one out of ten. Possibilities this week are Merlin Talisman's one out of ten, d and D playing Mary Poppins one out of ten, real flamethrowers one out of ten, Scary Harriet's ghost saunas one out of ten, bowling pig faces one at ten, electrified Dylan's or one out of
ten skeleton taxi drivers. Which one you want, Sabrina.
I think you can pick this one.
Okay, I'm going with bowling pig faces. That's fair, going to do it. I think that's also my turn to rate first, isn't it. I really liked this movie for what exactly what it was very disney Esque, very Disney enjoyable. This is a solid eight point five from me. This is eight point five Bowling Pickfaces. We've done a couple of great movies in a row, and there's a reason why kids love this and adults love it. It's just fun. It was a fun movie, fully enjoyable. The kids were great.
The story again is what the story is, but it's very Harry Potter, very Mary Poppins. I was into it.
Eight point five nice, I'm very close to that. Again. I loved it. This was the realm of when I was really loving the Disney Channel, even as a young or an older viewer at this point.
You know then you know junior high.
I loved it. It took me. It did take me a second to turn my brain off of trying to pick everything apart with it. There was that, and there were a few things that it couldn't get past. And that's why I'm going to go to an eight Bowling pick Faces, just because I really knowing there's four movies in this m Yeah, they did the fourth one without the incredible Kimberly because it's like that shows you how
big this franchise is. Yeah, that I think there's room to grow, so I'm gonna start with an eight bowling pigs.
Okay, I love it. Thank you so much, Sabrina, and thank you so much everybody else for joining us our next movie. It's happening people. We're doing smart House. I don't even know how else to tell you. Smart House will be next. We're gonna follow it immediately by its sequel, Stupid Apartment. I'm kidding. We are just doing smart House.
Smart House is next. And while we wait, get to our magical rewind feed to check out our park Copper interview with Gwen Piper herself, Judah Hoague, that's right, who talked to us all about Halloween Town. And of course we also had to talk April O'Neil from Teenie Muetan Ninja Turtles. Here's a quick sneak peek.
We went on this adventure.
It was just supposed to be one film, and it did so well programming wise, like it just broke all their records and they rushed a second one out.
Oh really they did. So it was a quick, quick, It was nice.
Quick, but we didn't end up going back to Saint Helen's, Oregon, where we shot the first one.
We ended up going to Vancouver, Oh.
And we did the second one there and then there was a little bit more of a pause in between the second and the third one, and then we went to Salt Lake City and then we shot the last two there.
So much fun. Thank you everybody, and don't forget to subscribe to our feed and you can follow us at the Magical rewind Pod on the Instagram Machine. Bye everybody, Bye,