Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge

     For my children’s media depiction of witches, I chose the film Halloweentown 2: Kalabar’s Revenge. Every Halloween, I remember the Disney Channel showed Halloweentown and it was one of my favorite movies! However, I don't think I have ever seen the sequel to the film. Even though the whole film is centered around witches, I feel like I don't remember it being so witchy! Now that I am in this class, I feel like I have become much more aware of witch references, stereotypes, and innuendos.

    The main two witches depicted in the film are Marnie Piper and her grandmother Aggie Cromwell. The two spend the whole movie trying to reverse a spell from the son of Kalabar, an enemy of the Cromwells’, one where he attempts to turn Halloweentown into a grey, depressing version of the real world. Kal causes chaos in both worlds, and it is up to the Cromwells (“Your favorite witches!”) to use their magic to defeat his rule. In the film, various themes support the use of witchcraft and its positive values.

Mother is against witchcraft, which can be representative of society.

Gwen, Marnie’s mother and Aggie’s daughter, has strong negative feelings towards witchcraft. This is despite her being a powerful witch through telekinesis and spell casting. In the previous movie, Aggie lived full-time in Halloweentown. At the end of the movie, she chooses to live in the real world with her family. The beginning of this film shows a Halloween party that the Cromwells are hosting, and Aggie is having a ball dressing up the children as witches. Gwen is quick to step in and stop the fun, indicating that Aggie needs to be more careful with whom she shows her witchiness. It feels like Gwen is almost ashamed of her mother and wishes she would have just stayed in Halloweentown. Parallels can be drawn to how society treats and feels about witches and witchcraft.

Witches can’t be beautiful.

As the two men enter the party, whom we later learn to be Kalabar and Kal, the young boy makes a strange comment to Marnie. He says, “If witches were are pretty as you, they would have a better reputation”. This goes along with the stereotype that all witches have to be hags, ugly, or undesirable in some way. We later find out that he knew she was a real witch all along, and was only trying to flatter her to earn her trust to show him her grandmother's spell book.

Binary, you have to choose to be a witch or not.

Before Marnie chooses to go to Halloweentown, her mother tells her that if she chooses to go, she won’t want to come back. She has to choose either the real world or live in her fantasy land. This perpetuates Gwen's negative feelings towards witchcraft, and it shows how society likes to group bad from good and ignore the grey areas.

Halloween town hosts anyone, all can co-exist.

This theme in the movie shows the positive values of witchcraft. Children watching this movie will notice how in Halloween town, there is harmony and everyone is loved for who they are, regardless of their appearance. This is very different from the real world, where some are judgemental and cynical. Also, the spell that is put on Halloweentown turns people into the stereotype of mortals, just like humans do to witches. This role reversal puts into perspective how unfair it is to put witches into a box. When we see it done to humans, we realize it is not that straightforward. Not all humans are the same, so it's unjust to think all witches are alike.

The evil witch warlock is a man and uses his sexuality to fool Marnie. 

The vilification of witchcraft throughout history has been a means to control and target women. What I find interesting in this movie is that they do the opposite, making the hero witches female, and the villain male. Still, though, they use the trope of evil witches using their good looks to seduce people into falling into their spell. I'm not sure if we can say this gives a positive view of witches to children, but it certainly shows that witchcraft and black magic are not inherently tied to women!