In 1998, the Disney Channel released a family-friendly Halloween-themed movie called Halloweentown. Here, a teenaged Marnie and her siblings are frustrated when their mother, Gwen, won't let them out for Halloween. Things get more dramatic when their grandmother Aggie comes into town and ruffles some feathers.
It turns out that Aggie and Gwen come from a long line of witches and Aggie wants to start training Marnie to be a witch. One thing led to another and the kids followed their grandmother into the night to her own world of Halloweentown. It's been 22 years since the movie released but it's still a fan favorite today with thousands rewatching it and wanting to know more.
St. Helens, Oregon Really Loves Halloweentown
Halloweentown was a magical place filled with witches and goblins who were able to live their truest self without fear of the mortals judging them. To create such a world, the producers created the small town of St. Helens, Oregon into their own Halloweentown.
After the movie wrapped up, the people of St. Helens loved the idea of a town dedicated to Halloween so much that they created their own version of Halloweentown that goes on for the entire month of October. It's been in place for over 20 years to pay homage to the movie.
Halloweentown High Filmed In A Familiar Location
Halloweentown High was the third movie in the series. In the film, Marnie tries to slowly combine Halloweentown with the mortal world. She comes up with the idea of bringing some Halloweentown High kids to her own high school in the mortal world. The Halloweentown High kids would be given magical appearances to make them look human. If Marnie's idea of mingling the two worlds doesn't work, she and her family lose their magical powers forever.
According to Mickey Blog, the high school that Halloweentown High filmed in was the same high school used in another Disney movie: The Luck of the Irish and the TV show Everwood. This may be a bit weird, considering that Halloweentown is practically synonymous to Oregon.
Benny Was A Robot
Benny is one of the first characters we meet in Halloweentown when Marnie, Dylan, and Sophie leave the mortal world and enter Halloweentown. They're placed in a cab and their driver is a skeleton named Benny. Benny became a fan favorite because of the bad jokes he told. Obviously, he was someone the kids could trust.
In real life, Benny wasn't a green screen addition or a man in a suit, he was actually a robot. According to Kimberly J. Brown who played Marnie, "The actor dubbed [Benny's] lines after filming, so we actually worked with a robot."
The Original Ending Was Too Dark For Disney
The ending of Halloweentown has Marnie running to the massive jack-o'-lantern to place the talisman in the center. Once the jack-o'-lantern illuminated, Kalabar and his evilness would vanish and the town of Halloweentown would un-freeze. Kalabar almost froze Marnie but she was quick enough to save the town first and became a hero. Shockingly, this ending could have been much darker.
Instead of placing the talisman in the jack-o'-lantern, the writers had her placing it deep inside a spooky forest. The dangerous part of the forest was that it aged a person whenever they walked deeper into it. This means that Marnie got older and older with each step forward, which could have jeopardized her life. Luckily, Disney switched endings.
Grandma Aggie's House Is A Bread & Breakfast
When the kids show up to Grandma Aggie's house, it's a beautiful, large white home that has a subtle eeriness to it. In real life, fans of the movie can still see Aggie's home because it's a bed and breakfast called Nob Hill Bed and Breakfast.
Fans can stay there year-long if they wanted to, but it does get booked quickly for the months of the Halloweentown festival.
Halloweentown 5 Isn't Out Of The Question Just Yet
Halloweentown was such a hit that it spawned a franchise with four movies to its name. Sadly, the fourth entry, Return to Halloweentown, recast Marnie. Instead of seeing the familiar face of Kimberly J. Brown, fans were given Sara Paxton instead. As great of a job as Paxton did, fans knew the franchise couldn't last without Brown.
When E! did an interview with the executive producer Sheri Singer and Brown, the idea of a fifth movie was brought up. Singer said, "I'd have to get Disney Channel to get on-board, but I would like to." She continued saying "I have ideas of how I would do it. There was some talk about a year and a half ago but then it didn't happen."
The Kids Loved Working With Debbie Reynolds
With the late, great Debbie Reynolds playing Aggie Cromwell in Halloweentown, Disney had a major star on their hands. Reynolds has been a working actress since the '40s and has done it all, winning multiple lifetime achievement awards. But she wasn't the diva many assumed she'd be on set. Instead, she was a best friend to the kids.
Brown recounted, "[Debbie] just wanted everybody to shine as bright as they could and the movie to be the best thing possible... She loved getting a smile on people’s faces and making them giggle and I always ired that about her.”
The Flying Broom Scenes Took Hours To Shoot
When Marnie first goes to Halloweentown, she and Aggie look for her first real witches broom. The two women take the broom for a ride and they shot up into the sky. Aggie and Marnie are having a fun time flying through the sky before coming back down to land. In the movie, the scene lasted a couple of seconds but according to BuzzFeed, it took hours to shoot.
Similar to Hocus Pocus, the women had to climb up a ladder to sit on a fake broom that was surrounded by a blue screen. They then had to act as if they were flying through the air together. Despite how taxing it was, Brown noted it was one of her favorite scenes to shoot.
Halloweentown Was Inspired By The Creator's Stepdaughter
The idea for Halloweentown was pretty simple. After creator Sheri Singer's stepdaughter asked her "Where do all the creatures from Halloween go the rest of the year when it's not October 31?," Singer decided to act on it.
To answer a child's simple question and that of many others around the world, Singer created the wonderful world of Halloweentown that connects to deep family ties.
The Characters All Took Something From Their Time Filming
With four successful movies under their belts, the main stars all took a few mementos from their time on set. This shouldn't be too surprising, since everyone on set wanted to how fun making this Halloween movie was.
For example, J. Paul Zimmerman (Dylan) itted to taking some of Dylan's clothes. Similarly, Brown itted to taking a few things from her time as Marnie, like Kalabar's bat, her broom, and a few of Marnie's best outfits.
