Return to Halloweentown

Return to Halloweentown
File:Poster-smaller.jpg
Directed by	David Jackson
Written by	Max Enscoe Annie DeYoung
Produced by	Don Schain
Starring	Sara Paxton Debbie Reynolds Joey Zimmerman Judith Hoag Lucas Grabeel Summer Bishil
Distributed by	Disney Channel
Release dates	October 20, 2006

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

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Unlock the Ultimate Secret on October 20 2006

Plot Summary

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

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

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

After the class, Marnie goes to one of her teachers, Professor Periwinkle, who tells her that S. Cronwell stood for Splendora Cronwell. She speaks about how she was Splendora's best friend. Marnie asks Dylan to help her find more information about Splendora. He leads her to a library where all of the books are about the Cromwell family history. He reveals that he has been using magic to "speed read", which gives an explanation to him skipping a grade. He speed reads through all of the books in the library, and discovers that Splendora hid "The Gift" in that silver box for a thousand years. The scene cuts to a lair, where Silas and the rest of The Dominion reside. It is revealed that they are watching Dylan, and they decide to use him in their plot to take over Halloweentown. She goes to Professor Periwinkle and askes her for help. Professor Periwinkle helps Marnie go 1,000 years into the past to find Splendora and ask her about the Gift.

Marnie travels back in time to find a young girl who resembles her closely (everything except for hair color), refusing to become Queen of Halloweentown. This girl, Splendora, reveals to Marnie that her middle name is Agatha. Marnie stands in disbelief as she quietly whispers, "you're my grandmother." The two begin to speak, and Splendora tells Marnie about the Gift. The Gift was a necklace that had great power to give the wearer complete control over any person--but it could only be worn by a Cromwell witch. Splendora wishes to destroy the gift, but Marnie convinces her to put it into the silver box, and hide the key in the future. Splendora gives the key to Marnie, and she returns to the future to open the box.

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

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

Cast

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

Trivia

• Sara Paxton has replaced Kimberly J. Brown as the role of Marnie.
• Sara Paxton, originally blonde, dyed her hair brown for the role. Kimberly J. Brown (who played Marnie in the previous movies) had natural brown hair.
• A teaser trailer [1] aired on August 25, 2006 during The Cheetah Girls 2 premiere.
• The first full-length trailer [2] premiered during Disney Channel's The Cheetah Girls 2 was airing in Spanish to contribute to Hispanic Heritage Month.
• Jump In!'s first official trailer was attached to the premiere.
• The first official poster for "Return to Halloweentown" was released in the October 2006 issue of Disney Adventures magazine.
• In the original script, Marnie and her Grandmother Aggie were supposed to Return to Halloweentown to destroy Kal once more. However, this idea was scrapped and the writers came up with Marnie going to college in Halloweentown at Witch U, or Witch University.
• There is a scheduled September 2007 DVD release of the movie. It will be part of the DCOM Halloweentown Series Collection.
• After the premiere of the movie was the the premiere of The Cheetah Girls' new music video Route 66 inspired by the Disney/Pixar film Cars.
• The premiere brought in 7.6 million viewers
• This DCOM was filmed in Ogden, Utah and other locations in Utah.(according to article under references)
• Darren Ewing (from cult classic Troll 2) makes a brief appearance as Morose Cashier.
• Joey Zimmerman is credited as "J. Paul Zimmerman".
• Dylan uses his magic twice in the film. First, he does a "Speed Read" Spell so he can find the knowledge on S. Cromwell. Later, after being turned back into a human, he, along with his mom and Marnie, reverse the Power of Three Spell and 'destroy' the Gift.
• Emily Roeske's character, "Sophie" does not make an appearance in this movie, as she is witch training with Debbie Reynolds' character Aggie. Rumors say that her role will be recast for the 5th movie.
• Proffeser Perrywinkle say's her family and Marnie's family were friends since before Halloweentown but a little while after that, she say's that she met Splendora a little while after Halloweentown was made.
• Ethan Dalloway had renounced his magic either in the 3rd movie or between that movie and the fourth movie, and can't do magic anymore.
• The Gift was a magical amulet that would give the Cromwell witch that wore it absolute control over other beings. Normal witches and worlocks can only amplify feelings and desires.
• Dylan finds the amulet in a book and then, fretting, puts it back in the book and puts the book in a bookcase. Then there is a glowing S appearantly standing for Sinister (as in the three Sinister sisters and their father) or perhaps for Splendora (like on the S. Cromwell box), then the movie ends.
• Aggie was shown in the film twice in the beginning of the film , but the only other time her role was played after that was not Debbie Reynolds, but Sara Paxton playing another role as a younger Aggie.
• Sophie is mentioned a couple of times in the beginning of the film, but is never seen. She always seems to be doing something (Warping through time and living with their grandmother were most used).

Mistakes

• When Gwen uses her credit card at the supermarket, she swipes it with the magnetic strip facing up.
• When Marnie is in the past, after Splendora gives her the key, she says the reason is "I have faith in you Marnie" yet Marnie never told the young Splendora her name.
• Splendora tells Marnie she has faith in her because she will train Marnie herself one day. This was a mistake in the script, because there was no way Splendora could have known that. However, you could argue that now that Splendora knew she would have a granddaughter who would visit her in the past, she would take an extra hand in her training.
• While Marnie is holding the box containing the Gift, it faces one way. After it comes out of the hole in a second shot, the box is flipped.
• When Dylan and Marnie are talking with their mother, Dylan says "you shut the pumpkin on mom." During this shot, Marnie's hair is in back of her shoulders and in the next close-up all her hair is in front of her shoulders
• Sara Paxton's hair changes colors during the movie. (Red-ish and Brown)
• In the previous three movies, every day was Halloween in Halloweentown, but in this one, Halloween was actually on October 31. (Maybe when Aggie said that every day was Halloween in Halloweentown she meant it metaphorically)
• When Ethan goes to the gargoyles asking who has been paying them for their spying on Marnie, the shot is from his back, he is seen with both hamburgers in one hand, then the next shot this time from his front, he is shown with one hamburger within each hand.

Magic used in Return to Halloweentown

• Marnie uses her powers to clean out her closet.
• Dylan uses his powers to speed-read through an enormous number of books in the school library.
• Marnie uses magic to carry her suitcases in Halloweentown.
• One of the Sinister sisters use their powers against a troll, and sends him flying across the campus.
• The staff of the school put a spell over Halloweentown, also turning Dylan into a dog.
• Grandma Aggie magically appears in Marnie's dorm.
• The Sinister sisters put a spell on Dylan to do their homework.
• At the end, Marnie returns everyone to their original state, including Dylan who was turned into a dog.
• Marnie uses magic to make a portal to get them to halloweentown in the beginning.
• A witch uses powers to trap Marnie in a force-field.
• Marnie, with the help of Gwen and Dylan, shoots pink electricity to (supposedly) destroy the amulet. A Power of Three Spell.
• Marnie travels through time.
• Marnie is zapped with purple electricity.
• Marnie and Ethan take a flight on a broom through Halloweentown.
• A Sinister sister hexes Marnie's class assignment.
• Sophie (off-screen) uses her powers to go through time and place.
• Scarlet Sinister uses magic to dig up a skull in one of their classes.
• Scarlet uses magic to write her essay.
• Dr. Goodwin uses magic to remove the stone barrier blocking the old castle dungeon.
• Profresson Periwinkle uses magic to entrap the members of the Dominion, strip them of their power, and encase them in a witches glass.
• Aviates-When Marnie and a young Professor Periwinkle use to send Marnie to Splendora's tower.
• Marnie wears the Gift and says a spell that makes everyone into here slaves for a while.
• The gargoyles trap the Dominion in a blue-lined force field.

Cultural References

• Professor Periwinkle is heard saying, "Ah, Splendora Cromwell, now that's a name I haven't heard in a very long time." Marnie responds, saying "You're not going tell me that's you, are you? Because I'm getting a really weird Star Wars moment here."
• Gwen uses the line, "With great power comes great responsibility," to which Marnie retorts that she "stole that from from Spider-man!".
• Marnie twitches her nose to use magic which is a refrence to the TV series, Bewitched in which Samantha, the main character does the same to use her own powers.
• Marnie crosses her arms and blinks to use magic which is a refrence to the television series, I Dream of Jeannie, in which the main character Jeannie does the same to use her own powers.
• At one point, Marnie says 'Beam me up, Jeannie (Genie),' a reference to Star Trek.
• In the part where Dr. Grogg comes into the classroom, he makes a reference to G-Unit.

See Also

• Halloweentown (film)
• Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge
• Halloweentown High
• Disney Channel's Hauntober Fest 2006

External Links

Official

• Official Website
• Halloweentown III on Family Channel

Unofficial/Information Sites

• Return to Halloweentown at IMDb
• Locals have roles in the title movie
• Halloweentown at All Info About

Trailers

• Return to Halloweentown Trailer (DisneyChannel.com/Videos)
• Return to Halloweentown Teaser Trailer (YouTube.com)