Halloweentown Double Feature

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Color
• Audio: Dolby Digital Surround
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Features:
  • The Magic of the Halloweentown Movies - Kimberly Brown takes you on an exclusive backstage look at all three Halloweentown movies, including the newest, Halloweentown High
  • Twitches - Twins Tia and Tamara Mowry (Sister, Sister) chat about their upcoming Disney channel original movie, Twitches

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Debbie Reynolds - Aggie Cromwell
       Debbie Reynolds
       Kimberly J. Brown - Marnie Piper
       Betty Moyer - Vampire Patient

• Director:

  Duwayne Dunham

• Producer:

  Ron Mitchell, Brian Pogue

• Screen Story:

  Paul Bernbaum

• Teleplay By:

  Jon Cooksey, Ali Marie Matheson

• Cinematographer:

  Michael Slovis

• Composer (Music Score):

  Mark Mothersbaugh

• Editor:

  Martin W. Nicholson

• Production Designer:

  Alfred Sole

• Executive Producer:

  Sheri Singer, Steve White

• Costume Designer:

  Brienne Glyttov

REVIEW:

• Extremely popular with its target audience (and spawning, as of this date, three made-for-cable sequels), Halloweentown is a moderately entertaining holiday offering, especially for undiscriminating viewers. Certainly the basic premise is a good one -- a young girl discovering she's descended from a long line of witches and getting introduced a parallel dimension in which all the inhabitants are witches, spooks, monsters and the like. And much of the plot is involving, even if occasionally trite. But there's also a layer of typical Disney manipulation and too much emphasis on its homespun "message" at times. Also, while many of the special effects are quite good, the costumes and make-up for the Halloweentown minor characters and extras are sometimes unbelievably fake. On the plus side, Halloweentown has a very winning cast, starting with Debbie Reynolds, who provides some old school star magic and gets to kick up her heels and have a grand old time. Kimberly J. Brown does quite well as the young witch, Joey Zimmerman is good as her younger brother/sparring partner, and Robin Thomas provides some nice touches. If Judith Hoag gets a bit wearing, it's really more because of the character than the actress. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi