The Untold Truth Of Halloweentown

Beginning in the early 1980s, the Disney Channel started producing its own feature films. The films would later become known as Disney Channel Original Movies, or DCOMs for short, with the network officially adopting that banner in 1997. One of the first films to use that new banner was "Halloweentown," a fantasy film about a young girl named Marnie Cromwell (Kimberly J. Brown) who discovers that her grandmother Agatha (Debbie Reynolds) is a witch who lives in a magical world themed after the titular holiday. After discovering that she herself is a witch, Marnie and the rest of her family use their powers to battle evil warlocks that threaten both the mortal and magical world.

Highly rated when it was released in 1998, "Halloweentown" became one of the Disney Channel's first true franchises, spawning three sequels and becoming a staple of the network's October programming lineup. The series may have ended in 2006, but rumors of a fifth movie began to surface when one of the executive producers of the films told E! News that she had "ideas" for a new installment.

Until then, fans still have the first four films to watch on Disney+ now. Not only are each of the films memorable, but there's plenty of interesting facts about what happened both behind the scenes and after the series ended. Here are some interesting untold truths about "Halloweentown" that you might not have known about.

The "Halloweentown" franchise may be over, but Kimberly J. Brown still continues to engage with fans not only through her social media pages, but also through her Etsy shop, where she makes "Halloweentown"-inspired merchandise like keychains and T-shirts. But outside of acting and selling merchandise, Brown has also written her own book. As expected, the story centers around the titular holiday that helped make her a star.

Titled "Poppin's Pumpkin Patch Parade" and co-authored by Diane Yslas, the picture book follows a talking pumpkin named Pumpky as she teams up with two talking hay bales and a zucchini to save their pumpkin patch and the annual Halloween parade for Prince and Princess Poppin.

While the book itself doesn't actually connect with the "Halloweentown" franchise, Brown's commitment to the franchise through these different venues, as well as her interest in reprising her role as Marnie for a potential fifth installment (as she said in the same E! News article where the executive producer expressed interest), shows that the series has never left her. That's especially surprising, considering the controversy (see below) surrounding her lack of involvement in the fourth movie.

You don't expect a made-for-television movie like the original "Halloweentown" to have a massive budget. Director Duwayne Dunham and star Kimberly J. Brown talked about this in an interview with MTV News. "I liked the story of the kids and their grandmother and the mother and the secret and all of that stuff. But it was like a $20 to $30 million movie when they presented it to me," Dunham said. Given a $4 million budget to work with, Dunham and the film's writers spent a week shrinking the story down to accomodate the money they had.

Despite the small budget, the film manages to pull off several big feats to bring Halloweentown to life. This includes the talking skeleton cab driver Benny, which was created using animatronics instead of CGI. Digital effects were instead used for the broom flying scene, which Brown said was the last scene filmed.

Since the movie came out in 1998, many of the special effects look very dated. But it's a marvel how the production team was able to create an entire fantasy world on such a small budget that has endured over the years.

After two films about the war between Halloweentown and the mortal world, "Halloweentown High" attempted to bridge the gap. Marnie and her family host an exchange program where several teenage monsters disguise themselves as humans and attend high school with them, in the hopes of one day revealing themselves to show that humans and creatures can co-exist. The official name of the school is never given in the movie, but the real name of the school is Juan Diego Catholic High School, and it was the sight of another Disney Channel Original Movie that came out three years prior.

"The Luck of the Irish" is a film about a teenager named Kyle, who discovers his Irish heritage after his mother reveals that he is a leprechaun and his lucky coin was stolen. Much like "Halloweentown" was a staple of Disney Channel's October programming, you were sure to catch "The Luck of the Irish" around March. One of the filming locations for the latter film included Juan Diego High.

"The Luck of the Irish" and "Halloweentown High" don't have any thematic similarities, but this little connection is a fun way to bring two completely different films together.

The evil warlock Kalabar served as the main antagonist of the original "Halloweentown," and his son Kal (Daniel Kountz) was the big villain of "Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge." After the death of his father, Kal enacts an elaborate plan to destroy the magic of Halloweentown and turn all of the witches and creatures into humans, while also turning all the humans in the mortal world into creatures. Of course, the Cromwell family finds a way to overcome Kal's evil magic and defeat him, just like they did before with his father.

Kal was portrayed by Daniel Kountz, known for his guest roles in "Ghost Whisperer" and "Mad Men," as well as his voice role in "God of War: Ragnarök." He's also now engaged to none other than Kimberly J. Brown. E! News documented the timeline of their relationship and interviewed the couple, stating that Brown and Kountz didn't start expressing any romantic feelings for each other while they were filming the movie back in 2001. It wasn't until they reconnected over a decade later that the two started taking their relationship in an entirely new direction. Kountz told E!, "It just ended up working out really well, but it is funny to think, wow, that was 20 years ago and so much life happened in between us reconnecting and everything."

Kountz and Brown later announced their engagement in 2022.

The original "Halloweentown" ends with every member of the Cromwell family using their combined magical powers to eliminate Kalabar and save the creatures of Halloweentown. After Kalabar is defeated, Gwen realizes that her children need to learn how to control their magical powers, so she decides to let Agatha live with them and train them to become proper witches. It's a nice ending to an already lighthearted movie, but how Kalabar was defeated changed dramatically.

Responding to a fan question on TikTok, Kimberly J. Brown revealed that "Halloweentown" originally had a much darker ending. The film originally ended with Marnie placing a talisman in the town's Jack-o'-Lantern and using it to save the citizens under Kalabar's magic, which included her mother and grandmother. According to Brown's TikTok, Marnie was originally supposed to run through a forest with the talisman, which would cause her to age significantly with each step until she was a very old woman.

Brown also explained that she got very deep into the makeup process for transforming into an old lady, but the ending was rewritten and the process was abandoned. While it doesn't sound like the defeat of Kalabar would have changed, the image of the sweet and innocent Marnie aging and struggling to save her family might have been a bit much for little kids to watch, while also clashing with the lighter tone of the film.