A sequel to the Disney Channel's sleeper hit, this comic fantasy serves up a buffet of hot special effects and lukewarm comedy. Once again, disagreements rock the Cromwell-Piper clan, as Mama Gwen (Judith Hoag) and Grandma Aggie (Debbie Reynolds) butt heads over teenager Marnie's (Kimberly J. Brown) literally enchanting future. Marnie is developing into into a powerful young witch, and Aggie needs to tap her burgeoning skills because the magic in
Halloweentown has started fading away; for some mysterious reason, the spooky suburbanites are losing their vitality and colorful skin tones. While the grown-ups debate the wisdom of getting Marnie's involved, Marnie develops a crush on teenaged Cal (Daniel Kountz) and treats him to a tour of the Piper House,
even the off-limits area. Why would it occur to her that Cal might steal Aggie’s book of spells as part of a plot against the human world? Though Aggie used to have a spare back home, she believes it's fallen into the hands of Halloweentown's refuse collector, Gort (Blu Mankuma). If Aggie and Marnie risk zipping back to Halloweentown to retrieve the tome, the zombie curse that has the town in its grip could trap them there forever. They go anyway, and sure enough, Granny starts turning prematurely gray. To Marnie's horror, Cal turns out to be the son of family nemesis Kalabar (Robin Thomas), who's been plotting a switcheroo of monsters and mortals. To pry the book from Gort's possessive paws, Marnie must use time travel to return to a pre-curse period, while back in suburbia, Cal and Kalabar lay the groundwork for the transformation of humans into Halloweentown duplicates. Star Debbie Reynolds magically makes laughs appear out of the thin air of John Cooksey and Ali Marie Masterson's screenplay, but while the basic plot about human-to-monster transference works, the endless gab about time travel slows down the action. --Robert Pardi
