While I adore the Halloweentown movie characters this film in the series marks a significant shift away from the first two and in a way that I didn't particularly enjoy.
Most importantly the character dynamics and how they relate to each other is dramatically different. In the first two Marnie and Grandma Aggie are like two peas and a pod. Marnie almost idolizes her grandmother and the one screen chemistry really works for me in the first two movies. In this movie , seemingly out of of nowhere, the relationship between the two is all of a sudden combative from the start with no explained reason why. Dylan is the most enjoyable charter for me in this one as he maintains his relationships with the other family members in a way that is consistent with the first two movies . The total absence of Luke and the very limited use of Sophie was a huge loss and a poor decision. They were both great in the first two and I don't understand why they went away from them. Meanwhile, Marnie and Gwen's relationship change I can understand a little more as they have always been growing close as the movies have gone on , but Gwen's passion and use of magic even for simple things seems excessive for what her character believed in the past.
The movie also has more of a high school musical vibe to it rather than a movie that's strictly for Halloween. A further annoying change to me is Grandma Aggies's bag. It's all of a sudden a reptile that walks and eats things. It gets way too much screen time in my view and becomes annoying . I really don't think anything it does couldnt have been achieved another way. Not going to Halloweentown like the first two movies was also disappointing for me.
As you can tell I loved the first two movies, but this movie is where it starts to go downhill for me.
Most importantly the character dynamics and how they relate to each other is dramatically different. In the first two Marnie and Grandma Aggie are like two peas and a pod. Marnie almost idolizes her grandmother and the one screen chemistry really works for me in the first two movies. In this movie , seemingly out of of nowhere, the relationship between the two is all of a sudden combative from the start with no explained reason why. Dylan is the most enjoyable charter for me in this one as he maintains his relationships with the other family members in a way that is consistent with the first two movies . The total absence of Luke and the very limited use of Sophie was a huge loss and a poor decision. They were both great in the first two and I don't understand why they went away from them. Meanwhile, Marnie and Gwen's relationship change I can understand a little more as they have always been growing close as the movies have gone on , but Gwen's passion and use of magic even for simple things seems excessive for what her character believed in the past.
The movie also has more of a high school musical vibe to it rather than a movie that's strictly for Halloween. A further annoying change to me is Grandma Aggies's bag. It's all of a sudden a reptile that walks and eats things. It gets way too much screen time in my view and becomes annoying . I really don't think anything it does couldnt have been achieved another way. Not going to Halloweentown like the first two movies was also disappointing for me.
As you can tell I loved the first two movies, but this movie is where it starts to go downhill for me.