Halloweentown

On the eve of her thirteenth birthday, Marnie Piper argues with her mother, Gwen, who refuses to let her celebrate Halloween. Their grandmother Aggie arrives unexpectedly and reveals that Marnie comes from a family of witches. Because Gwen has kept her children away from magic, Aggie warns that Marnie will lose her powers forever once she turns thirteen unless she begins training. Aggie has another reason for the visit: something threatening has taken hold of Halloweentown, the town where she lives among witches, vampires, goblins and other supernatural beings, and she needs her grandchildren's help. Marnie and her siblings follow Aggie to Halloweentown against their mother's wishes and become caught up in the fight to protect it.

The film is a Disney Channel television movie directed by Duwayne Dunham, his third feature after Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey and Little Giants, and it precedes The Thirteenth Year, Double Teamed!, Tiger Cruise and Now You See It... in his filmography. Paul Bernbaum wrote the screenplay, Ron Mitchell produced, and the cast numbers twenty-seven credited performers. Debbie Reynolds plays Aggie, Judith Hoag plays Gwen, and Kimberly J. Brown plays Marnie, with Joey Zimmerman, Phillip Van Dyke and Emily Roeske as Dylan, Luke and Sophie. It runs eighty-four minutes and blends adventure, comedy, family and fantasy.

Released in 1998, the film holds a 6.5 rating on IMDb from roughly twenty-five thousand votes and a 6.8 on TMDB from a much smaller base of just over six hundred. The two scores sit close together, indicating a comparable level of approval among the audiences who have rated it on either platform.