Sister Cinema Swap
Sisters Kate and Emily have seen a lot of movies, but not as many as they would like. With their differing tastes in genres, they will work through their backlogs of movies they haven't seen yet. Both sisters talk about why they did or didn’t see the movie, the plot, and rate them out of ten at the end.
Sister Cinema Swap
Halloweentown (1998)
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This week on Sister Cinema Swap, Kate finally watches Halloweentown. Kate and Emily discuss Don Bluth movies, peak 90s tropes and themes, Paganism, Mary Poppins, witch royalty, generic evil villain speeches, nostalgia, chowder, adults bullying kids, and a man getting friend zoned. Additionally, Kate comes down really hard on Dylan, Emily thinks Marnie is dramatic, and they both agree that Sophie is the Chosen One.
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Artwork by Jenni Crowley. Music by Nick Heredia.
Welcome to Sister Sorona Squad, the podcast where two sisters work through their backlogs in movies they haven't seen. I'm Emily Bateman.
SPEAKER_03I'm Kate Kabala, and I finally watched Halloween Town.
SPEAKER_01Is it Spooky Month? Our first themed month. That is exciting. I mean, with us though, really, like, it should be this month. This should be the first theme month.
SPEAKER_03Honestly, yeah. This is very this is true to us, like, as people. On brand. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. So expect more. Themed months and also Halloween months. Yeah. This this will be a thing. Definitely. Although I think, you know, there'll be, obviously, with the next one, there's gonna be a juxtaposition of what I haven't seen for a Halloween movie and what Kate hasn't seen for a Halloween movie.
SPEAKER_03I feel like, I feel like the range of I feel like in between the two of us, Halloween movie is a very vague term, and we're gonna run the damn it.
SPEAKER_01I feel like you're judging my genre of Halloween movies. No, I a little bit more.
SPEAKER_03No, no, no, no, not at all. No, I love like case in point, the fact that I haven't seen this one. I feel like there have been a lot of not scary Halloween movies that I've seen in the last like maybe five or six years that I was like, I had no idea this existed. And just oh, yeah, but not necessarily not just horror movies, but like, you know, like campier, like spooky movies. Um, so I don't know. I think, but like I I mean that's a genre that I like. Like I love Hocus Pocus. That's like oh my god, yeah, it's like the the pinnacle of like, okay, like vaguely Hocus Pocus, Beetlejuice, Nightmare Before Christmas. Like, I don't know if Casper was ever really in there for us.
SPEAKER_01Like, I know we saw it, but we weren't into Casper like some girlies were. Yeah, I don't I don't know why. I don't know what it was. I don't remember seeing it fully. Also, I feel like it was a lot darker. Yes, it's like the actual story is bonkers of Casper.
SPEAKER_03The actual story is like it's straight up like, oh yeah, like they like convince the dad to like kill himself, maybe.
SPEAKER_01And then yes, yeah, the uncles, the ghost uncles, or whatever.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yes, it's it's wild. Yeah, it's it's wild, and it's just like, ooh, but but I think it's also like it a certain kind of like preteen girl will be like, ooh, this is romance, and I'm like, it's not, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but also, and I mean we're gonna talk about with this movie, yes, 90s spooky for kids versus what might be considered spooky today. It's gonna be different. Like, I feel like you can get away with more stuff in some parts, and then some parts will be like it it's just very different, I feel like. Yeah, like what even watching the first Hocus Pocus versus the sequel, there's a difference in tone. They're both great, but there's a difference in tone, there's a shift, and there's a reason why my daughter likes the second one more than the first one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I think it's because there is a tone shift. One's a little more comedic, a little lighter, um, a little less kind of serious, and that like, you know, it's a little more dire in the first one. Yeah. I feel like.
SPEAKER_03And also, like, I feel like that is a I don't remember when I loved Hocus Pocus. Like, not when I first saw it, but when I was like, this is great. Because I know I didn't warm up to, you know, Nightmare Before Christmas or Beetlejuice or anything. I didn't warm up to those until like college, like high school, college. And then I was like, oh, this is cool. Like, I like this a lot. But but I remember liking like a lot of like the more, I guess, scary Don Bluth like animated movies. Like I I remember loving Secrets of Nim and I love like, you know, those even the cartoon movies that had much darker elements.
SPEAKER_01All dogs go to heaven.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, god, all dogs go to heaven. Um, the dinosaur one, we're back.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like I feel like that era. And then wasn't there? There's so much like there's dark rocket something. Yeah. Okay. I gotta rewatch that one.
SPEAKER_01I feel like we just saw, like, there was a I sent you guys an Instagram thing about I sent you and Sam something about it because I was like, Do you remember this movie?
SPEAKER_03I a hundred percent do. I think we rented it from Farmoor. I remember that. We got the VHS.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because it was that.
SPEAKER_03Well, what's crazy is like not long ago.
SPEAKER_01I don't remember those movies being scary. Like, I remember being scared of those movies as a kid.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Or like Ferngully.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Yeah, but I but at the time I don't remember those. We watched them more than once.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I don't remember them being like, that's my jam. But it was just kind of like also like, that's what it is. That's what movies are.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think I I remember seeing things, and I think it was specifically Don Bluth like talking about like, you know, kids' movies being less scary now. And the idea that that kid like one, that like, you know, kids are more resilient than we give them credit for, but also that that something scary like that in an animated movie where everything works out in the end and everything's okay and it's separated and it's like, you know, very fantastical. It's very, you know, like, well, this isn't real. Like it's, you know, it's scary, but it's not real. And being able to separate that, like it's like I feel like kids' movies like they give kids credit to you know, that they'll say, okay, you know, this was scary, but it was a movie and I'm okay. Or it was like, this was scary, but I liked being scared because I knew it was fake and that kind of thing. So I don't know, but I don't I don't think that kids' stuff does that as much anymore.
SPEAKER_01I mean, not that I've seen.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I feel like there are cartoons that like the stuff that has like more serious, darker themes. Like I'm thinking, like, you know, like Adventure Time, Steven Universe, the ones that are a little bit more serious. I feel like those don't like Owl House, maybe. Yeah, Owl House, 100%. Um, I feel like those don't even appeal to like little kids. Like I feel that's very much.
SPEAKER_01I'm late for little kids.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I feel like it's like 10 and up, maybe. Middle school. Yeah, I think so too. But I don't know. I feel like it's I think it also is, it's hard to remember, like, oh, okay, I was, you know, was I five when I watched Hocus Pocus and loved it? Was I, you know, 13? And I was like, oh man, this is really fun. I don't know. I have no idea.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, I only remember like as an adult or maybe a teenager being like, yeah, hocus pocus. But it's like, yeah, yeah. When was the first time I saw it and was like, oh yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. And it's the thing where now it, you know, as adults, we're like, oh, I used to love that. It's like, did I? Did I always love it, or did I just see it early and now I have a fondness for it? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, nostalgia is it you know, sugarcoats everything.
SPEAKER_01So yeah.
SPEAKER_03I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So speaking of nostalgia, Kate Hadghmits this movie.
SPEAKER_03I straight up don't know. Um I don't either. I was trying to figure it out. So I feel like Halloween Town, the okay, the fact that it's 1998, that feels way later than I thought it was. I thought it was an earlier movie, but I think it's because I'm used to seeing it in the groups of like, oh, you know, 90s kids, like those Halloween movies, and it's Hocus Pocus and Casper. But I think it also would include like, I don't know, Beetlejuice's 80s, like late 80s. I feel like it tips over, but like Nightmare Before Christmas, like the scary stuff. And I feel like Halloween Town is kind of grouped into those sort of like cozy, you know, kid nostalgia Halloween movies. But I feel like it was just so close to the end of it that I don't I don't know. Like I have no idea. It's it's Disney, so it would have been on Disney Channel.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03I have no idea. I feel like it is it really is the fact that it's just it was 98. And I feel like I don't I don't know. I feel like 98. 98, I was I was 11. So that's like right on the cusp of like it's not like a kid nostalgia one, but it's like going into middle school. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_01But yeah. Yeah. Okay, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So so that I guess same question since you, you know, since we neither of us grew up with it, like I know that you watched it a little like more recently, but how like when how did you come to it finally? And like how do you so what do you think happened with that?
SPEAKER_01What I think I know, it's also very vague. So I'm I'm not sure if I saw it as a kid because in my research I found out this is the only the fourth Disney Channel original movie ever. Oh so this was very early in this was very early in the stages of that. Um but I know at least I saw it during the month of October on Disney as like a teenager. I remember seeing it. I don't know if you noticed this or not. There are three other ones, so there are four total movies about Halloween Town.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So even if it wasn't the first one that I saw, the second one um I think came out maybe two years, no, 2020 2001. So came out three years later.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh and so I feel like even that one kind of jogs my memory for so I remember when each one of them was coming out-ish. Because the last one, so I'll just tell you now. So Halloween Town 2, Calabar's Revenge is 2001.
SPEAKER_03So here's the thing. I knew that two was called Calabar's Revenge, and so when he shows up, I was like, mmm, you hang out.
SPEAKER_01Oh damn it. Okay, shit.
SPEAKER_03I feel like for some of these we do it, and I feel like we so far we've been good about peppering them in throughout our summaries and like this part. But I feel like we do have sections of, okay, what did you already know coming in? And in this case, I'm like, mmm, Calabar. He seeks revenge at some point. What's your deal?
SPEAKER_01Like, I think there's a revenge plot at some point. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So then the third one is Halloween Town High, 2004.
SPEAKER_03Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER_01And then the last one is Return to Halloween Town 2006.
SPEAKER_03I remember hearing about Return to Halloween Town.
SPEAKER_01I'll tell you why you did. Oh, okay. Because they recast Marnie. Oh. Oh. Wild. Okay. Yeah. And according to the actress, uh Kimberly J. Brown, she was available. Uh oh no. That sucks. I don't like that. It does. People, fans were not happy. I remember recognizing, like, like I remember seeing an ad on TV and being like, yeah. Why'd they do that? Like, that's weird. I don't understand that. So truly, I don't know. Probably a teenager watching it on TV.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Recently started watching them again within the first five, you know, within five years because of my daughter. Um, this was her first Halloween movie that she really loved. Um, because she wasn't, uh I think she was three when she really enjoyed this one. Okay. Loves the the theme song, the music, like that's top in our um Halloween uh playlist right now is the dun dun dun dun. And it's it's very iconic once you hear it a bunch. So dun, dun, dun, it's really good music. Yeah, and it's like campy but spooky, but also very child-friendly for some reason. Yeah. Understand why people who did see this in the 90s and early 2000s have such nostalgia for it. Because it's such a good representation of a Halloween kids movie.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it really is. Like it has like, it's like trick-or-treating, it's like kind of spooky. It's like it's all of the monsters that you want to see, but it's like, but they're not dangerous. Like it's okay. And it's just but it's like fun. Yeah, and it's the visuals, like it's all the stuff that you want.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And it's real.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So I'm truly not sure, but I was like, surely Kate would have seen this on TV at some point. But you're right, you were two years older. So you were in college by the time the last one was coming out. Yeah, that's true. So you were, I mean, you'd been in college for years. Um, so like this this just kind of passed you by. And you know, Hocus Pocus was just the same old, same old until I don't know, like three years ago they came out the same.
SPEAKER_03So and Hocus Pocus was 93, right? I think.
SPEAKER_01Oh god, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03It's okay.
SPEAKER_01I'm it came out in the theater, so I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_03It did. Yeah, because it was a Disney movie, but it wasn't a Disney original.
SPEAKER_01And then the second was 2022.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So 32. Yeah, I remember that being so recent.
SPEAKER_01Um, yes, so we are talking about Halloween Town, uh, fourth ever Disney Channel original movie decom came out in 1998.
SPEAKER_02That's so cool.
SPEAKER_01Uh, starring Debbie Reynolds, Kimberly J. Brown, Judith Hoag. Hoag Hogue. I'm not sure. Hogue. Joey Zimmerman, Philip Van Dyke, Emily Roski, Robin Thomas. And not that many people, honestly.
SPEAKER_03No. I looked it up. I looked up to see if I like recognized like any of like the background actors or anything. No, nobody.
SPEAKER_01You're not gonna. I feel like there's a reason for it that I'll tell you later.
SPEAKER_03Ooh, okay.
SPEAKER_01Dwayne Dunham was the director. They had very little information. Uh, he was previously a big editor and then director. The one fact was that like he's been married to the same woman since 1983, and I was like, he's solid. That's what I got from him. That's cute. I love that for him.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01So uh as an editor, he's known for Twin Peaks, Star Wars, Episode 6, Return of the Jedi. And he was an additional editor on Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so this is director?
SPEAKER_01Editor.
SPEAKER_03That's ed okay, okay. So he was editor on those things, but he's the director on this, though, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes, and he's directed other things. I'll let that was my next Oh okay.
SPEAKER_03Twin Peaks, that checks out, like the you know, yeah, that aesthetic makes sense with this.
SPEAKER_01Right. And so you'll you'll also get it on another side for the director because he directed Homeward Bound, The Incredible Journey. Yes, oh my god. And other other decoms like The 13th Year, Double Teamed, Right on Track, Tiger Cruise, Now You See It. And those were all after Halloween Town. So after he did this one, they really set him in. This was his foot in the door, Kate's movie. Yeah, so he did a bunch of them.
SPEAKER_03That's so interesting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I thought so too. It's fun, it's these Disney Channel people, I just I find these fascinating.
SPEAKER_03It really is funny because it's like they'll start out way far away from this world, and then it's like, you're we got you. You're in. I'm in.
SPEAKER_01That's so I'm set for life.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_01That decom money. Yeah, well, I mean, he did well. So let's see, for writers, we got Paul Bernbaum, who wrote actually all four of the Halloween Town movies. Oh, okay. And then we've got John Cooksie and Allie Marie Matheson, who were previously married to each other. Oh. And they wrote on the first two, and also their other major note was they were uh both major writers on Rugrats. Oh, wow. So another kids thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But nothing like, you know, huge to note. So now we got fun facts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, so the movie was filmed in St. Helen, Oregon, and uh that city still welcomes tourists every year and has an all uh all October month themed uh Spirit of Halloween event where they replicate the giant jack-o'-lantern from the movie and like it's like a whole it's a whole big thing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So they're like really like we are the Halloween town. They're leaning in.
SPEAKER_03I love that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love it, yeah, it's awesome. Let's see. Like I said before, there are four total movies in the franchise, but only Debbie Reynolds, Judith Hoague, and Joey Zimmerman appeared in all four of them.
SPEAKER_03Oh, Joey Zimmerman is the is Dylan's kid, right? Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So Sophie, the younger her her uh Emily, she is in the fourth one at all.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, I honestly I don't even know if she's in the third one. And then uh Marnie was replaced in the fourth one as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Debbie Reynolds and Judith Ho Judith is the mom.
SPEAKER_03Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Gwen.
SPEAKER_03Yes. I knew I recognized her from something.
SPEAKER_01Dude.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Armageddon. No, it wasn't Armageddon. I I looked up what she was in, and there was something else. God.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I'm gonna have to look it up because I let me write it.
SPEAKER_01Uh I didn't write them all down, but I did write them on. No, you're fine. There was one. She was in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
SPEAKER_03I think that was it. April. Yeah, she was April O'Neill. Yeah. Yeah. That's like the one thing where I was like, got it. I know you. I get this.
SPEAKER_01Okay, cool. Because I was like, maybe you would know that, but I had I don't know if I've seen that movie.
SPEAKER_03So it's been it's been a while, but I like I remember I was like, I know your face. Why do I know your face? Um I love that Debbie Reynolds was in all of them. I don't think I realized that she was that she was got to be in all of them.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I think the fourth one, it's more of a cameo, but she was in it for all of them. Let's see. Debbie Reynolds was the first person cast for the original one, and she was the only choice, and they were like, This is it.
SPEAKER_03Great. She was great, she's perfect.
SPEAKER_01Uh, there's a lot of Mary Poppins imagery used for Debbie Reynolds, especially like with the bag and everything.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01The fun fact for that was that uh Debbie Reynolds was originally considered for the role of Mary Poppins before Julie Andrews was cast.
SPEAKER_03Oh wow, I didn't know that. Oh, that's so cool.
SPEAKER_01So these are just gonna be kind of random. That's cool. Um, the flaming hair dryer that Marnie picks up uh was Real Flames and no special effects.
SPEAKER_03Oh no.
SPEAKER_01Amazing. That was exciting. Yes. Judith Hogue missed her own premiere for Armageddon to make this film.
SPEAKER_03That's really cute. I love it.
SPEAKER_01It was very sweet. Oh, to help uh actors remember the incantations for the spells, which some of them were truly rooted in Welsh. Debbie Reynolds wrote the spells down phonetically and passed them around the cast to like help everyone learn it.
SPEAKER_03That's really cute. I love it.
SPEAKER_01Um it was very, very wholesome. Not a lot out there, but like all of it's kind of cool. Yeah. So speaking of all the writers and everything, Halloween Town was originally supposed to be a darker film set for NBC, but it kind of, you know, got like just dropped. And then five years later, the writers got a call saying it was gonna be picked up, but for a younger audience. So they had to kind of rewrite some of it and revamp it for like kids. So I just it didn't really say like what the plot, like what the differences were.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But um, it was another one of those kind of like zombies where it's like it was something originally, and then years later was revived, was just like on in storage or something.
SPEAKER_03That's so interesting. I wonder if that's like I mean, we're two for two of those that like that's happened too, but I wonder how common that is for Disney original movies where it's like Yeah, like how many years later did it become a thing? Yeah, or like, oh well, originally this was pitched somewhere else, and then Disney was like, We got this, we'll take it. Like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I would fully deep dive into decomps, but that's not what we do here.
SPEAKER_03That's a whole separate rabbit hole.
SPEAKER_01I'm sure it's already a podcast that's been done as well, too.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, probably.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01So I'm not sure if it was clear. Um, but uh Benny the Skeleton was in fact a robot.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah. I wasn't sure.
SPEAKER_03I wasn't sure at first if he was a puppet, and then it was like the way it was moving. I was like, you're you're like an animatronic guy.
SPEAKER_01Like Yes. Yeah, he was he was apparently the favorite prop of like everyone on the set. They loved Benny.
SPEAKER_03He's real fun.
SPEAKER_01He he was very fun. Um, let's see. Uh the budget originally started as 20 to 30 million dollars, but later, for reasons that weren't stated, was slashed to just four million. Oh my god. So they filmed it in only 24 days and reused, instead of hiring other people for extras, just reused all the extras that they had in different costumes for different scenes.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Can I tell you? I was actually like looking at the list. I was like, man, I wonder if they just have like a bunch of uncredited. I was like, that's like 20 people max.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_03That's that's wild. But honestly, I mean it's it's the perfect, like, you know, kind of movie to be able to do that. It's like, you know, you just swap uh swap um uh masks and costumes.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And so And I think even within that like bullet point, it was like one of one of the things that they spent a decent amount of money on was Benny the Robot. Cause at the time in 1998, you know, that was probably pretty high tech.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's so funny.
SPEAKER_01Oh, uh in an interview, uh Kimberly confirmed an original different ending for the movie.
unknownOh.
SPEAKER_01Uh in order to save her mom and grandma, instead of putting the talisman in the jack-o'-lantern, she had to take it through a forest. And every time she took a step deeper into the forest, her face would slowly age. So like that was the risk to Wow. Okay. Right? So in Kimberly said she was in the process of having a mold done of her face to like do all the prosthetics and everything. And then the writers changed the ending. So apparently she got to keep the face mold and still has it whenever the interview was done. I think it was like 2018. Oh. She is super cool. She actually uh has her own Etsy shop and sells Halloween Town merch in it.
SPEAKER_02That's cute.
SPEAKER_01It's very cute.
SPEAKER_02Oh, good for her.
SPEAKER_01Um years uh after filming Wrapped, uh Kimberly and Daniel Coontz, who was in the second Halloween town, who played the villain Cal, reconnected, fell in love, and got married.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01So she married the villain. Oh my god. And years, years, years, years, years, years later, which I believe last year, uh, they starred as a couple in a Hallmark Halloween movie.
SPEAKER_03I think I did hear about this. Oh, this is really cute. Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_01It was super fun.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01So and they go to they go to like cons together.
SPEAKER_03I was just gonna say, I feel like, I feel like I'd heard like, I think that's probably why like the name was ringing a bell, because I'm like, I know I've seen you on like the it's probably the Galaxy Con circuit. I've got to be.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, she definitely does cons and stuff. So yeah. That's great.
SPEAKER_03I love that.
SPEAKER_01Very cool. Like, seems seems fun. Um she she's done a lot of interviews about it and stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so, and and I mean, if any of them, I would say watching Halloween Town 2 is probably worth it. Yeah, too. Not so much.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I love an actor who is in something like this, like, especially like a smaller franchise that like it's like a Disney Channel movie that you know, doing three of those movies, and someone who is like so passionate about it and is still like, yeah, I liked this thing that I did and I'll talk about it. And like, I feel like so often it's like you hear about people who are like, I don't want to talk about this thing that I did, or it's like, oh, it was actually a bad experience and I really don't want to talk about it. And for her to be still like excited and like leaning into it is is it feels good, like it's nice, like it makes it it makes watching the things that they're in more enjoyable when it's like okay, you weren't like miserable filming this, or it's like, oh, okay, you you had a good time, you think of this fondly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it like puts a bow on it as an adult of like this is super fun for kids, this was a great franchise, and like we're still all good.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, that feels really good. So it's fun. Yeah, I do so I kind of have I don't know if it's even trivia, but I uh I might have a counterpoint of trivia. It's funny that you mentioned the music because I feel like this composer, um, the guy who did the music for this, is everywhere. He has done so much stuff.
SPEAKER_01I looked at his credits, it was honestly too much for me to write.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god, yes, okay. No, it's okay. Fully don't you don't have to write all of it down. Yeah, but it's Mark Mothersbaugh. Um, he was the big like revelation of learning about this guy is that he was in Devo, the the 70s or the like 70s, 80s band that did Whip It. Um so just but then I think like like pretty soon after that, he started doing like soundtracks and like theme songs and stuff. And it's it's funny because it's like just on the cusp of Danny Elfman, like that sort of like very traditional spooky, but not quite. And it's funny because also, you know, Danny Elfman was in Oingo Boingo, which was like in the same kind of era of like weird 70s, 80s, you know, strange pop basically. Like I fell down a full rabbit hole of like all of the theme songs that this man has composed because it was like it was so funny, but it's so many of them are cartoons. Like he did like the theme song to Rugrats, which is funny because there's the connection there.
SPEAKER_01Um, for the writers, yeah.
SPEAKER_03The theme song for Rocket Power, um, the theme song to a bunch of the music for Yo Gabba Gabba. Uh, he did the music for regular show, and I'm skimming down. It's like so much stuff. Specifically, what I knew him from was that he did the music from our flag means death. And then it was like, oh yeah, this guy. And then finding out, oh yeah, this guy was in Devo. And I'm like, oh, that's crazy. This has nothing to do with it. And now I'm like, this man has done everything. What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01And it's good.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's great. It's um, yeah, the music for Happy Gilmore, um, and so many random movies Halloween Town, uh, Rocky and Bullwinkle, the Royal Ten and Bombs, so much like um uh confessions of a teenage drama queen. Oh, yeah, Disney, yeah, a lot of Disney stuff. Um, Claddy with a chance of meatballs, um, but a lot, yeah. Um, but a lot of the um oh, the mus God, uh uh the Lego movie, um Pitch Perfect 2. Um God, it just keeps going. There's so much of it. But uh oh Thor Ragnarok, amazing. Um yeah, there's so much. Um Hoppers most recently. Um but but it's interesting that it's like it's not just animated stuff, but also that there's like Wes Anderson connection to but it's like the music there, okay. Yeah, well um uh Royal Tannenbaums and then um Life Aquatic. He did uh the music for those.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Life Aquatic, okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, but no, it's just it's wild that it's just this guy who it's like, oh yeah, did you know this is him? Did you know this is him? Did you know this is him? And I'm like, who the fuck is this man? Like he's been doing so for ages.
SPEAKER_01Who are you? Yeah, I know. It's like, how did we not know about this composer?
SPEAKER_03Exactly. Yeah, but I I feel like, you know, outside of Danny Elfman, like I feel like in that, you know, in like the early 2000s, like you didn't really clock. It was like Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, and oh John Williams? Yes, John Williams. I feel like it was like those. It's like, yeah, if it's not one of those three, I don't know them. And now it's like this guy. And I'm like, yeah, okay. Um, there are so many good composers now. It's great. And like I feel like they all get more, more attention than they used to, which is nice.
SPEAKER_04Um yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that was my my uh my counter trivia. I was like, No, that's fun. I like it. Okay. Cool. I I was telling Emily, I have so many pages of notes, but I think it's because in these kinds of movies I just write down everything, and I'm like, this might not be relevant when we start describing it, but let's go.
SPEAKER_01Well, and also because like, you know, there's a lot of lore to set up, and and like, you know, you go into it not knowing there's gonna be a twist, and there's a twist. Exactly. Yeah. Although unfortunately, Kate said, you know, you already knew the name of the sequel. So you knew the bad guy.
SPEAKER_03I knew I knew the bad guy, but also I who boy, when we get to the very end twist, I have I have thoughts and feelings. I got mad at the end of it. Oh no, it's okay. I was excited to talk about it because I was like, the fuck do you mean? But we'll get to it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay, okay. I'm ready.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. But yeah, so we open on um spooky music opening on a jack-o'-lantern. And I said, This music is so classic Halloween special. Um it's so good. Um, we get the we're panning over a neighborhood and trick-or-treating. It is that quintessential 90s fall up north where it's actually dark at whatever time you're trick-or-treating. It looks kind of cold. We didn't have that in the south. It stays bright and warm for the most part on Halloween. We're still very warm. But um, we get that uh the scene of an entire neighborhood, a lot of like kids in costumes, people run walking around. And then we are start to zoom into a house that doesn't have any decorations or outside lights on. And this is the house that we are going to specifically. Um, they do not give these kids names for a thousand years. I will flag it. I'll flag it when when we finally get names up. But we get the the youngest daughter in this family. Her name is Sophie.
SPEAKER_01Um I know.
SPEAKER_03Sophie is staring out the window. Um, uh, she sees a couple, like a group of kids walk, like stand outside of their house, and someone says, Oh, what about that house? And they say, No, that, you know, uh, we're not gonna go there. It's like they never do anything for Halloween. So we know that this is, you know, the hot the house that doesn't do Halloween. Um, so Sophie kind of cryptically says, somebody's coming, and I'm like, you know things, okay.
SPEAKER_01Um very good.
SPEAKER_03Yes, yes. Um, we get the son, the middle child, Dylan, who is even as far as 90s brothers, 90s little brothers go, Dylan's a nightmare.
SPEAKER_01He's a dud.
SPEAKER_03Dylan, who boy, Dylan is frustrating.
SPEAKER_01He's textbook. Dylan is a hard sell.
SPEAKER_03It's really frustrating.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I think my pay my notes are so long because half of my notes are, God, Dylan, what the fuck, man? A lot of them are. I think anytime Dylan says anything, I'm like, hey, buddy, hey man, I need you to get on board. I need you to, I need you to keep up, buddy.
SPEAKER_01Magic is real, my guy. Let's go.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's like, hey, man, it took you too long. And then as soon as magic was real, he was a dick about it. I was like, Dylan, why are you like this man? I can't.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, so honestly, part of it, and I was saying, like, what was different about the 90s movies? These kids were mean to each other.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Yeah, there's no. Yeah, a lot of the dialogue is there like borderline bullying and the mom not doing anything, and it just being like, it's all jokes. Like it's all, you know, play-down. Tal banter. Yeah. It's the the dialogue is quintessentially 90s. Um I will say that. Um, but yeah, so uh Dylan um hears Sophie say nobody uh somebody's commenting. He's like, yeah, it's like that's not, it's like, no, nobody ever comes here on Halloween. Um we get, I wrote Teenage Daughter at first, and then we find out she is barely a teenager. Um so we get um Marnie, who is our our protagonist. Um she is uh 13. She is practically a grown-up, but she is begging to go to a costume party. She said, everyone is going. She's the only person in the world not going to this costume party. Um her, a couple of her friends are there who were already in costume to pick her up. She is following her mom around. Uh her mom is Gwen. Um, and uh the mom is saying that she's not allowed to go to this party. Marnie asked specifically why she's not allowed to go to this party. Um her mom says that she is not allowed out on Halloween. She says she'll explain when she's taller, not older, just vague, sort of moving the goalposts. Um her uh Marnie's friends agree that actually this is not fair. Um Marnie's already into like spooky witchy stuff, anyways. Like she's she's already into like ghosts and weird stuff. And here's a thing that I noticed through this movie. We are told a lot that Marnie is into spooky stuff. We are told that she has deja vu. We are told a lot of things. I need to see Marnie do something weird. I need to see Marnie like, I don't know. I I needed I needed to see more evidence of like her weirdness. Like the fact that she has so many like character witnesses for her weirdness, it helps. But I'm like, I I don't know, I want to see like how strange you actually are. I'm like, square up, dude.
SPEAKER_01Like, let's yeah, I yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, but yeah, that is like the one thing that like a common thread through this. I'm like, I we hear that she's into all these things, but I'm like, I don't know, like she shares a room with Sophie as well, so let's like we don't even get like the there's you know, decor like the walls are decorated, and it's like here are the things that I'm into.
SPEAKER_01Like it's very I think she's not allowed to. That's true, that's a good point.
SPEAKER_03She's not, yeah, she doesn't have the space to visually be interested in any of that stuff. So it is just outside of the house.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but you're right. I I feel like there could be uh a difference, and I think this this becomes more apparent later on. But like really, MVP is Sophie, she is a magic like savant wizard lady, a witch lady. I'm like, you're the weird one, you're you're the chosen one, not Marnie.
SPEAKER_03Oh, okay. Obviously. Yeah, yeah. Sophie, Sophie is the chosen one, a hundred percent.
SPEAKER_01But you're right, yeah. If if we're going by like as written, Sophie's the weird little girl, not Marnie. Yeah. So yeah, that's funny.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, so her uh, so Marnie's friends are like, yeah, you know, like that's honestly kind of weird that she's not allowed out on Halloween. Um uh the mom puts her foot down and says, No, Marnie is not going anywhere. So her friends leave and they're like, We'll bring you some candy, and they leave. Um, Marnie is so mad. She argues with her mom. She says that Sophie should be out trick-or-treating. She's like, You basically like you're crushing our spirits. Why are you doing this to us? She is so dramatic about it. I I wrote, I wrote uh Dylan as a hypochondriac buzzkill about it. At the time, I also did not know his name. Um, but yeah, uh Dylan talks about how, you know, what was it, the razor blades and apples was an urban myth. But you could get uh uh cavities from candy, and you can also like breathe in toxic fumes from masks, and Marnie's like, you see what's happening, you see what you're doing to us, we're becoming this, which is honestly turning into exactly. It's like you want all of us to be this. Are you sure, mom? Could you imagine three of them? Jesus. No, insufferable. Um, but finally the mom puts her foot down. She says there are just some things about Halloween that you don't understand. And Marnie says it's it's because the mom doesn't trust them to, you know, be careful and and make their own choices. And granted, she is 13. So Dylan is what, 10, 11, and Sophie is probably six, seven, something like that. Yeah, I don't know. She's little. Yeah, like they're not, they're young. Uh, but Marnie is uh makes up for it in confidence. Um yeah, uh Sophie looking out the window says somebody's coming again. Um, the mom is like, okay, we it's like that's enough of that. We're gonna, you know, get cleaned up to get ready for dinner. Um Dylan says that their mom is right. Halloween gives kids ideas about magic being real and basically says that it's dangerous in its own right. Uh Marnie says that Halloween is cool. She says it's exciting, strange, and ancient. Um, and also their parents met on Halloween. Um, they met at a Halloween party, and Dylan says, Aw, you know that talking about dad bums mom out. And I was like, oh no, their dad's dead.
SPEAKER_01Dead parent.
SPEAKER_03Dead parent. Do we ever talk about the dad? No. Do we ever learn anything about the dead? No.
SPEAKER_01Besides that he's human? No.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we learned that he's human. I realized a third, like two-thirds of the way through the movie, the mom didn't take his last name, and the kids in the credits she does. Really?
SPEAKER_01It says like Cromwell Powell. Oh, she hyphenated. Okay. Or I don't I don't know if it was hyphenated or maybe it was just like like middle last year.
SPEAKER_03Like what I did basically.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, middle last. Um because yeah, no, I think there it's Marnie Piper or Powell, or it's something. It's it's their last name is not Cromwell.
SPEAKER_03Oh my gosh. Okay. I truly did not clock that.
SPEAKER_01I don't They just don't say it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Let me Yeah, I think they just talk about the the heritage essentially.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they yeah. What which, you know, because it's oh Cromwell, which is Yeah. Okay, yeah, it's it's uh Gwen Cromwell Piper. Okay, Marnie Piper, Dylan Piper, Sophie Piper. Okay, so they do take his name.
SPEAKER_03Interesting. Okay.
SPEAKER_01But they don't I don't know if they ever really say like full names a lot of the time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um so like it yeah, and then, you know, Aggie going on about the Cromwell part of it. It's like Exactly, yeah. It was like a part here.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's just ignoring the mortal part. Yeah, the other line. Um But yeah, so uh Dylan Dylan's like, yeah, you know, you you know, talking about dad bums mom out. And I'm like, okay, cool. We have, you know, a full failure to communicate. No one's talking about anything openly here. So that's you know, that's obviously there's tension, of course there is. So over the neighborhood um in the dark night sky, we get a a bus, like a bright yellow bus and a bus stop sign that is coming from space. Question mark, just out of the sky. Um, the bus stop lands on the actual street. Um, and then the bus hovers what 10 feet above the ground, like next to the uh next to the actual bus stop sign. And we see Debbie Reynolds, who is Agatha Cromwell. Um, she uh pokes her head out of the bus and then she lowers down on an umbrella, like Mary Poppins, which was very cute. Um, she looks back and her uh carpet bag is still up on the step of the bus. Um, she calls for it to come follow her, and it kind of shimmies back and forth uh stubbornly, and then she finally starts walking and it hops out of the hops out of the bus to then follow her. Um so back in the back in the house, um, we're in the kitchen. Um Sophie tries to grab a cookie from a plate before dinner. Um mom stops her and says she has to eat dinner first. Uh Sophie says, Marnie's right, you never let us have any fun. And I'm like, oh, the mom's like, okay, yeah, whatever, like moves the plate of cookies. Um Sophie turns around to uh not face, like facing away from the mom and the plate of cookies, um, starts to pout and thinks very, very hard about how much she wants a cookie. And then a cookie starts floating up off of the plate and floating towards Sophie. And just in time, the mom turns around, sees the cookie floating, does not panic, but grabs it very quickly and shoves it in her own mouth before Sophie can see it. And Sophie turns around.
SPEAKER_01She also says not again.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, she says not again. So we are we are getting floor drops immediately. We are getting okay. Sophie has powers. Mom knows she has powers. Mom is playing it kind of cool, or trying at least. She is she's doing her best. Yeah, she's she is doing her best. My goodness. Um yeah, so um at that point, um, Agatha is I said Debbie Reynolds is inside, because we don't get her name either. Um was coming. Yeah, Grandma Aggie is inside the house. She is like, you know, she says hello. She is the the matriarch of the family. Um, everyone is very surprised to see her. Um, the kids are so excited to see her. Um, everyone runs over to, you know, give her a big hug. Um, but while they're still in the kitchen, Marnie leans over and says, Do you think you and grandma cannot fight for once? We haven't seen her in over a year. And I I I said, This is kind of shitty of you, Marnie. I don't know. I'm like, I I feel like this is not, you know, maybe there's stuff going on that you don't understand, which is the theme of the movie. It's like, hey, Marnie, yeah, maybe, maybe give it a break.
SPEAKER_01Maybe not something to say to your parents.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. It's like you're you're 13. It uh you are 13 years old. My God.
SPEAKER_01It's not your place.
SPEAKER_03You are a still a very, very much a child. Um, and then Dylan jumps in and says, Well, Grandma Aggie always starts those fights, anyways. So Dylan is is firmly on mom's side, which is frustrating because he's not always right either. Um, yeah, just because he's supporting her doesn't necessarily mean that anything is correct that's happening. Everyone just needs to have like one real conversation, which they do at the end. Uh, so in the living room, Grandma Aggie has her carpet bag. It is she pulls a full wooden skeleton out of it. Um, and I specifically was like, this is a Mary Poppins bag, and it's great. Um, she pulls a full wooden skeleton out of it, hands it to the mom, um, but it is also full of candy, and the kids just hop straight into it. Agatha tells them to dig in and then they can decorate for a party. Um, and meanwhile, the mom is trying to trying to rein everything in, say, no, no, no, no, no, we're not doing this. Um, Sophie uh says that grandma's already dressed up for Halloween, and Agatha says, Yeah, I always do. Um, because she she is wearing fair. Very, very traditional witchy sort of witch costume, but like very, like, you know, the lace and velvets and flowing sort of the typical witch garb. This is where I wrote, there's Mary, it's Mary Poppins bag. Um, so uh Agatha mentions that it is Marnie's 13th Halloween. She pointedly says that at the mom, says, okay, this is her 13th Halloween. Not birthday, but Halloween specifically. Um uh Marnie is digging into the bag. She pulls out a pentagram necklace from uh from Agatha's bag. Um, she references Lon Chaney in the in Wolfman in like the 1940s movie. Um and then immediately what that was. Yeah, it's um, yeah, it's uh oh god, is it 40s or 50s? It's like one of the first ones, but it's like the wolf, the wolf man. It's like that one. Um yeah. Um but yeah, uh she immediately put and here's where my notes get so long because I'm writing everything because I'm like, is this important? Is this pentagram necklace gonna stay? It doesn't. But this is this is how I wears it for a while. Exactly. But this is how I end up with 11 pages of notes and we're gonna talk for an hour and a half, and that's about it. But uh, so she, you know, is excited about that. It's like, oh, I I know a reference to this. Um, and Agatha says that uh I've always said that movies can teach us about life, um, which is which is kind of fun. I kind of I wanted that to come back more. I wanted more of like specifically the movies, you know, emulating, you know, that I don't know. It felt like there was a little thread there. I'm like, do more, do more with that. But I don't know. It's a Disney com. It's a it's a decom. It's it's okay.
SPEAKER_01Uh it is what I think. I think Aggie's Aggie is like, you know, subtle with a capital B. So it's like she's not really like she yeah, her her writing is not to be you know deep themes and everything. Although I do like that. Yeah. But um, yeah, she she's pretty bad at this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think she's like, oh man, that's crazy. Like, man, what if there were werewolves anyway? Real life. Whoa, whoa. And I wrote Marnie and Agatha start connecting over quote weird stuff. Um, like it's it's the stuff that we have heard mentioned that Marnie knows a lot about. She has um uh like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Um, I oh gosh, it was The Book of the Dead. Yeah, the Book of the Dead. That's just so many like things that Marnie like knows the trivia, knows history about. And so it's it's um, you know, her and Agatha immediately connecting over it. Um, the mom tries to put a stop to it, tries to pull pull Agatha back away. It's like, okay, like, you know, let's go eat dinner. Like, that's what we were about to do. And Agatha is like, yes, absolutely, but costumes first. And she pulls these costumes out of her bag. Um, Sophie is a ghost. She's just a ghost in a little sheet. She's very cute. So cute. Marnie is in pretty traditional witch garb as well. She says that she is a Wiccan. I have not thought about Wicca, I think in 20 years. I feel like any reference to to Wicca is now like it's more like paganism. Like I feel like that's like the term that you hear more commonly. And I straight up, I don't know where, I don't know where the line is. I don't know the definition of like, you know, that kind of like, you know, sort of spiritualisms. But truly, it was like, oh, I'm a wiccan, and I'm just like, that's the thing that your brain went to. I'm like, oh my God, okay. I was like, I this is late 90s, and I'm now I'm like, when that like hearing that term truly, I was like, I have not thought about this term in a thousand years.
SPEAKER_01It's been so no, it's that's funny you pointed that out because it's like, yeah, really, it was the topic of conversation, I feel like in high school, and that was it for me. Yeah. And maybe that was our high school and not other people's.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I think it was I think it was definitely an our high school specific conversation. But I also think that like after that, it was a lot of like you would hear more about paganism. And then it's like, you know, just sort of branched into like spirituality, and now it's just like spooky shit. And I'm like, okay, and now it's just like it, I feel like there's like the generalization. Like it's I think it's even more like mainstream pop culture, it's more accessible to. So I feel like it's it, there's less of like the the like specificity in in stuff to be. There's less labeling in it. Yeah, yeah. So I don't know. I feel I it's once again another rabbit hole that I'm like, I could fall down this. I could spend I was about to say, yeah, that's not one I I did I thought to go down, but that's a thing that I'm yeah, but it was it was funny that that just like you know reminded me. I was like, oh yeah, this is a word that I used to think about much more often.
SPEAKER_01This was a term, yeah.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, and then um uh Dylan is in a he has like a helmet with like long hair and like a full costume. It's kind of like a troll situation. It looked like a troller like a gremlin kind of thing. Yeah, like a like a full like costume costume. Like he is like a little monster. Um and then it's dinner time and it's totally fine. Um yeah, so we uh mom the mom shuts everything down. She's like, okay, it is time for dinner. Um we're sitting at the dinner table. Grandma Aggie is um teaching Sophie how to how to mun like a ghost. Um, because in real life, ghosts are are very sad. They don't just go, ooh, they actually sound it's very mournful. And the mom's like, All right, that's enough. It's time for bed. Everyone's done.
SPEAKER_01Um It also felt like she was like, ghosts are tend to be depressed. And I was like, is that racist, Aggie?
SPEAKER_03What's saying? Yeah, it a lot of a lot of stereotyping, specifically of ghosts, I think, in this movie. A lot, yeah. I don't know. Um, but yeah, so uh the mom shuts everything down. She's like, no, we are uh it's like, well, we all have to go to bed um because uh me and grandma have to talk about grown-up things. Um Sophie asks if Grandma Aggie can read them a bedtime story. Um everyone, everyone pleads with mom, and mom finally gives in. Um she's like, okay, fine, one story, and everyone excitedly runs up to get ready for bed, um, leaving the two of them in the kitchen. Uh Agatha says that she, you know, this, that this is nice that she really misses the kids. Um she asks Gwen to move back home and she says there's plenty of room there. And now that your husband's out of the picture, you know, there's not really anything keeping you here. And Gwen pushes back. She says that she wants to stay here. She she likes her life there. If she can have a normal life here. Um, right. And obviously it's like we haven't we haven't gotten into where here is versus versus home. I mean, she did, you know, fly in on a bus, so we have an idea, you know.
SPEAKER_01But um stuck called Halloween Town for nothing.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. Yeah. But yeah, uh Gwen says that she can have a normal life here. Um Agatha says being normal is vastly overrated.
SPEAKER_01Um that is a big quote from the movie.
SPEAKER_03Oh, of course it is. I was gonna say, this is like this is the phrase, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's on a lot of stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, Gwen says it's it's chaos every time Agatha comes to visit. Like it's just, it's so much. But Gwen says she doesn't want to fight about it. She knows that Agatha's only here for a couple hours. Um, she says to go, you know, go ahead, go tell the kids a story. She says, go talk to them, get to know them, don't tell them about home. Specifically setting that. So uh we get uh so we get um Sophie and Marnie's room. Um grandma is settling in on Sophie's bed to read them a story. Um, Dylan comes in, he uh blabs about setting the thermostat to 68 degrees to conserve energy. Marnie tells him to just get over here and and knock it off. So uh grandma starts to tell her story. She says, My story is about a magical place where many different sorts of creatures live together in peace. And Dylan says, like Cleveland. And I'm like, this is peak 90s dialogue. Here we are. Everything's quips and bullying. Let's go.
SPEAKER_01It's awesome.
SPEAKER_03It's great.
SPEAKER_01It's so red.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god, so it's so ity. Um, but no, uh, Grandma is talking about Halloween Town, where she says all kinds of monsters um live there, but she says also witches. And Sophie says that she doesn't like witches because they're mean. Um, Agatha says that that that's not necessarily true. Witches are just like normal people. There are good ones and bad ones, there are nice ones and mean ones. Um, she says you can't tell what's in a monster's heart just by looking at them. Um I said Dylan is a buzzkill. He says that uh uh that Agatha should um uh make sure for Sophie's sake that, you know, to clarify that it's that Halloween Town isn't real. Um and Agatha refuses to do so. She's like, well, no, it is real. I read about it in a book. And then she produces said book that is called Halloween Town. Um, and Marnie is so hype. She is very excited. Agatha opens the book. Um, she flips to like flips through a couple pages. Um there's a giant jack-o' lantern and there are different monsters, and then she flips to a page with a witch on uh witch flying on a broom. And Sophie points to it and says that it's it looks like Marnie. And Marnie sees it too. And Agatha sort of gives this very knowing look to Marnie. Um I said, Dylan doesn't see it because he sucks. I am edit I'm editorializing a lot on Dylan, and I think I came, I came real hard at this kid, and I okay right out the gate. It was like there was so much like there was so much no but when there could have been a yes and and I'm just like, hey man, you don't even have to reply. This no one was saying, Dylan, what do you think? It's like, no, you could just listen. You could just let your sisters have this moment. God, come on, man.
SPEAKER_01But that wouldn't be the 90s trope.
SPEAKER_03It would not, no, it wouldn't be a 90s movie.
SPEAKER_01No, not at all.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, so now that that Marnie kind of has this connection, she's like, oh my gosh, this is me. Like she's really connecting to it. So Agatha starts to starts deprise. She's like, Well, do you think you're a witch? Have you done any spells? Um, and Marnie says that there's nothing special about her. Um, and Agatha says that that's not true. She starts to say, from the dawn of time, the Cromwells, their you know, matriarchal line, have been special. And mom happens to walk by at that time and says, Nope, that's it. Grandma has to leave. We're cutting this off. Yeah, the the story is over. We're shutting this conversation down. Um, she uh reminds uh Agatha that she has to be gone by midnight, remember? Um, Marnie uh so then um Agatha gets up to leave, says goodnight to the kids, and then leaves. Um we get uh Marnie looks at the book. Um she looks at it sort of sadly. Obviously, just you know, a repeat of earlier, like being frustrated that mom is shielding her from things that she's interested in. Um she looks at the book, but then she sneaks downstairs to listen to what her mom and grandma are talking about. Um so Gwen and Agatha are arguing downstairs. Um Gwen says that it is up to her. Verbatim saying the things out loud now. Gwen is saying it's up to her whether Marnie gets to train to be a witch or not. Uh Agatha says that her 13th Halloween should be the end of her training. And if she doesn't finish her training by her 13th Halloween, she will lose her witch powers forever. Um, Gwen says that's fine. She will be normal, just like the rest of us, basically. Um, Agatha says she's all she's honestly lucky that two of her kids showed power showed any powers at all. Um the, you know, it's why would she want to shield her kids from having magic? Why is she why is she making them do things the hard way? Um Agatha um she makes a joke about their left the leftover chicken from dinner. Um she snaps her fingers and turned it into a live chicken that squawks in the kitchen. Um Gwen is annoyed, and then Agatha turns it back into fried chicken. Marnie is watching from around the corner and is stunned and is actually hearing everything that is being said. Um Gwen says that um uh Agatha's been dropping hints about Marnie being a witch. She's been dropping hints for years. She's telling her to just give up on it, just to knock it off. Um, and Agatha finally gives in and says, okay, but she's also there, not just for Marnie, but she wants to ask for Gwen's help. She says that something is wrong back at home. She says that that things are happening to her neighbors. They're like transforming and they're they're becoming they're becoming, you know, hateful and cruel, and then they're just disappearing. Um and Gwen is unconcerned. She's like, yeah, people move. Like that's that's not super gaslights her. Yeah, Gwen is like Gwen is so frustrating. Um, but uh Agatha says that she she needs to do something about it. She just needs to figure it out, and she needs another Cromwell witch. Um and Gwen says this has nothing to do with her, which honestly is it's the wrong thing to say, like regardless. It's not that it has nothing to do with her, it has to do with her mother. Like it may not be, you know, the place that she is still like emotionally involved in, but that's like I don't know, to say that it has nothing to do with her. I'm like, when you have fully compartmentalized this. Like, I know, damn, girl, okay. Like, no, you should not do that. Um, so at that, um, Agatha looks really disappointed. Um, and finally she leaves. Um, so meanwhile, we're up, we're back upstairs. Uh, Marnie is telling Dylan the entire thing, um, the everything that she heard, everything about her being a witch, everything about the chicken, um, everything about grandma being being a witch and needing help and that she's gonna go. And Dylan is like, What are you talking about? That doesn't make any sense. And she's like, Whatever, I'm going, I'm gonna leave. They look out the window. Um, they see Agatha and her and her bag um walking down the street. Her bag is following her. Um, Dylan plays it off. He's like, Oh, it must be remote controlled. And Marnie's like, I'm gonna follow her, I'm gonna figure this out. Um, and Dylan is is you know, pushing back, saying that that's you know, it's that doesn't make any sense. Like that can't be real. And then Marnie goes into the, haven't you ever wondered why this? Haven't you ever wondered? And so we find out that they are not allowed to, you know, watch or read or consume anything that has the word magic in it. Um, we find out that Marnie has deja vu all the time. We find out that stuff falls off the shelves when Sophie is mad. Um, there are it's just too many coincidences. Marnie is getting dressed and she's gonna, she's gonna go follow Agatha. So the mom is um finishing cleaning up, kind of spacing out, watching infomercials on TV, and Marnie is able to slip past her, um, past the kitchen and out of the door. Dylan follows her. He says, as the man of the house, he needs to, he needs to keep an eye on her. Sigh. 90s boys, my goodness. So they um they follow at a distance and they see Agatha um stop at that bus stop that wasn't there before. They see the bus actually. Is the bus on the ground then? Because they get on pretty easily.
SPEAKER_01It's on the ground this time. I don't know why. A grander entrance, perhaps.
SPEAKER_03I guess, yeah.
unknownI don't know.
SPEAKER_01It does seem odd though.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Anyways, the uh the bus is at the bus stop. Uh they see Agatha get onto the bus. They sneak on to the back. They open that back door and sneak into that back row because they are going to follow her. The bus uh takes off into the sky into multicolored fog. Um, and then we finally pan over to see the other, the other occupants on the bus, who it is a Frankenstein monster who is talking to a demon question mark. There are a lot of non-specific monsters in this, a lot of just like very goopy latex faces. And I'm like, you're a monster. Don't know what flavor you are, but but You're a dog man. You sure are spooky. Let's go.
SPEAKER_01You're right, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, just a lot of like, what features did we want to slap onto this guy? Let's let's go. Sure. Um, which honestly, I love it. But yeah, they are they are talking about how, you know, basically they're making small talk, but about how, you know, things, things are different now, like going to the human world. It's like, uh, no one, no one takes us seriously, no one respects monsters, which is we're obviously going to Halloween town. We all know this by now. It's not a secret. But at the same time, it's like, oh, okay, there is some back and forth. Like, and the the human realm is not foreign. Like, it's not like, oh, we don't know what this is. Like, we get the fact that there is some back and forth between it, literally. Um, so the best descends into spooky Halloween town. There are pumpkins everywhere, there are monsters in the street. Um, they are uh finally getting off of the bus. We see the gigantic jack-o'-lantern that is in the middle of town. Um, it is very traditional, like city streets, um, just like a like a small town with the town square and a crossing guard and stuff like that. Um, it's very cute. Agatha gets off of the bus. Um, she immediately bumps into another witch. This is her friend Harriet, um, who is great. I love this. Uh Harriet says that she was volunteering at the headless shelter. Um, she baked muffins. She made them to bring to the shelter. It didn't occur to her that they couldn't eat them. And so she offers Agatha a muffin. I was like, that's good. That's funny.
SPEAKER_01I love Harriet.
SPEAKER_03She's just, she's just delightful. She's older, like just very pleasant British lady. I just, I love it. She's she's great. Kid vibes. Um, but we also get the we get a view of someone watching her from on top of the jack-o'-lantern in the center of town. And Agatha turns to look where we see the camera was, um, and no one is there. So that won't come back later. It's probably fine.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, so the kids get off of the bus as well. Um, I said, Dylan is having a crisis. Um, Dylan is looking around at all the monster, all the monsters, and he said, Mom said they were just pretend. And I'm like, Well, buddy, I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. Kansas anymore. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he's uh he's having a a crisis of faith. I love that a lot of these monsters are just people in super normal clothes, just with monster faces and hands. It's great. I love it. Four million dollar budget. Yeah, 24 days, man. It's like, hey, wear wear your clothes. We're gonna slap a mask on you. It's like dope. I'll see you there. So uh they turn around to, you know, look for Agatha because they just saw her get off the bus. Um, they turn around to see Sophie, who followed them and snuck on the bus. What? She's man, I was gonna say she's magic. She's literally magic. She's the chosen one.
SPEAKER_01By all accounts, it doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_03It doesn't make sense. Sophie's the chosen one. This is it. This is this is Sophie's story. So they um, you know, they look around the town. Um, the jack-o'-lantern, um, they note that it looks different than the one in the book specifically. Sophie says that it's the bad thing, um, which is ominous, and we will come back to that later. I feel like I know I feel like I wrote down every time she said something about the bad thing, and I'm like, there's a thread. I'm getting this. Smart. Yeah, she's good. Um, so we uh we turn around and there is a a tall man in a black suit uh who says he is the mayor. He has come to introduce himself because he needs to know everyone who's in the town. Um he says that his name is Calabar and he is a warlock. Is his name spelled with a K or a C?
SPEAKER_01Because the So Yes funny story in the first one, it is a C.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_01In the sequel, they changed it to a K.
SPEAKER_03I disagree. I feel like they shouldn't. They shouldn't have done that. I thought the closed captions were just wrong.
SPEAKER_01No, no, they were fully right.
SPEAKER_03That's so interesting. Um, yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I guess a K is more mystical. Um I guess like it like looking at it, the K feels better.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But the C was first. Like literally, even in like the opening credits of the movie, it's like so and so as Calabar.
SPEAKER_03And I was like, huh, okay. Like Yeah, and I think I think it's I had like a like a Barenstein Bears situation where I was just like I was like Which one? Yeah. I was like, but I I feel like I've read and I was like, I know there's another one, you're in the other one, you seek revenge at some point, but your name's spelled different. I'm like, different? No, same guy. Maybe I gotta watch the other one now. Um but yeah, so I I said, uh, okay, the only thing I know about these movies is that the sequel's called Calabar's Revenge, so I do not trust this man. Um smart. Yeah, but also he gives off bad vibes from like I think not this scene, but like he gives off bad vibes pretty quickly.
SPEAKER_01He does that also, he does that like rude adult thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01To k to like, especially to Sophie. I'm like, that's not funny. Yeah. Like, come on. Like getting kids' names wrong and stuff. Like, that's that's a bad joke.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's it's too real. We don't want to see that. We don't need this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. 90s 90s little brothers, that's one thing, but adults being condescending, we don't need that. Nobody needs that. Yeah. Knock it off, Calabar. We don't like this. Um so um, so yeah, uh they introduce themselves. Um, Marnie says that they are Agatha's grandchildren. Um Calabar is like, oh, that's crazy. Uh he immediately asks about their mom, asks if she's there too. And Marnie's like, You're Gwen's kids? Yeah, it's like, oh, you're Gwen's kids? Like, oh, is she here too? And they're like, no, it's fine. Um, so Marnie uh plays it off. She's like, oh, you know, we're just trying to get up to Agatha's house. So Calabar uh calls a cab that is driven by Benny the Skeleton, who is a robot with some fantastic eyebrows. His his brow bone is is doing so much. Um I love it. Um so we uh we hop in the cab that is being driven uh up to this gorgeous mountain view. Um specifically, Ben Benny tells them that they need to be careful because there are unsavory characters around. Um, and as we mentioned, unsavory characters, um, he sort of points out the window to a guy who just looks like a human. Um uh he's a kid, his name is Luke. Um this uh Benny says that he got a nose job and a wart removal from a shadow creature, which sounds which is a crazy sentence, and I love that. But they call him specifically like a punk, and I was like, Yeah, and so I'm like, okay, and I'm like, what is this human doing here? And then we we get to it. But yeah, so specifically we have been flagged, just like, watch out for this guy, and we're like noted. Thanks, Benny. Good looking out, bud. Um, so we get to uh Agatha's house, which is on the top of this gorgeous hill. Um, this is where I I was wondering where it was shot, and it definitely seems like Oregon Mountains, like just God, and it and it's so clearly fall, like the trees are changing. It's gorgeous. It's great. I love it. Um so there is a lock on the gate. Um, and Marnie uh is excited. She's like, I'm gonna use my magic powers to open it. So she starts to make up uh she like says, you know, abracadabra, she makes up some some magic spells. Um Dylan immediately is like, you you said you could do magic, like what was that? And Marnie gets in his face about it. Dylan, Dylan, buddy, you don't have a better plan. You can't pick locks, bud. I don't know. Calm down.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, let her figure it out. You didn't believe in magic like a second ago, and now you expect her to be awesome at it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. You were just in a in a butt in a cab driven by a skeleton. Maybe get on board, bud. Yeah. I don't yeah, like the amount of like negation of it is just so frustrating. Um, but so as Marnie goes to argue with Dylan about it, um, we see the gate um swing open behind them, and they they turn back, and Sophie uh they ask Sophie how she did it, and she's like, Oh, I just pushed it. Um they're like, Okay, great, come on. They walk past Sophie, and Sophie very quietly says, Also, I wish the lock would turn into a frog. And we pan down, and there is a gigantic frog where the lock was. Sophie's the chosen one. Um Magic Prodigy. We see inside Agatha's house, um, she has a box of instant witches brew. Um, she so this is so all of the witch stuff, it's so vague and nothing, and it's still very cute and it makes me happy. I don't know what I don't know what witch's brew is. I think it's funny that there's an instant one. Um she sets she has a microwave, she sets it to bubble bubble toil and trouble, which is great. We love to see it. Um, but as she is, as she is setting her magic microwave, um Agatha stops and she says, somebody's coming, uh just like Sophie did in the beginning. Um so she goes to the front door and opens it, and lo and behold, all three kids are there, and she opens the door and lets them in, and she's so excited, it's such a nice surprise, but she guesses correctly that Gwen doesn't know you're here, and they're like, Yeah. Uh the kids are like, Well, can you just like call and let her know where we are? And she's like, Well, we haven't exactly figured out long distance calling yet. Um, and I said, and that makes sense to Dylan. Dylan just goes, Yeah, okay, all right. So Agatha says, Well, you know, I I need to I have to take you home. Like your mom's gonna be worried about you. Uh Marnie and Sophie specifically say that they want to stay and help fight whatever the bad thing is. Uh Marnie says, You said you needed another Cromwell witch. Um, and Agatha says, like she it takes zero convincing. She says, Okay, but the kids have to be home before midnight. Um, and uh Marnie said Marnie points out that that is two hours away. And we get, well, time works differently here. Uh two hours might be two days, it might be two weeks. We don't really know. And I for me, I was like, that's I was wondering why it was daytime here when they went at 10 p.m. But yeah, time is wibbly wobbly. Like we're we're fine. Um, but also what all of this I think takes place in like a day, right?
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03Like I'm trying to think, like, no one sleeps, no one goes to bed. Oh my god, you're right. Yeah, I think this is a day. I don't know. Oh wow, yeah. I was just trying like trying to backtrack. I'm like, well, yeah, yeah, this is just a day. That's crazy. Woo. What a development. I know, they cover a lot of ground. Um, so we get um Agatha's Witch's Glass, which is basically I I wrote it as a cauldron of scrying, which is just what it is. Um, there is a just the liquid in it shows sort of a reflection. Um, we she looks into it just to see what is, you know, what it's showing her. Uh she sees a vision of these dark swirling clouds, and there's a monster that is laughing inside of it. Um, it looks like he has like kind of like Scarecrow from the first from Batman Begins, like kind of like a bag over his head, like that situation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but it's like green face. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So we see a monster. Um, she says that the evil forces are getting closer. Um, but she has something that can help. She has a talisman from Merlin. It is from the sixth century. Um, and the kids are just they're just rolling with it. Marnie is like, okay, that's wild, but let's go. Like, there are there are very few follow-up questions. And I kind of I love the hand waving of this. I'm just like, yeah, let's go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like Merlin's real. Let's do it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's like, and grandma was alive then. Totally chill. Let's go. Right. Yeah. Grandma is old as hell. Let's go. Um, so she opens this box. Um, she has the the talisman is basically a I I kept calling it like a staff or a wand, and then I just called it the talisman because I think that's what we just kept calling it. But it's like like a foot-long sort of like staff situation. It has a a round crystal inside of like talons that are holding it in place. Um, so Marnie sees it and she gets really excited. She asks if she's gonna hold a seance or if she's gonna call spirits. Um, and Agatha says, No, I'm gonna fill it up with witch's brew and I'm gonna see if it lights up. And that's pretty much it. She's basically just throwing batteries at it like a flashlight and just shaking it to make sure it works. This'll work. Yeah, exactly. It's like, let's see if these batteries are still good. She spoons this witch's brew into it, um, which is just it's just like dry ice smoke. It's very fun. Um just in a bowl. Um, but uh she also has to say a spell, um, which is just phonetically, it's just it's there's no like definition of like here's what this means or anything. It is just sort of a, you know, you said that it's based on Welsh.
SPEAKER_01Some of the words or syllables in there were Welsh. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's fun. Um but yeah, uh, but Agatha specifically says that spells are more powerful um if multiple witches cast them at the f at the same time. So if she has, you know, more people, they can cast a stronger spell. Um, so she says the spell and she sprinkles glitter over the orb. Um she says it very dramatically. Um, and then she finishes the spell. There's a flash of light from the crystal, but then it dims again. Um, and she says, Well, that's what happens when you use instant. You have to make it from scratch or else it's not good. Um and Marnie says, Well, I know how to cook, I can help. Um, so in order to make this witch's brew from scratch, they do have they have to go shopping. They gotta get some weird stuff like ghost sweat and werewolf fur, you know, just vampire fag. Yeah, just so casual. Um, so they have to go shopping. But um, Agatha specifically says that they need to be, they need to keep it quiet about what they're looking for because they she doesn't know who they can trust. Um, so this is sort of a it sounds like either no one in the town has taken her seriously or like no one else has noticed, or like it it's not, it's not clear like how many people she's actually talked to about it. Like it kind of seems like maybe she, you know, maybe brought it up to some people, but maybe those people disappeared. No, we don't really know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Meanwhile, we're back at home. Um, we see uh Gwen is locked in on those infomercials. We see the candy wrappers that are piling up. Um uh finally, one of the infomercials talks about something disappearing like magic, and it kind of jolts her out of it. She's like, Nope, nope, we're not doing that, turns the TV off and she calls it a day. Um, so she starts to um she uh goes upstairs to check on the kids and immediately sees that all three of them are gone, and now she's gotta figure that out.
SPEAKER_01And at this point, I'm like, oh, poor Gwen. She's just trying to be a good mom.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Gwen is straight up doing her best. She has literally no support from anyone but Dylan, which barely counts.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's not even good support.
SPEAKER_03No, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like you almost don't want it.
SPEAKER_03He's like, it's like having a partner versus having like an evil henchman. He's like, he's such a yeah, boss. Like, that's his energy when he backs her up, you know?
SPEAKER_01He's a sidekick.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's cartoon sidekick. That's what he is when he's like, yeah, mom said this. And it's like, calm down, bud, get a grip. Uh, we're back in in town going to these stores. Um, so Sophie asks if there's a Halloween party because everyone's dressed up. Um, and Agatha says that this is just what all of these, you know, the people, the citizens of Halloween Town, this is just what they wear every day. Um, she says that it looks a lot like costume, like like costumes that mortals wear because the people who, quote, I think she said invented Halloween. Um, basically they just saw what was going on in Halloween Town and copied it. She said, mortals see, mortals do. They're just they're just copying them. Um, but she says that it actually worked out because their parents met uh because her mom crashed a Halloween party uh while she was dressed as a witch. And their dad said that he liked their liked her costume so much. Um, which is very cute. So mom used to have some Halloween spirit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh I said Dylan is having fun because he's decided it's a dream and he's just dissociating now. He's just decided to compartmentalize and just go with it, um, which is which is fun. Sophie says that she likes that she likes it, that she likes it here. Um she but she asks why why it's so far away, like why, why grandma lives so far away. Um, and so then we get the backstory of Halloween Town as an entity. So Agatha tells tells everyone that Halloween Town was specifically created to keep humans and monsters, witches, etc., from basically trying to destroy each other. Because when they coexisted, um people were afraid of monsters, so they would attack them and then monsters would lash out because they were being attacked, and it was just sort of the cycle of violence begetting violence, begetting violence, and and you know, no one no one taking care of each other. Um, so this is basically the compromise to get peace for both both realms, essentially. We don't get like how long ago this happened, we don't really get like much of we just get the only reference is like the dark time.
SPEAKER_01Yes. And we're like, we don't know when that was.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and we also, you know, found out that that Agatha's like, you know, 2,000 years old, so it's like, okay, I don't know. Like, who knows? Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And time We don't even know, honestly, how old Gwen is.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. And time passes differently here, so like who the fuck knows? You know, like it's I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I don't know, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Honestly, it is the perfect amount of exposition for a kid's movie, which I need to find. Which I'm reminding myself that this is.
SPEAKER_01Right. And and also it's like how much of it is over the head right now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, like how much of it is actually taken in and like, or is it just like, oh my god, look at that silly ghost. Oh my gosh, look at, you know, they're witches, they're flying. Like, you know, ooh, that's spooky. You're like, you know, I'll have to after this, I'll have to talk to Evelyn and be like, what do you remember about Halloween Town? Like, tell me, tell me like what what did you like about it and what what happened to it basically. And like, I don't know if she's gonna give me much. That's a good point.
SPEAKER_03I don't even know. Yeah, but um, but yeah, so we get like that general, you know, amount of exposition. Um, so we walk by the uh uh movie theater. The Marquis says closed forever, and and apparently this was just open. Agatha goes, Oh, I love this movie theater. This is frustrating. And while they are standing in front of the movie theater, a woman um is walking down the sidewalk and bumps into Agatha. She turns around and it we notice that she has the same hair as her friend Agatha from the beginning, um, but she has a like melted sort of ghoul face. Um her friend Harriet.
SPEAKER_01Harriet, guys.
SPEAKER_03What did I say?
SPEAKER_01You said Agatha, so that's fair.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, but yeah, uh it's her friend Harriet from the beginning. Um and Agatha realizes that that's that that's who that was. Um, but the woman with the sort of melted looking face, like doesn't really there's no recognition. She like bumps into her, sort of snarls, and then keeps walking. But and we, you know, get the one-to-one of like neighbors turning into something else. So uh Agatha sees Calabar um walking on the other side of the sidewalk. Um, she says that she needs to go tell him what's happening about Harriet. They uh meet in a candy shop, ice cream shop.
SPEAKER_01Ice cream shop.
SPEAKER_03Ice cream shop, that's it. Um, but uh Agatha explains what happened specifically to Harriet, that she saw her, she was fine a few hours ago. Um and this is where we get that he that she's brought this up with Calabar before because he says, you know, I didn't believe you at first. I'm I'm sorry I didn't I'm sorry I didn't listen. Like I see, I see what you mean. I understand now. But he says that right now she needs to leave it alone. Um especially, especially since her grandkids are here. He says that it's too dangerous to get involved by herself. Um and Agatha kind of kind of bristles at that. She frowns at him and he says, give me two days. Just two days. That's all I'm asking. And and then we'll I'll I'll figure it out. Um, and this is where I was like, red flags, don't like this. I good yeah, I don't like the you shouldn't worry about it. I'm like, no, you never want to, you never want like a public official who's like, you shouldn't worry, you're pretty little head about that. No, no, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01I wrote my my editorializing note was oh sure, a white man tell Debbie Reynolds what to do. I think not.
SPEAKER_03How dare! How dare you, sir? Who do you think you are? Yeah. Um, so uh meanwhile, um, Agatha goes back to check on the kit, the other kids. Um, um, but Marnie is across the street. She has found a flying broom shop. Um, she is very excited. She asks Agatha if she can have one. Um, Agatha says that oh, she says, sure, that it's a rite of passage. It's her 13th Halloween. Um, there is a very flashy salesman who is talking up the Windsweeper 5000, um, talking about all of the the features that it has. Um, and uh he basically is like, that is if you can handle it. And Agatha says, of course she can handle it. She's at Cromwell. And I'm like, what is like this family? Is it's ridiculous. Like, I love that it's like another thing that we are told and not shown, but it is very much like this is the family, and it's like, oh, okay, I believe you. That's fine.
SPEAKER_01We are witch royalty. Exactly. It's it's don't you know who I am? It's very much um, yeah, uh witchy nepotism.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god, yeah. These are these are the witch Kardashians.
SPEAKER_01Oh no.
SPEAKER_03No, no, they're no, they're not, they're more useful than that. Um, but uh yeah, Marnie immediately is like, that sounds good. She asks uh how to fly it. The salesman goes, You do it with magic. And Marnie's like, yeah, I totally knew that. No big deal. Uh-huh. Ha ha, sure. Yeah. The amount of non-magic that Marnie displays is crazy. Sophie is chosen one. Marnie is Mary Sue. Marnie is like, I'm special because I've said that I'm special. And I'm like, I need you to show some magic prowess, girl. Like, I don't know. I need more of this.
SPEAKER_01Um, I was curious, um, only because the mom mentions it later that, like, yes, you were showing signs of magic and I hid them from you. I was wondering if it like peaks at that age. Where it's like, if we had seen Marnie at that age, would she also be creepy like Sophie or not? It's hard to see, it's hard to know because she doesn't really get into it much. Yeah. But it's like, why wouldn't she have just continued to have these powers? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It's like if they're discouraged early enough that like, do they sort of like grow? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm not sure. But you're right. Like, she absolutely like she wants it so bad, but has none of it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, she got she is making up spells left and right, and then Sophie's like, no, it's like this. And I'm like, oh, girl, okay. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Well, don't worry, it gets better in the second one, but she knows some magic.
SPEAKER_03You know, I think I think maybe that's what I need to do. I need the second one because I need Marnie to redeem herself. Because I think in this, she is a little she is just a 13-year-old girl, and I'm like, Marnie, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01Who really wants she wants her Hogwarts letter before there were Hogwarts?
SPEAKER_03Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She is like, I'm waiting. I'm ready for, I'm ready to be the chosen one. And then Sophie's like, yes, got it. You mean like this? What, like it's hard? Nailed it. Yeah. Kobe.
unknownYeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_03Um, so yeah, so we get um the the human-looking kid, Luke. Um, he walks over immediately to Neg Marnie. Um, he's yeah, he says that he's a big deal around town. He uh he asks Marnie to go to get ice cream with him. Um Marnie tells him off, is just like, yeah, I this you're a jerk and I'm not interested in you. Like this sucks. Um Dylan backs her up in the first good move that Dylan has made. Um, which is great. I like that sibling dynamic where it's like we will be at each other's throats, and then as soon as someone like comes for, it's like, hey, that's my fucking sister.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, yeah. The sibling bond is strong against outside forces.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. Yeah, it's like no one is allowed to bully my sister but me.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, but yeah, so uh Luke um kind of gets flustered. He says that they should be nice to him because he's friends with some very powerful creatures, and then he trips out the curb um as he's leaving. Um the salesman even says he kind of turned into a wiener, um, which is very which is just very funny. Like it just It's very wild, it's very comment on someone like that. It's very kids, it's very nine, very kids movie, very 90s, but it's it is also just like an adult bullying a child, too. This guy's such a wiener.
SPEAKER_01It's like clearly you've seen this child grow up like, yeah, this kid, he's kind of a dick.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. He sucks now. Yeah. What? Have you noticed this local kid sucks?
SPEAKER_01And they're like, uh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's weird. It's so funny. Um, but yeah, so um we have chosen the broom. So uh Marnie and Agatha take it out for a spin, and we get Marnie and Agatha flying on the broom. Um, Agatha says this there's a reason why witches don't drive minivans, which is very cute. Um Marnie asks how she's doing it, how magic works. Um, and Agatha says, Magic is very simple. All you have to do is want something and then let yourself have it. Um and I said, It's the power of positive thinking. That's literally it. It's the secret. So uh they they come back from their test drive, they land next to the other kids. Sophie says, me next. And then we hear, I don't think so. And I said, No, it's mom. Oh mom's here to crash the party. Um, but yeah, but also how did she get there? Right? The bus stop was never known. We have no idea. No, uh no clue. Gwen has powers that unknowable powers that we will never get to the bottom of.
SPEAKER_01That's where Sophie gets it from.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, good for her.
SPEAKER_01Well, she's also full witch. These kids are all half human.
SPEAKER_03That's true. Yeah. So yeah. So Gwen doesn't even have to try very hard. She's like, yeah, let's go. Um, so Agatha um starts to say, Oh, I was I was gonna bring them back as soon as it was, you know, as soon as I could. Um, immediately Gwen starts blaming Agatha for bringing the kids with her. Um, Agatha pushes back and says, No, they they did this on their own. They came to see me. Um Sophie backs Agatha up. She says that she wanted to come help fight the bad thing. And Marnie says that she's there to stop her to start her witch training. And Dylan says he tried to stop them, but they hypnotized him. And Marnie says, I thought you were brave. He goes, Hey, this is mom, which I did think was funny.
SPEAKER_01Legit. Yeah. He's got a few good ones.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's yeah, he he shines through in a couple moments. I'm like, okay, Dylan, you're all right. You get you got some good ones. He's so obnoxious. His acting is great. Like he's he's crushing it. He's doing exactly what is asked of him. Unfortunately, that makes him insufferable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you do so well that, you know, you suck.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's like most of your experience in Game of Thrones going, this guy is horrible. I never want to see him again. I'm like, yeah, that's fair. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So uh uh Gwen is there to shut all of that down. She says that they need to get on the bus to go back home. Um Marnie says that Agatha, that grandma needs help from the only other Cromwell witch. Um she's, you know, declaring herself, basically. Uh Gwen says that she that Marnie's not a witch. Marnie says, yes, I am. No thanks to you. You were gonna let my powers go away forever. The mom tries to say again that that Marnie doesn't understand. Um Marnie says that she doesn't care, that she's she's staying, she's gonna figure it out. Um, Agatha, Agatha pushes back too, said that this is Marnie's birthright. Um, that this is what she's supposed to have. And Gwen says that she was born in the human world, so that's where she's gonna grow up, and that's the world that she is in. She uh Gwen puts her foot down, says that Marnie is grounded, and tells everyone to say goodbye to grandma. And yeah, just shuts all of it down.
SPEAKER_01And I'm so torn in this because I was like, of course, looking at it from a mom's perspective, I was like, was the grandma really in the right there to like push back? It's like these aren't your kids, you know? Yeah, it's like you can argue, but you can't be like, yeah, your kids like me better than you. Take that. It's like that's not, we don't do that.
SPEAKER_03Like, that's not no, absolutely not. Especially from especially seeing as hard as Agatha is trying to have a relationship, not just with Marnie, not just like, okay, well, you know, Gwen gave up on me. So Marnie, like, you're the new, like, you're the new, you're the one. Like, she wants the relationship with Gwen. The only reason that she's training, like, Marnie is interested. And so it's like, okay, well, we have this common goal, but like I feel like if Gwen said, okay, you know, you're right, I'm back, she would be just as happy. She wants the like she wants that connection. So it's yeah, it is, it is tough. And I think I think right now the big thing is I don't think anyone is like fully right or wrong, but I think Gwen needs to realize that this is actually her fight. I think Gwen needs to get on board sooner and say, okay, no, this does involve me.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. But it it was it was a weird standoff to me. Yeah. Of like the kids like airbutting themselves. Yeah, exactly. And then like changing their minds because mom got mad.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the fact that I did not expect Marnie to give in. Like, I as soon as the mom was like, you're grounded, and Marnie's like, oh, okay. And I was like, damn, okay. All right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. But you gotta think it's like maybe if she was like 17, she'd be like, I would say, you know. That's true. But I think at 13, it's like mom's still for good reason.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this is still word of law, 100%.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and like this is as a mom speaking like 13, you should still listen.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03I always think, um, God, little mermaids, like, I'm 15, I'm not a child anymore. And I'm like, oh boy. Ariel.
SPEAKER_01I thought of that one too. Yeah. When she yeah, the I'm 13, I'm practically the same. And I was just like, I need to sit down for that one. Oh my god. Pause the movie and just put your head in your hands for a second.
SPEAKER_03Oh god.
SPEAKER_01Strap in, kids. Like, oh my god.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01She's rocked my world here. Teaching the wrong lessons. Yeah. Gosh. But I mean, to like young kids watching that, oh my God, yeah, they're such, they're so grown up. Like they're they're the ones saving the day. They're the heroes. Like, so it's it's I mean, it's cool for kids. Yeah. It's just like, you know, as 37 and 39-year-olds respectively, it's like, no.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, no. Imagining if it was like, yeah, absolutely. Like when I was 13, I'm like, I I was gonna do this. I'm like, you idiot. What do you mean? What are you talking about? Oh my god, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I don't know what good thoughts I had at 13 or good ideas.
SPEAKER_03I don't think I had good thoughts 20 years ago. Are you kidding me? No. 19-year-old Kate had some problems.
SPEAKER_01What do you mean? Yeah, 17 and 19-year-old us. No. Woof. No. 25-year-old?
SPEAKER_03She was pushing. Oh, yeah. She's she made some questionable choices. Look at us now. We turned out great. We're fine.
SPEAKER_01We're perfect. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we're perfect. We'll never change. Not accepting notes.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So um, so yeah, uh mom shuts everything down, tells Marnie she's grounded. Um, Marnie reluctantly hands the broom back. She thanks uh Grandma Aggie for the ride. Um, then she walks over to join the group. Um Gwen reaches out to her, and Marnie just dodges her hand fully like she's going along with it, but she is not happy. Um so we go, we're trying to get the bus back. Um there's a two-headed bus ticket agent who's just having, just having a time. Like this guy's great. He's just one side is drinking caffeine and the other one's trying to get him to stop. It's great. It's it's it's good. It's a good time. Um, I didn't even take notes. I was just like, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02I just let it wash.
SPEAKER_01This is just funny. It's it's peak. Yeah, peak couple.
SPEAKER_03It's very fun. It's very good. Um, so uh meanwhile, while um while the mom is trying to get the attention of these two men who are arguing, or one man who is arguing with himself uselessly. Um Marnie says that she's never speaking to her mom again. She says she's never going back to school. She's gonna move really far away and join a motorcycle gang. Um Gwen turns to her and says that it's like that's not what this is. She says that how this isn't their world. Marnie says it used to be hers, and then she moved on. And then she starts to say, Oh, I guess you're gonna move on from being our mom too. And then I said, Is this about their dad dying? Is this just about like grief and like miscommunication and not talking through the problems that, you know, happen in your family and not being honest with your kids? I don't know. Just thinking thoughts. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, but yeah, uh the mom is trying to get any information. Uh apparently the bus will be there in several hours. It had engine trouble. Um, so they just get to hang out around Halloween town. Um, so guess they're still there. Um, so Dylan uh pipes in and says, Well, the mayor seems nice. We should ask him for help. So whoops. Yeah, I know. So we go to the City Hall building. Um, where there is a crow um ominously cawing. Uh, we are in Calabar's um empty office. Um, he has a little like a bat receptionist, maybe like a little puppet guy.
SPEAKER_01I think a messenger because the pink cushion woman was the receptionist.
SPEAKER_03Yes, that's yeah, it's like a little messenger. Um, but he says that uh he has uh people coming to see him in his office. Um and it's Gwen, and she recognizes Calabar and he recognizes her. Oh my god, he's so excited to see her. He's like, Gwen, what are you doing here? Her face fucking lights up. She looks genuinely happy for the first time in in this movie.
SPEAKER_01Um, so does he.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, so he um he is like so he is like, oh man, you know, it's so great to see you. I I have big plans for everyone in Halloween town. Um, and uh he says, he says it's been a long time. He pulls a dead rose out of a vase, he magis magics it back to life so it blooms again. Um, and uh uh Gwen uh Gwen says you always did let your magic do the talking, and Calabar says you used to like it. And the kids are like, What the fuck is happening here?
SPEAKER_01I wrote I wrote that exact quote, and then I said, These kids are clueless, and then I was like, Oh, wait, Marnie does get it. I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, she gets it eventually, but it's very funny. It's like, what is happening?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they were like, Oh, what's that?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was like, there is palpable tension. Oh no. Um so uh immediately he's like, Hey, you know, are you how long are you in town? I can show you around, we can go to all of our old haunts, I can take you to dinner. And she's like, I am trying to leave. I don't want to be here. I and then he's like, Oh, you just needed my help to get out. And then it's like, oh no, this is awkward. And I was like, geez, y'all are she's leaning into the it was good to see you, but I actually do have to leave. And I'm like, you're not even pretending to be disappointed to be leaving now. Like, this is like you're actually kind of interested in like whatever's happening here. I'm like, Jesus Christ, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And then we get um the receptionist uh who comes in very frazzled. Um, she's great. She has a uh like uh the little like red tomato pin cushion as a like a body. Um all of her notes are pinned to it. She makes a bunch of pin jokes. Um, it's great, it rules. I love this. She's fine, she's very fun. Um, but uh she brings a message to Calabar. He says, I have to I have to take this. Um, but he uh, you know, tells her to uh stay a while. Uh it's like, you know, I'll we'll catch up later. Um and he leaves um to handle whatever this business is. Um Marnie clocks him as mom's old boyfriend, and she immediately says, If you marry him, I'm not calling him dad. And Gwen's like, can you drop it? This is not. She's like, what are you what are you talking about? It's like, no, this is no, that's not what this is. Um, but Marnie gets the vibe. Um, so meanwhile, we get um we're back out on the street. Agatha is walking down the street. She's walking home. She's clearly upset that Gwen has swooped back in to take the kids back home. Um, we get uh Luke coming up to bully her. Luke sucks. Um, but he, you know, sort of picks at Agatha. He says, Um, it must be lonely fighting this thing all alone. Um, but he says he knows that she has Merlin's talisman. Um and Luke says, and he wants it. And Agatha starts to ask questions. She's like, Well, who is he? Well, I, you know, it's like, I don't know who you're talking about. Um, Luke says, Oh, you know, he knows all about you. Agatha says, if he's so powerful, why is he hiding? Like, why, why hasn't he revealed himself? Um, and Luke says that he is waiting to reveal himself to her. Um, she says she's not scared, she's ready to go. It's like, please introduce us. Oh, we're still in the office, right?
SPEAKER_01Um, so So we see this happen and then we zoom back out because Sophie sees it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, oh right, yeah, I forgot.
SPEAKER_01Because she says grandma's with the wiener guy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, no, that's that's in like a second because they um I forgot that like that Sophie was watching that because I was like, these are disconnected. And then I was like, where is Marnie talking? Um so uh so Marnie is like they're still in Calibar's office. Um Marnie says to just leave her there. She's like, This is what I wanted, anyways. Um, Gwen says that just because Grandma Aggie said that Marnie was a witch doesn't make her a witch. Marnie says she didn't have to, that that she could feel it. She knows that she's a witch. And then she asks her mom if it's like if if this is real. Um they the mom turns around so she is not facing any of the other kids and tells Marnie to shush. And Marnie is like, so it's it's like you need to for it. Um so Marnie says, It's true, I am a witch. Um, she asks why she never figured it out. Um, and if she ever showed signs like Sophie does. Um, Gwen says yes, and she hid them from Marnie just like she is from Sophie. Um, she says that their father is human. That's the world that they live in. That's you know, that's who they are. Marnie says that she doesn't want to give up this part of her, of her family, of her roots. Like she doesn't want to lose the magic part of it. Um, this is when Sophie sees Aggie and uh Luke out the window and points out that they are, you know, going somewhere together. Uh Marnie immediately picks up and starts chasing them. Um Gwen rounds up the kids and starts following Marnie. Um so we see uh Agatha and Luke are walking up to the closed movie theater. Um Luke unlocks the massive chains on the door and lets them both in. Um we get into, I guess, the one theater in this, in this, or like the one uh the one room in this movie theater. Um there are like bodies, skeletons. I wasn't sure at first. They're like these bodies and skeletons in these seats. They're covered in cobwebs. This has been closed. I I don't know how long this has been closed. I don't know if the cobwebs were already there because it's it's Halloween town and everything's vaguely spooky. I don't know. Um, but we see this uh swirling smoke portal on the movie screen um that looks exactly like the uh one in the witch's glass in Agatha's house. So Luke leads Agatha in and then takes a seat and gets comfortable. Um Agatha uh recognizes Harriet, uh her friend is sitting in one of the rows. Um her face has gotten more monstrous and melted and warped. Um, and she's just no one is moving. Like all of these figures are just catatons. Yeah, like all of these figures are just still in these seats. Um so we face see out of the portal on the screen, we see a figure in a dark robe that appears out of the portal. Um, and it's like the the scarecrow bag. He has like a green monster face. Um, he uh Agatha, you know, calls him out and is like, what are you doing? And she I wrote he said that he's turn uh turning people into monsters and then freezing them, freezing them in time until he needs them. I know she she was like she spends the entire time trying to guess his evil plan, and then he's like, No, I'm gonna do this. And she's like, Oh, okay. And just there's there's so much, there's so much of a conversation in this. He is revealing his whole evil plan.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there was, and it was like this only half of this needed to happen. Like, this didn't need to be a whole thing.
SPEAKER_03Truly, yeah. Um, and also like she is she is holding so strong, and I'm like, girl, I this is not you do not have the upper hand here. Right, at all. You could just go, just go. Yeah, just leave. You don't have to be here. You said take me to him. You can say, actually, I'm out. I don't want to do this. Um JK by Exactly. So so he said that he's turning people into monsters and then freezing them in time until he needs them. And Agatha's like, what do you need them for? Is it to destroy their world? Um, and then the the shadow monster guy asks for Merlin's talisman. Agatha says, No, I'm going to use it to defeat you. Um, he says there's nothing she can do to stop him. Um, Luke is riffing in support. He is he is going full. Yeah, boss. Uh, he is shushed. He is shushed immediately. Um, will you shut? Yeah.
unknownIt's great.
SPEAKER_03It was just like, okay, this is peak 90s. Love that. Um, yeah. Uh Agatha digs in her heels. She says that she'll never give him the talisman. And this monster says, then suffer the consequences. And I said, Agatha, you have no bargaining chips. Now is not the time to be brave. Just go. Yeah, girl. So at this point, he uh the monster is shooting. I don't know. I wrote blue fireballs every time. I don't know what they are. These like energy balls.
SPEAKER_01Um like power, power, spell balls.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he is he is shooting spell energy at Agatha. She like nimbly dodges a couple times. Um, he nails one of the frozen monsters in the in the seats, and he like flies off and just like somersault into the abyss. That's exactly what I said. Yeah. So at this point, Luke actually The abyss. The abyssque. Um it's super uh so oh that's what that's what's in the uh the cauldron back at home. It's soup. Um Sophie did ask, are you making chowder?
SPEAKER_01Oh my god. That was so just out of left field. Are you making chowder? It it truly felt like 90s though, because I feel like the Campbell's um ads were so peak 90s and the thermos. We were taking soup to school in a thermos.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah? My daughter just started kindergarten for context for everyone, so I've been having a lot of school flashbacks and stuff. It's like, remember this, remember that.
SPEAKER_03You think about this. So God, God, lunch boxes. Lunchboxes. Lunch boxes, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Crazy.
SPEAKER_03Um, but yeah, so uh after one of the monsters gets, you know, thrown into the the abysque, um, Luke uh looks worried. He's like, Well, you said she'd be safe. Um, and the the shadow monster does not, you know, does not reply. Um, and Agatha is very confident. She says, a creature hasn't been born who's quick enough to catch a Cromwell. And I said, I love this wild, unestablished lore of this family being the best witches with no evidence. I love it. I love it's like we're the best, we are the smartest, we're the fastest, we're the most powerful. And I'm like, hell yeah, let's go. They are the family of chosen ones, and I'm here for it. Um, so at this point, uh, Marnie and the rest of the family rush in. The shadow monster says to get them, um, and Luke comes to try to get them, I guess, all four of them, sure. Um, Agatha yells to leave her family alone. Um, Gwen gets in Luke's face and casts a spell that covers him in flowers. And it then we get the quippy. I said powers, not flowers. Um, but also we get that Gwen can cast magic. Um, so we crazy, yeah. Uh just very casually, it's like, okay, we're doing this. And I'm like, oh hell yeah, Gwen, let's go. Um, so the the Shadow Monster offers Agatha the last chance to hand over the talisman. And this is where I wrote, she doesn't have it on her, does she?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So like, yeah. So I'm like, what's your plan, Shadow Monster? Stay here.
SPEAKER_01I'll go get it.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. It's like, no problem. I'll be right back. And then you then you leave. Um and then you don't come back, and the movie theater just stays closed. Um uh, but um, at this point, Gwen um runs up to help Aggie, um, and the monster throws another spell energy ball. Um, and Gwen pushes Agatha out of the way and gets hit herself and frozen. And then Agatha gets hit too, so it didn't even help, which sucks. And then the kids have to just run. Um, but as they're like, as they're at like the side door of the theater, um uh Agatha just very, very wearily calls out. She says, I'll be all right. It's just an evil spell that freezes us. Go. And I was like, Thank you. I said the same thing. Thanks for the exposition.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, but then the uh they open the side door to the theater. Um, the the light from outside comes in because it's still full daylight. It's been one, it hasn't been a day, it's the same day. Um, but uh the shadow monster flinches when the light flashes on it. The kids run down the stairs. Um, Marnie stops at the bottom. Um Dylan is like, we need to keep running. Uh Marnie says, Well, no, you saw like he's not gonna follow us out. You saw how he flinched when the like when the light hit him. So we're safe out here. Um, Sophie is really scared, wants, you know, mom and grandma to be okay. Um, Marnie says she's going to save them. Marnie says she's gonna figure it out. So uh they need to go buy the ingredients for the witch's brew because Marnie wrote them down. So they are going to figure out. They said, we're Cromwells, together we can conquer anything. And this is where I was like, did they not take their dad's last name?
SPEAKER_01Sure, sure. No, it feels it feels like that at this point.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but I don't know. I was like, what does that mean? But that's okay. Um, so so the first thing on our list is uh hair from a werewolf. So we're in a monster hair salon, which is really cute. These these sets are delightful, these practical costumes and effects are delightful. This is just a really fun watch. I really enjoyed it. I thought you would like it. It's so colorful. Like it's so fun. There's so much weird stuff. Um, it's just it's good. Um, but yeah, so uh there is a uh werewolf hairdresser who is um just making people's hair look horrible, which is fashion for monsters. Um Marnie uh asks about getting a job there, and the uh werewolf hairstylist kind of waves her off. Um, Marnie confident. Grabs a blow dryer that turns out to be a flamethrower, which turns out is was a real flamethrower.
SPEAKER_01Was real flames incredible.
SPEAKER_03Um, so while uh while Marnie is like, oh my god, what do I do? The uh werewolf stylist is trying to also talk her down and say, Okay, here's what you do. It's all good, we're fine. Um, Dylan uh grabs a pair of clippers while the werewolf is distracted, um, shaves a stripe up the back of his head, and then they run away and they're fine. Um, brutal. Um, we go to the uh monster gym. Um, everything is just monster whatever, because that's what it is. Um, but we're going to the gym. They're in the basketball court, there's an aerobics class. Um, they are looking for ghost sweat. Um they uh Dylan actually correctly said ghosts are dead. Why would they worry about fitness? Which honestly, yeah, I get it. I understand. Truly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, he was correct in this sense.
SPEAKER_03Dylan has been correct twice now. Um yeah, for those keeping track. Um, so they um they sneak, they go to the basement of this gym, they sneak into the steam room, and there is a ghost getting into. They called it a sweat box. I don't know if that's the name of it. It's like that big like metal, like it's it's like the thing where it's like pressurized and heated, but like everything but your head goes in. I've seen like inflate, like inflatable, like plastic ones of that, like modern, like modern ones. Yeah. I'm like, I haven't seen it. I've never seen anything like that. I honestly've never seen one like in person, but I have seen like pictures of them where it's like that's what it is.
SPEAKER_01It is just like a lot of like that. Okay.
SPEAKER_03And I think I think like other like bubble ones, it's like, I don't know if it's like a massage thing or what, I don't know what it is. But yeah, so there's a ghost who gets into this like metal sort of iron maiden, but for sweat. Um, so Marnie, yeah. So uh Marnie tells Dylan to distract him. Um, Dylan's like, what, why? What do you mean? Uh he asks logistical questions of like what the hell is happening. Um, but then Dylan actually successfully distracts this ghost with some random science facts. It's like, did you know this? And he goes, Huh. Yeah, no, I didn't know. And then Sophie grabs a towel, puts it over her head, and pretends to be a ghost, which the ghost is very upset again because that is offensive. And I wrote, My cut my culture is not your costume.
SPEAKER_01Um Yeah, it was like the one time Sophie's a little rude. Yeah, it was like Sophie.
SPEAKER_03Read the read the room, come on. Um, but at that point, um, luckily the uh the ghost has sweat enough that Martin Marnie uh catches a bead of sweat uh that is dripping from his nose in a bottle, and then they run away. And I said, This was a nightmare for this ghost. Just like be like imagine being in like like in anything like that, and it's just like I'm being annoyed by children.
SPEAKER_01I can't and I can't do anything about it, and I am stuck. I'm being tortured in the in the and and like sweat because they also turned the heat up too. It was like he's like, This is too hot.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's like, I'm having a bad time, actually, like slowly increasing the heat. Like, yeah, this is this is like the meanest they were in this. Like the werewolf can play it off. He's he's gonna be fine. He's he's fine, he's gonna bounce back. This guy just got you know harassed for you know five minutes. Um, but our third stop is going to a monster dentist. Um, and we get a just a very silly scene of a vampire who is getting a fang pulled. Um, and it's relatively uneventful. Um, the dentist does a good job because he's the tooth fairy. Um, and then Marnie is uh just pretending to be the hygienist. Um, and the tooth gets dropped in the thing and she's like, yoink, let's go. Um and I said this one feels crazy easy. Yeah, I was like, why was this the easiest thing? I know. Yeah, of the three, I'm like, this does not seem like I they need those. Vampires need those for stuff. Hair grows back, sweat fully expendable. That's nothing. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know. But yeah, so uh they, you know, Marnie is leaving the dentist that she, you know, got the thing that she needed. Um, she starts to run across the road, and then Benny in his skeleton cab almost runs her over. Um, Benny uh says hi to the kids. He says, Oh, I heard I heard Gwen's in town. That must be nice. Uh Marnie plays it off. She's like, Yeah, she is hanging out with grandma. Um, they're back at the house, so we're gonna, you know, we gotta go. Uh Benny offers to give them a ride. He says, I'm going up that way. Dylan says that sounds fine. Sophie grabs him immediately and says the bad thing is in him because Sophie is the chosen one. Um, so then uh Benny gets pushy. He's like, get in the cab, which is honestly exactly, which is honestly stranger danger, anyways. Good, you know, yeah. Yeah, if any adult tries to get you to listen to them that you don't know, this is the right move. It's like you don't need to listen to that skeleton. It's fine. Um, so then uh Marnie goes, Wait, how did you know that Gwen was in town? Um, and instead of answering, uh Benny grabs Dylan um and starts to pull him into the cab. Sophie uh goes back to the local dog that they were petting, um, lets it off the leash and tells him to go fetch. Um Benny is terrified by this dog, drops Dylan, and drives away very quickly. Um, so crisis averted there, but oh no. It's like, is Benny in on it? What's happening? And Benny was just momentarily possessed, thankfully. Um right. Um, so we are back at Agatha's house. We are mixing the witch's brew from scratch this time. Uh we are pouring it into the Merlin talisman. Um, Marnie stares at it and then realizes that she doesn't remember the spell. She's like, it's in old English or Welsh. She's not really sure. And then Dylan says, I thought you said you were a witch. The least you can do is remember a dumb spell. And I said, Okay, he's bought in, but also not like this. I don't, this isn't the energy that we need. Um, but like Marnie starts guessing it phonetically, like guessing like the the sounds that she remembers. Dylan gives her shit about it. It's like, why didn't she write it down? And I was like, how is she supposed to know that she'd have to do it?
SPEAKER_01Like, why would you assume?
SPEAKER_03It's like I heard this thing once. It's like, aha, better write it down in case you're nowhere to be found. Why? Why would you guess that? Um, but then we realized that Sophie is saying the spell under her breath because she remembered it. She made up a little song to help her remember it.
SPEAKER_01Um and is a magical genius prodigy.
SPEAKER_03She's so good, she is so talented. Um, then Marnie uh reminds Sophie that spells that Agatha told them that spells are stronger if they do them together. Uh Sophie and Marnie say the spell together once, it doesn't really do anything. Um, and then they decide to try again. Marnie says that spell she again reminds that, you know, Agatha said that spells are simple. You just have to think about what you want and then let yourself have it. That's the power of positive thinking. Um, so they say it again, and then it actually works. And then and then Marnie says, I did it, we did it, we're witches. And I said, Marnie, you you no, you didn't. I was gonna say, I did it was preemptive. Like that's that was pretty I know. I was like, mmm, I feel like we I I don't like that take. I'm like, I no, come on, dude. No, you no, it's that's we. You wouldn't even know the spell if Sophie wasn't there. Calm down. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So um, so yeah, so now that the talisman is fully lit up, they are ready to go. And Marnie grabs Aggie's cloak on the way out the door for dramatic effect. Um, so we are back at the theater. We are going back in that side door. Um, they've propped the side door open so they can get in and out if they need. The kids check on Gwen and Agatha. Um, their hearts are still beating, they're still alive, they're just not, they're just frozen. Um uh waving the talisman around them doesn't do anything. Um Dyl Dylan tries to take charge, doesn't help at all. Um, but then uh Marnie is trying to trying to remember if there was anything else about it. She remembers that Agatha said something about installing it. Um and we get, I said close-ups on thinking faces for Marnie and Agatha. And they are like Agatha's frozen face is making making intense eye contact with her. Um Marnie remembers uh Agatha saying, mortal see, mortal do. Um and she says, Well, where does a candle go on Halloween? Where would you put this? So now we are outside looking at the giant pumpkin in the middle of town. And I said, Sophie knew it looked different. Sophie's the chosen one. Um so Marnie says she's going in and she's gotta leave the other two behind. She's gonna put the talisman inside of the jack-o'-lantern to light it up and install it. Um, so as she as she starts on her way, um, Luke pulls her aside. He tells her not to not to put the talisman there. He says that it's a trap and that he's waiting for her. Um, so Luke says that he was just told that the shadow guy wanted the talisman. He didn't actually want to hurt Agatha, he was gonna let her go. Um, so he he feels like he was tricked as well.
SPEAKER_01Um My thing though with Luke though is like, what did you think was gonna happen with Agatha? This shadow man has frozen all these other people and he wasn't gonna hurt her? Yeah, okay, dude. Yeah, like you weren't tricked, you're just stupid. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's incredibly naive. Like, I don't know, like I I think at that point it's like, what yeah, you're right. It's like, what did you think was gonna happen? Like what was the plan?
SPEAKER_01Like, why and he's hurt all these other people, so why does it matter that he wasn't gonna be able to do it? Exactly.
SPEAKER_03What's so special about her? Like, she's our protagonist, but like what what I don't know. What does she matter to you, Luke?
SPEAKER_01Like, what the hell? Yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Strange, strange take. Luke is Luke is a problem.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um the so then uh as Luke is trying to convince Marnie that he's been tricked as well. Um, dark clouds uh start to like block out the sky. Um, and we see the the dark, shadowy figure, and he appears at like is it the top of City Hall? Is that where it is?
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_03So he's on like the like the top balcony of City Hall. He says, I have returned, your moment of destiny has arrived. This is so just like generic evil villain saying nothing in so many words, and it's it's fun, but I'm just like, what the f what do you mean? What are you talking about? Who the fuck are you, dude? And so he says, It's like, is there there's a backstory that we don't know? Exactly. Yeah, it's like now it's time for mine. It's like, no, buddy, no, we're done. Who? Yeah, it's like we don't have time for you, man. Um, so uh he says that uh he's uh the guy says that he's offering the chance to return to our days of former glory. Um, and specifically he's saying we're gonna he's gonna end the exile from the mortal world because humans have stolen the mortal world from them. Instead of saying we can coexist, he's like, that's ours. We should have that too. I don't know how that works, but okay. Um he says, Too long have we been exiled to the second class world, forced to live here in this Halloween town. He says Halloween town like it's a slur, and I don't know why it's a bad thing.
SPEAKER_01It's like also it's like it Well, he said second class world, so I think it is a slur.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm like, I don't understand. It's like what's what's so bad about it?
unknownI don't know.
SPEAKER_03It seems pretty chill to me.
SPEAKER_01I don't What does the human world have that you want so badly?
SPEAKER_03Y'all have y'all have everything that the human world has and magic. I I don't know. I think at that point who's winning Calibar? Yeah, like it's God, yeah, it it I don't remember what it is, but like I feel like I read something like ages ago where it's like talking to people from like quote third world countries and like talking to them, it's like, oh yeah, from a third world country. It's like, oh, oh, do we call that this? It's like, oh, you that is a shitty thing to say about the place I live. I don't know. Like denigrating the place that you live. It's like, no, I I live there, man. It's you know, you don't need to say it's like it's not that bad. Shit, okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like, like telling everyone there, it's like the second class world. I'm like, well, I I didn't think our life was second class. I didn't know our life was I didn't know my life was so bad. Okay, sure.
SPEAKER_01But then everyone was agreeing with that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, but yeah, so basically he says it's time to be, it's time to be evil, to reveal ourselves as we really are. And then his face morphs into Calabar. And I said, Gasp, I already knew this. Yeah, I know. Um, and then we get we get the best line that says, I can't believe mom dated that guy. From Dylan? Yeah, but just Dylan saying, I can't believe mom dated that guy. It just ooh, clutch peek so good. Best line from Dylan. I love it. Um, yeah, so uh at this, Marnie um looks at Luke and asks, like, okay, did you know this was the plan? And he's like, I didn't. I made a mistake. I'm gonna try to help. I'm so sorry. Um, so uh Calabar from his from his perch says that first they have to find the one who would stop them, who is the half human. And I'm like, What the fuck do you mean?
SPEAKER_01Now it's so witchy. Now it's cutting tendon.
SPEAKER_03Now it's now there's like a like a purpose. I'm like, oh no, man, what what's happening? Um so he uh from his from his perch up high, um, he sees um a cloaked figure in Aggie's red cloak uh moving through the crowd. Um he calls to Marnie, who he assumes it is, to stop and give him the talisman. The cloaked person keeps moving and he's very upset. So Calabar jumps down to intercept um and he uh attacks the person with the blue energy balls. And it's Luke. And Luke's like, gotcha. And then just then, Luke uh Cal Yeah, Calabar realizes that he's been full. He turns around to see Marnie climbing into the giant pumpkin with the talisman, and Calabar throws fireballs at her or blue like energy balls, and Marnie freezes, dangling the talisman into the pumpkin, and then she just collapses dramatically, just like the the classic, like, I'm dead. Oh no, which I love. But I was like, what? No, what do you mean? Um, so what yeah. So Dylan starts to panic. Um, Sophie elbows him to get him to shut up. Uh Dylan is like, game over, man. Sophie's like, can you give it a second? Can you just wait, please? Yeah. Can you please just trust us for one second? Um, so we get, you know, uh from inside of the jack-o'-lantern, we see Marnie slumped over. Um, we hear these like echoes of memories of of her mom saying, You're not a witch, of of Marnie saying there's nothing special about me. And then we get um Grandma Aggie saying that, you know, and magic is simple. All you have to do is is, you know, think about what you want. Um, so in in her, you know, exhausted state, Marnie drops the talisman and it magically, magically slots straight into place where he needs to go. There flips and just boop, there is this giant flash of light. Um, there is light that streams out of the portal in the theater as well. Um, everyone, everyone slowly defrosts and wakes up. Um, Agatha and Gwen, they're okay. They get up, they they hug each other, they realize that they're fine, so then they get up because they gotta go check on the kids. Um Marnie is totally okay. She gets she gets down from the pumpkin. She is she is cured by the light of whatever magic thing happened. Um basically, everything that Calabar had cast is just undone and it's fine. Uh Agatha and Gwen um catch up with the kids, everyone's reunited, everyone's excited, everyone's okay. Um, and Agatha looks at looks at Marnie and she says, You've got all the power of the Cromwells and twice the guts. Um, and then Marnie gets to drop the bomb that, hey, it was Calabar. And Agatha is pissed. Agatha is so mad. Um, so uh they there's a gasp, and the crowd's crowd just parts so the two of them can face off. And here, and I mentioned earlier that there's a point where I lost my mind. And this is the point where I lost my mind. And Calabar looks at Gwen and says, You could have had me, the most powerful warlock of all. And I said, This is about him getting dumped. This is the story of a man who got friend zoned. And he says, I wrote down all of these because I was so mad at it. I was uh he was like, You could have ruled with me as my queen, but you chose a human instead. And then Marnie says, Well, it turns out he's she's a pretty good judge of character. And I said, Lol, get his ass, Marnie. Get him, get him. Um, yeah, I oh my god.
SPEAKER_01I was like Yeah, because they asked him there because I think Aggie was like, Calabar, why? He's like, You because you broke up with me.
SPEAKER_03Dumped me. I for a boy. I I didn't remember. I was so mad. I was like, Oh no, this is your big motivation that she broke up with you, that she left. I hey man.
SPEAKER_01This is my evil, my uh my origin my villain origin story.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this is your origin story. I'm like, grow up, man. Come on. Oh my god, it's truly. I was like, I I walked out of like I finished watching this movie and I was like, all of the men in this movie are bad. Every man is bad. Yeah, every every boy is bad. Luke, frustrating, bad, bad choices. Dylan, annoying, did not buy in, bad. Calabar, such a fucking nice Calabar, the worst. Nice guy, hate him, cannot move on.
SPEAKER_01I was trying to think of it of the right term for him. Yeah, a fuck boy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. Yeah, just such a fuck boy. I'm like, no, dude. I'm like, every every man that we focused on sucked. The only good one, Benny the skeleton. That's it. Benny has never done anything wrong, and that's it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, um, the broom salesman. No, he bullied Luke. He bullied a child.
SPEAKER_03I yeah, I don't know. I uh the uh yeah, all the men, all the men are bad. I don't know. It's really frustrating. Yeah, yeah. That was that was my takeaway from this movie. We're not even done. Um we're close to done. We're almost done. Um we're close to it. Yeah, but um, but yeah, so um Calabar, so he just summons the talisman out of the jack-o'-lantern. Right. Um, just like calls it to him. Um, but then Agatha starts reciting a spell at him. Does she have just a small version of the talisman, or does she have just like a different like magic thing?
SPEAKER_01It looked like the little version of it was like a little claw.
SPEAKER_03It looked like the talisman. She has a little keychain size one. Yeah. So she um so she starts reciting a spell at Calabar. Um, Gwen uh joins Agatha, she takes her hand and starts reciting the spell too. Um, Dylan is so pissed. He is fuming, he is talking about Calabar. Um, and then Marnie looks down and uh magic is sparkling at Dylan's fingertips. And Marnie points it out to Dylan and he goes, No, I'm the normal one. No, this can't be it. And I'm like, bro, you have to buy in. You have to at this point. Come on, you're killing me. Um, so yeah, so I uh I literally wrote like it's the typical, you think your powers are a match for mine threat. And then, yeah, and then the the entire Cromwell family um steps up and joins hands. And this is where I wrote, Marnie says, hit it, guys. And I said, Oh no, it's the 90s. But then they're just like Yeah, and it's not even a spell. They're just like start like humming, like basically just like synchronized energies or whatever. Um, and it's it's not quite enough, it's not powerful enough because basically they're trying to get the talisman to like come light back up essentially in Calabar's hand. Um, so it starts sort of flickering, it's not quite enough until Marnie looks back at Dylan and realizes that Dylan is not bought in. And she says, You need to get on board, you need to believe this. So Dylan um steps forward and takes uh takes Sophie's hand and starts starts believing and buying in. And then the talisman finally grows brighter and brighter and brighter, and it fully dispels Calabar. He disappears for now. Yeah, he disappears. That's it. Yeah, he disappears into a puff of smoke until he seeks revenge in the next movie. Um, but I don't know what you're talking about. But the whole town cheers because of course no one was on board with with the whole taking over the mortal realm. They absolutely wouldn't. This was this was bad from the start. No one was on his side. Um, so uh Agatha puts the talisman back into the jack-o'-lantern.
SPEAKER_01Did you notice? That she put it through the mouth, and I'm like, Marnie, why didn't you do that?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Marnie, your hands are smaller. You could have whoop.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You didn't have to climb up that whole thing. I did notice we had a driver.
SPEAKER_03I didn't notice. I was just like, Agatha, how are you gonna get up there? And I was like, Oh, you don't have to. Cool.
SPEAKER_01She you you didn't. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I yeah, logistics. Why? But uh Gwen is talking to Marnie. Uh Gwen is so proud of Marnie. She's so she like she's telling Marnie that she did a great job. Marnie says, Gwen was right. There's a lot about Halloween Town that she didn't understand. And she apologizes for all of the very mean things that she had said. Um, and then Gwen also apologizes for not trusting Marnie with all of that, with the information, but also just the being able to join this, you know, magic world essentially. Dylan uh puts his foot down, says that he probably doesn't have magic powers. So sure, uh, there's a scientific explanation. And I'm like, Dylan, you're killing me, bud. Um, yeah, so uh then Marnie looks off to the side of the celebration. Um she sees Luke walking away um underneath um underneath Agatha Agatha's cloak. Uh so she goes to, you know, sit down with him. Um he is back to his quote normal self. He kind of looks like a like a hobbit gnome situation. Um he has a a big nose and pointed ears um and kind of like a monster face. He says that he he started working with Calabar just because he just because Calabar made him handsome. Um he basically admits like yeah, I was uh this was cowardly. I wasn't even like hypnotized or under a spell. I literally just did it because he could do he he could make me look better. Um Luke also says that uh it's you know it's a bummer because he even when even when he was handsome, he couldn't even get Marnie's attention. Um and Marnie is is a little flattered. Um she she kisses Luke on the cheek for his for his efforts. Um he jokes that when she kissed him, he didn't turn into a handsome prince. And she says he did that when he decided to help her, which is very sweet. So then uh Agatha says, it is it is time for it's time for Gwen and the kids to go. So she guesses that she's gotta give them, give them back to Gwen. Um and Gwen says, well, actually, if you want, um, I could use a babysitter on Thursdays, uh, because my PTA meetings go on forever. And Agatha kind of looks at her and she's like, Well, I can only cross over between Halloween Town and the Mortal Realm on Halloween nights. And Gwen says, Oh, well, then you should just come live with us if you want. And then Marnie immediately gets super excited. She is she's, you know, talking about making plans already. Um, she asks about her magic broom if she can take it with her. Um, Agatha whistles and her carpet bag uh trundles along um to catch up with her. We haven't seen the carpet bag in a second. It was safely in hiding. Um, exactly in safety. Um, but the the broom is inside of the carpet bag because Mary Poffin's bag. Um Gwen says that uh from now on she is going to finish Marnie's witch training. Um Luke uh has a new job. He's the bus driver now, which is fine. Uh yeah, so everyone gets on the bus. They are waving to the town. Like everyone in the town has gathered to see the bus off to head back to the mortal realm. Benny the skeleton shows up. He gets a quippy send-off. I think we spent he's fine. Everything's okay. Uh he gets it. Like, honestly, I think it's it's one of those like we spent so much money on him, we gotta use him as much as possible.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yes, and I think also to show that he was okay after being evil.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's like I'm good. He wasn't a real turn card. Yeah, exactly. He didn't just betray everyone just for fun. But I'm good again. Um, but yeah, and then the bus uh rises and takes off into the sky back to the mortal realm. The end. Yeah, so yeah. When did I? I don't know what I expected from this. I think I expected less like I think the way it had always been framed, I think it was like I knew that it was grandmother is a witch, lives in Halloween town. The kids live in the human realm. But I thought it was like I thought it was gonna be a more like low stakes conflict. Like I didn't think it was gonna be like I'm taking over the mortal realm, but also I didn't think it was gonna be I'm taking over the mortal realm because I got dumped, you know?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, nobody saw that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, absolutely. But I I I don't know what I thought the conflict was. Like I think I thought I was gonna be I don't know. It just felt I felt like there was like it was such a secret plot the whole time. Like I felt like there was gonna be a more like, okay, this is the antagonist, this is the bad guy that we're gonna have to fight. And I didn't I didn't expect like the you know the yeah, the reveal. Yeah, I thought it was gonna be more straightforward, but I don't know. Yeah, I don't I really had no idea like what the plot of this movie was, so it was it was a fun ride.
SPEAKER_01Good. Yeah, and I'd say in some instances, I feel like if you just knew you wouldn't know about like the conflict between the mom if you just know, oh yeah, grandmother's a witch and the kids are in the mortal world, it's like, okay, cool, grandma visits and it's super fun and witchy and whatever, and it's all good versus like, no, mother is like trying to stop all this from happening. So mother's like kind of an antagonist too in the beginning before she stops gaslighting her mom and realizes something is wrong.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, definitely. I think I oh gosh. When do you know when Sabrina the Teenage Witch started? Because I feel like that was my context for like witch in the human realm things.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna guess it's earlier than we think, but let's see.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I'm gonna guess 96.
SPEAKER_01When did things come out?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, um, I'm gonna guess 96. Normally I'm good with TV shows and movies.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, you're dead on.
SPEAKER_03Let's go.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so to 2003.
SPEAKER_03Oh. I love that show so much. It's so good.
SPEAKER_01Such a good show. I wonder if there's a way to watch that.
SPEAKER_03I think so. I feel like I've I feel like I've seen it. Where? I feel like it was on like Pluto TV or something. Like one of those, like the fuck is that Pluto TV is just it's chaos. They have a bunch of channels. It's nice if like you don't have other streaming sorts, like it's nice if you don't have cable, but you just want to like turn on a channel that is just playing something. Um, but they also have music video channels, which is kind of fun. Yeah, it's free, which is nice. Um but no, I feel like I've seen episodes of it like relatively recently, and it's very fun. It's so good. Um it's still really good. Like it still holds up great. Also, just God, that aesthetic of like the early 90s the room, like the late 90s witch aesthetic. God, just everything like blues and velvets and like stained glass sort of situations. Yeah, man. Just such a good vibe.
SPEAKER_01Um dope ass right.
SPEAKER_03But I think like I think the the concept of like witch growing up in the mortal realm, I feel like it wasn't, it didn't seem crazy, but also I don't think I I think with that, I don't think there's conflict between like, oh, you know, trying to keep you away from the from the you know the magic world.
SPEAKER_01Like I think it's like no, it's fully acceptable because it was like, oh my god, something about her dad was like a ball of wax or something. Oh my god, I forgot about Don't you remember? It was like her mom, like if she saw her and her dad was somewhere else. Yeah, because her that's why her aunts had their own.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because her mom, her mom's a mortal, and her dad's a witch. Was that it?
SPEAKER_01That sounds right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. This is this is a separate. It was it was something.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I need to I need to look into this again. But yeah, it was it was like fully acceptable. It was just the joke there was like, hide it from the mortals, pretend we're normal. Exactly, yeah. Which, you know, is so much more fun and low stakes, but then she's in high school, so it's like quote until I'm gonna hold. High school hygiene. Yeah, exactly. High school's high school's so much dreamer. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they gotta go to prague. Yeah, no, totally. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what I expected, but it like this was more complex than I thought it was gonna be, but also much sillier than I think I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah. Um, do you have a radio?
SPEAKER_03I I do. So I I think this was cute. I don't know, I don't think this is gonna get added to my list of I gotta watch this every Halloween. And I think and I think I think a lot of that is like the I don't have the rose-colored nostalgia of it. Um Right. Yeah, but it's it's really cute. Um, I'm gonna I'm stuck between a five or a six.
SPEAKER_04I don't know.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say six, just because it is it, it was very fun, it peaked 90s aesthetic. Um, such good practical effects and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Um I was hoping you would like like the costume. I did.
SPEAKER_03I love I love a practical costume. They were really fun. And it just, I don't know. It just it was it was very enjoyable. I have no idea how I missed this. Like I have no idea, I know it's it's crazy to think like the two-year difference, like it doesn't always feel like it makes a huge difference.
SPEAKER_01It makes sense, but yeah.
SPEAKER_03But I don't know, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I know it doesn't it doesn't feel that far away, but when you said how old you were, I was like, oh, maybe that did have something to do with it. Yeah, you know, when it came out and then beyond. So it's like, you know, how much were you watching the Disney Channel? I don't know. Like, you know, and and then yeah, so I'm not sure. Wait, oh, we should ask Sam this weekend if he remembers.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay, cool. Well, good. Okay, six out of ten.
SPEAKER_03What I yes, I need to pick a thing. I'm gonna say six out of ten. Um god, I was gonna say talismans, but I feel like, yeah, I'm gonna do six out of ten talismans. That's a good one, six out of ten talismans.
SPEAKER_04Yes. Yeah, let's go.
SPEAKER_01Um, no, I I think that's that's totally fair. I think I enjoy it a little bit more. Um, but also I have now the other lens of showing it to my daughter and having her, she was so bought in on it when she was three years old. That the first Halloween that she got really into, this was the movie that she wanted to watch. This was the music, this was the thing. And so I have like secondhand nostalgia for it now because of her. Um and so um, so so I appreciate it a little bit more for like how good it is for littler kids.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that makes sense, yeah. It's like like not nostalgia, like nostalgia, but also like a new, like a fondness and appreciation, like sort of stacked.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that's where it is. Yes, yeah. So it's a and and who knows, you know, if this is gonna be like her Halloween movie. I don't know, because I think last year was Hocus Pocus 2. Oh, yeah. Um, so and so so we'll see. But um, this was like the first one that she was fully into. Um, so I'd say probably a seven out of ten. Seven out of ten vampire fans.
SPEAKER_03Ah, nice.
SPEAKER_01Got a weird row of teeth up there. I know. There was one thing, there was one note about um the practical effects, and it was like, you know, if you look really closely, you can see that the woman's tooth is just blacked out, and I was like, let's not be rigid. Exactly. It's like they had a lower budget here. Like, let's let's be cheap. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Sorry, we didn't cast someone who was like already missing a tooth. It's fine. We're good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, or waste our CGI on making the tooth from a toothplay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, truly it's like, hey man, we're gonna pick our battles. That's fine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. They bought Benny. Exactly or made Benny. Whatever happened with Benny.
SPEAKER_03I gotta see if he's like like in a museum or like at an auction or something somewhere.
SPEAKER_01I wonder if he is in like a Disney museum or something.
SPEAKER_03Ooh, that would be fun.
SPEAKER_01I don't remember how many movies he's actually in. Oh yeah, I think this uh pretty much wraps up our first first half of Spooky season.
SPEAKER_02Yes. This is very this is this is cute, Spooky.
SPEAKER_01This is Yeah, this is Emily Spooky.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, spooky.
SPEAKER_03Um, well, if you if you uh have very specific nostalgia for this movie, or if you know what happened to Benny the Skeleton, um you can you can let us know. You can re- Honest, I I might Google it after this, but I also might forget. That happens a lot. I will say, I gotta look that up, and then I straight up forget. Um, but you know, if you you know, whenever this comes out, let us know. Um, you can talk to us on several different social media platforms. We are Sister CinemaSwap on Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, and Letterboxed.
SPEAKER_01And of course, we want to thank Jenny Crowley for our really cute artwork, Nick Heredia for our really cool theme music. And thank you all so much for listening.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. We'll see you at the movie. See you at the movies.
SPEAKER_02What is the theme song for this?
