This 4th movie is a pure embarrassment to the other Halloween town movies. As if the numerous goofs were not enough, the acting was simply atrocious. Sara Paxton is definitely NOT a suitable replacement for Kimberly J Brown, and does not follow the characteristic of the previous Marnie-who was confident, bold, brave, smart, and could speculate deception. The Marnie portrayed by Sara Paxton is a cowardly, timid, and ditsy character which is an embarrassment to the real Marnie. The whole movie should have never been made; it was as if the completely disregarded the first three movies! And since when did Marnie and Ethan have a love interest? That was not even merely hinted at in Halloween Town high! This movie was purely disappointing. ---And by the way, what is their last name-Piper or Cromwell?!?

All the characters have totally different personalities then they did in the first 3 movies, and all their personalities were unoriginal and annoying. The first movies were more about witchcraft and Halloween; this one seemed more about the woes of a high school student. "Oh no, I have to follow the rules and the popular girls are mean to me." It was trying to be a cross between Harry Potter and Highschool musical... It was more like a cross between a Harry Potter Fan-fic written by a 12-year-old girl and ...Highschool music. When it shouldn't of been any of these things, it should have been Halloweentown! Sara Paxton's acting was terrible, not that it would matter with the terrible plot. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse... Jesse McCartney started playing in the background. You know it's a bad Disney channel movie, aimed at little preppy girls when it has people from; Highschool Musical (though I'll admit that he was in Halloween town before Highschool Musical, but it seems like his acting gotten worse since then),it has someone from dumb Disney channel TV shows and has Jesse McCartney.

For anyone who watched the 2nd Halloween town...This movie was like watching the people from Halloweentown when they were taken over by the gray spell...

They just walked around acting like stereotypical humans.

I'm just going to pretend like this movie never happened and that there's only three Halloweentowns. I would suggest not even bothering to watch this... Unless you find all Disney TV shows and TV movies to be exciting and interesting...Or if you're a 8 year old girl who has nothing on their mind other then boys and clothes. If that's you then I'm sure you'll love this movie. If you liked the other HalloweenTown movies don't torture yourself by watching this...

Oh ... my ... god...What in hell's name has happened to Halloweentown!? Seriously, Halloweentown was just like this little downtown village like area, and Grandma Aggie's house. And now ... now it's transformed into this massive downtown Chicago area, and from out of nowhere here's this Witch University. And Marnie?!?!?! What the hell happened to our beloved Marnie, replaced by Sara Paxton, and not our beloved Kimberly J. Brown, because of scheduling complications ... BULL CRAP!!!! She was probably just sick of Disney and there horribly famous sequels. The first two films were great. The third was kinda pushing it, but this has no excuse. First off, the special effects were lame. The plot was lame, the fact that Grandma Aggie is a minor character is lame, the now Marnie was lame, and the fact that she didn't destroy the thing in the end so Disney can have another sequel is lame. I'm a big fan of Halloweentown and all, and have loved the movie since I was a kid, but seriously ... Disney doesn't understand the concept of you CAN have TOO MUCH of a good thing.

This was one of the worst Halloweentown movies ever made. The characters were so flawed and replacing Kimberly with Sara Paxton was the worst idea Disney could have thought of. Replacing main characters will never work, Disney! Taking out major characters to fit in floppy characters will never work, Disney! ~Angie, the grandmother and putting in the obviously fake wigged Sara~ Creating relationships that never existed.. sickens me! Ethan never showed any interest in Marnie in the third movie. You can't create feeling out of thin air, Disney! Oh and Disney, Sara Paxton needs to go. Ethan's character should leave too.. he isn't needed.. at all. Bring back Luke!

This was a disgrace to the Halloweentown trilogy! It didn't make sense, the plot was boring and the acting was pretty bad. Sara Paxton could not pull off the role of a collage student, and I didn't like how they made Marnie and Ethan flirt with each other. It was a disgrace to the Halloweentown movies and deserves to be eliminated. I didn't like how there was no Aggie! It made this movie worse than what it already was. Debbie Reynolds and Kimberly J. Brown always played the leads and they basically made the Halloweentown movies. And neither of them were in this one! That is too stupid for words. I wish that they would have waited for Kimberly to finish her other film, and added Aggie to the script. And put Sophie in there! I can't believe Disney did this! I'm disappointed.

it was i digress to Halloween town, and Sara Paxton sucked really bad and Kimberly j brown fit the charther of Marnie way better then Sara, and what did happen to Sophie the youngest sister , and its Cromwell's , piper is Marnie's middle name i believe, and Hope Sara Paxton does not come back , that Kimberly comes back she is a ten times better then Sara.they should have waited for her to come back from making her other movie big bad wolf, it was not bringing down the house, it seems that people don't know there last names , in the return to Halloween, it is the COMWELLS not PIPER.I'm a big fan of halloween town i have to watch it every year this time of the year, and I'm hoping that the dictator will read how many people are disappointed what they think of Halloween and what it has become, and will get Kimberly to play Marnie Cromwell.

I just saw it, and well while Sara Paxton gave it her best, it just didn't cut it. She didn't have the same 'girl next door' quality or the quirky little mix-ups that Kimberly put into the character. Sara was really quite bland in comparison to Kimberly. Also, there were definite problems with continuity. Where did their younger sister go? There wasn't even a mention of her let alone an appearance. Their mom kept going on and on about having nobody left at home, well where the heck did she vanish to? And her grandmother, well there was only a very brief cameo of her which was also very disappointing. The story line had promise, the costumes needed a bit more, and it would have been fun to see more of the characters developed in III (especially the cute troll with Dylan) although it as nice to see Ethan in this one as well. I really quite liked the other three; they got me in the mood for Halloween, but overall, this one definitely left me wanting more.

Personally, I thought that the fourth movie was horrible. The decision to bring Sara Paxton is because Kimberly J Brown had scheduling conflicts was an idiotic decision that should have gotten someone fired. If that wasn't bad enough, Aggie Cromwell was had a MINOR role and Sophie had almost no role at all. They only brought back four MAJOR characters from the former movies and that was Dylan, (who wasn't as funny or sarcastic as the first three movies) Gwen Cromwell,(who was much more entertaining in the first three) and Ethan(who was much different from the role in the third and had a MUCH larger role.)

I think that the decision to not put Luke the goblin in was also bad judgment because I found Luke to be a funny and interesting character, and i would have liked to see if anything would happen between him a and Marnie.

There was also talk of Kal making a comeback and I think this would have been a very good idea as he was one of my favorite characters even if he was evil.

All in all, the fourth Halloweentown movie was a disappointment and I hope that the fifth will be better!

This movie is the 4th movie in the Halloween Town movies. For this movie the main character wasn't played by her regular actress "Kimberly J. Brown," it was Played by "Sara Paxten." I thought this movie would suck after seeing the commercial for it (nobody could replace a main actor of a movie). Well, I believe it was surprisingly good. It didn't seem to matter what actor was playing whom. It was an okay movie. I didn't watch it to see how much more it would suck. I watched it because, it explains things the previous movie didn't explain. The plot was understandable but not completely predictable. Overall it was Surprisingly good.

What the gosh-darned heck is the matter with these critics who don't like this Halloweentown movie? Did actress Sara Paxton say or do something that cheesed them off before seeing this Disney Channel movie? These nay-sayers should be banned from IMDb! Booo! Booo! They are all off my Christmas list! Return to Halloweentown is a fine movie, not as cool as Halloweentown High or the original Halloweentown, but it has great movements. Halloweentown alumni J. Paul Zimmerman, Judith Hoag and Debbie Reynolds are back, although Debbie has a brief appearance. Keone Young and Kristy Yu are totally SINISTER as the chief villains in this film. Their goal is to use Marnie Piper as a tool to use an ancient relic to rule Halloweentown forever. Oh, yes, Marnie goes to Witch University, too. Lucas Grabeel is great in this film, as he was in Halloweentown High. He doesn't wear a hat like he does in another set of DCOMs he's more popular in, but who's gonna sue him? The only faults in this film are the lack of Kimberly J. Brown and the short scene with Debbie. Sara Paxton makes a decent Marnie, but I WANNA SEE KIMBERLY!! Now that the evil Dominion are in jail, I'm gonna go to Halloweentown and mingle with Benny the Skeleton Taxi driver and that troll with the unpronounceable name. Trick or Treat!

Having a 7 year old daughter, we have faithfully watched the past 3 Halloweentown movies, so we were very excited about the Return to Halloweentown coming out. I have to say, we were both so very disappointed all around. First, we miss Kimberly J. Brown as Marnie. She is bubbly, and her portrayal of Marnie is perfect. Sara Paxton , I'm sure did her best, but we could not warm up to her. At least find someone who resembled Marnie...big brown eyes...not anorexic etc. Secondly, why couldn't Sophie have been given a part in this? After all, she is probably more powerful than Marnie and since she's younger, maybe the movies should start revolving around her. I understand that sometimes actresses have prior commitments, but maybe that is when the movie should be held up until the actresses are able to return . Thirdly, the storyline was weak. And those 3 "sisters" didn't even lose their smirks and scowls when making the commercial for this movie on Disney. They looked like it was a pain in their patooty to be there. What is their problem? Next time, maybe think things over before going through with the production of something that you know kids are looking forward to for so long.

I've watched it TWICE now. I hated it the first time and thought perhaps I'd give it a second chance but I just ended up finding more flaws with this movie! BRING BACK DEBBIE REYNOLDS & KIMBERLY BROWN!! Sara Paxton, while good in other projects, made a HORRIBLE Marnie Piper! Her portrayal made Marnie look so whimpy, clueless and boring! Kimberly's previous portrayals gave us a vivacious, quick learning, and TOUGHER Marnie. Plus the sibling dynamic between Kimberly's Marnie and Dylan was so much better than Sara's Marnie.

And what is with pairing Marnie and Ethan, who previously had shown NO interest in each other whatsoever? Ethan Dalloway was different in this movie than in Halloweentown High. Since when did the skeptical sarcastic young man turn into a sweet, shy leading man? They should have brought Cassie back (Halloweentown High) for Ethan and Luke, the goblin, back for Marnie. I find it a little insensitive that Marnie is back in Halloweentown and she doesn't even mention her friend, Luke, who helped her save Halloweentown TWICE before! Disney has forgotten the essentials of what has made the first three movies great and that is the relationship that Marnie has with her Grandma Aggie and how well they work together. The absence of Debbie Reynolds and Kimberly Brown is a heartfelt sadness when watching this movie and if another sequel is planned, Disney should do whatever it takes to get these two back in the saddle.

And the inconsistency with the rest of the series is appalling. Dylan, Marnie's brother, going to Witch U when he isn't even interested in magic and does not want anything to DO with the magical world is pathetic.

In all honesty this movie should have NEVER been made if it as going to be this bad.

Disney should have just ended it with Halloweentown High. The portal was opened. Creature and Mortal were getting along. If Disney couldn't get Kimberly Brown back, it would have been best to write a DIFFERENT story and put Sara Paxton and Lucas Gabreel at the helm.

This is another sequel FLOP by Disney and just proves that Disney is LAZY and is still having problems coming up with something original.

I hate it when Disney "over milks" the cash cow. Stick "Return To Halloweentown" in the vault and make sure it never comes out again, I say.

Don't watch it. Don't rent it. Don't buy it. Pretend it never existed.

This was the worst halloweentown. They should have added the regular characters. Disney failed completely with this movie. Sophie wasn't in this movie, she was so cute! It would have been nice to see her get even more powers. Kimberly J Brown should have been in it also. She's young enough to act like she goes to college. She doesn't even look that old! Let the truth be told. No halloweentown can be better than the original, and kalabars revenge. This movie was horrible, and the story line wasn't good either. Hopefully the movie will have the original characters in it if it's made again. If Disney can't come up with a good sequel to this movie, then they need to come up with a new idea for a new movie. Though Halloweentown is one of my favorite halloween Disney movies, this one was horrible.

So far the Halloweentown movies are actually going along very well with me. This was quite a big step from the last Halloweentown movie. Return to Halloweentown opens whole new doors for the franchise. For a fifth movie they could bring back some of the characters from the last few movies. For example they could bring Kale from Halloweentown 2 back to wreak more havoc. They could also bring back the Gift that Marnie gave to Dylan (you know the power of absolute control over all) and see how he's handling this great responsibility. And they could also include the mortal world in some way (espically now that mortals know about Halloweentown). So there are still many concepts that could be used for another Halloweentown movie. Maybe they can find some way to end the franchise with these concepts. Still the plot was nice along with the special effects. So this is a good movie to watch on Halloween when your not quite ready for a scare. Also its a really good movie for kids to watch on Halloween.

Halloweentown was interesting, Halloweentown 2: Kalabar's Revenge was the best, and although it couldn't hold up to the other two, Halloweentown High was pretty decent. But WHAT was this?! Kimberly J. Brown was incredibly smart not to take the role. Sarah Paxton can't hold up to her. I used to look forward to Halloween because then the Family channel would play all of the Halloweentown movies, but now I dread it. Halloweentown and Halloweentown 2 were interesting and mysterious. Even as a teenager, I love watching those movies. Halloweentown High was cheesy but the plot was good. But this. This. Disney has ruined Halloweentown! It is no longer a place that I cherish and--as a little girl--wished was real. It was disgusting.

Personnaly i loved this movie. It had a good plot, interesting characters, mystery, romance, must i continue. Of course it had its down sides, yes Sara was a little to peppy to be Marnie, but did an OK job, and it shouldn't have told you about the teachers being evil so soon, it would've made it more intense if they kept you guessing longer. Yes it was no where near as good as 1 and 2, so if you hated 1 or 2 i recommend you don't waste ur time. But hey if u still want to give it a try i admire u 4 that. Now I must say that to like this movie you have to keep an open mind while watching it, if your not the open mind kind of person don't even try watching it, i wont admire you if you do.Another hing if your the kind of person who 1.hates movies with fiction 2.hates halloween movies with no scary parts 3.hates romance 4.hates sequels then i suggest you don't watch this movie, but again i admire you if you give it a chance. Overalll i think this movie deserves a seven out of ten!! sincerely:nancy_lavignasse

I mean; let's look at the story-premises of all four films. In the original flick, Mayor Kalabar wanted to force the citizens of Halloweentown back to Earth, so they could enslave us. In the first sequel, his previously unknown (and formerly estranged) son wanted revenge against both mortals and Cromwells. In the second sequel, Ethan's xenophobic dad tried to overcompensate for those two traitors by becoming an even bigger one. And, now, we have a clique of elitist witches (who've apparently been watching too many re-runs of STAR TREK: DS9) who want to rule both realms.

It's beginning to look like the medieval mortal "persecution," that Aggie Cromwell complained about in the first and third movies, wasn't entirely unjustified! Either that; or the Cromwell women have been altruistic exceptions to what's usually been an ego-maniacal rule.

On the plus side, however, Sara Paxton did a pretty good job substituting for Kimberly J. Brown. The latter was probably unavailable to reprise the role because of work on the upcoming (and more adult) horror film, BIG BAD WOLF. Otherwise, now being twenty-two or so, she would have looked quite natural as a college freshman.

Just the same, I think Disney Channel should quit while they're ahead. Because, as I see it, the only viable story-premise left is the Sinister Triplets struggling to get their powers back by kidnapping Marnie's trio of boyfriends (Ethan, Cody, and that dude who looks like a purple Mr. Spock)!

I was so geared up to see this movie since August and it was truly the best of the 4! Lucas Grabeel (HOTTIE) was awesome Sara Paxton (whom I normally don't like) was amazing as well! They have great chemistry Lucas and Sara!

Ethan did something I didn't except! I'm not gonna give it away for people who haven't sen it! And Marnie really was shocked but got over it quickly! And I mean *very* quickly!

The Sinister sisters (Kristy Wu, Kellie Cockrell, and Kattie Cockrell) were awesome! I'm not saying I actually liked them, but I think they gave this movie a little comedy!

My favorite scene: The laundry room scene between Ethan&Marnie!

Least favorite scene: When the Sinister sister turned Dylan into a dog!

Funniest scene: The very last scene!

I like this movie. It's probably the second best in the series. Sarah Paxton was really good. Judith Houge was very funny with the talking to the toilet and bird bath and using her magic in public. Kristy Wu was wonderfully wicked. J Paul Zimmerman was well, Dylan. Lucas Greebreal was pretty darn good, although I felt he could have done a little bit more. Debbie Reynolds, in her very small role, was quite good. The people who played Grogg and the Chancellor lady had their moments. My only problem was with Keone Young's voice. I hated that they altered it. It was quite annoying. The lady who played that Professor who was undercover was great.

Good acting, good story, funny scenes, great effects for a DCOM make this movie a success. 8 out of 10.

I thought it was a good movie, but the plot was a little confusing. I had some trouble understanding it, and if I was a younger child I probably wouldn't understand it at all. The scenes between Marnie and Ethan were awkward, but reasonably planned out. The characters could have been explained better, like their backgrounds. Especially the Sinister Sisters. I understand their reason for being there, I didn't understand why they were evil. You would only understand Ethan's background if you saw the third movie. Aggie wasn't shown enough in my opinion, and could have been better shown. I liked how they portrayed the time travel scenes, but the broom flying could have been better executed. Once again, I enjoyed the movie, but it could have been better if Disney had taken a little more time to plan it out and actually explain everything.

I thought this movie was horrible. Sara just wasn't the girl to fill Kims shoes. It kinda through me off when I saw Sara. I expected it, but I just couldn't bring myself to believe that it was still Marnie. The script wasn't that good either, but I think that Kim could have made it work. Sara just didn't know the mood of the movie. She hadn't had the practice of the other 3 movies, so she had no chance of being the Character Marnie. If they were going to change the actor they shouldn't have made another movie. Or they should have used one of the other family members like Sophie. I didn't personally like Sophie, but I think the movie would have been better staring her instead of a new actor to the movie.

This movie was just horrible, and I hope that they make another one to redeem themselves.Hopefully this time they will have the right Marnie, because if they don't it will probably be worse than return to halloweentown!Not only is the acting just horrible, the characters are horrible as well! I mean they don't have Sophie, or their grandma. Another thing is that the whole plot doesn't make any sense. Than they didn't even know who the Cromwells were. The sad thing is that I cant even remember half of the movie. The only thing I remember is her going to the college. Other than that I cant remember anything that had happened in the movie. I cant remember who the bad person was and what they wanted!

Marnie Piper is given a scholarship to Witch University, a very prestigious college in Halloweentown. Accompanied by her brother, Dylan Piper, Marnie quickly adjusts to life at Witch University. She makes three friends, Aneesa (a genie), Ethan Dalloway, and a troll whose name is almost not pronounceable, and three enemies, Sage, Saphire, and Scarlett Sinister. As the film progresses, Marnie becomes aware of a conspiracy led by a secret organization called "The Dominion." The Dominion plans to harness the Cromwell magic locked away in a stone container by Splendora Cromwell, one of the earliest Cromwells, and take over Halloweentown. What follows is betrayal, romance, time travel, and Disney Channel suspense.

Like many, I was a little disappointed that Kimberley J. Brown did not reprise her role, but Sara Paxton did a very good job in her stead. Paxton's Marnie is different from Brown's Marnie; this Marnie is a bit more invigorated and definitely personifies teenage angst.

While Judith Hoag and Joey Zimmerman return as Gwen and Dylan Piper, Emily Roeske (Sophie Piper) does not have a role in the movie, and Debbie Reynolds (Aggie Cromwell) only has two cameos. While in my opinion, the loss of Roeske is not very tragic (she was barely in the third movie), I was surprised that Reynolds did not have a larger role.

The Sinister sisters (Kelly Cockrell, Katie Cockrell, and Kristy Wu) seem rather one dimensional. Scarlett (Wu) is the only sister who does not seem next to lifeless. I was also surprised that Sage and Saphire (Cockrell and Cockrell) did not have larger roles; their apparent purpose in the movie is to accompany Scarlett, who, of course, walks in the middle as if leading the pack.

I would write about the teachers and other faculty members that Marnie and Dylan meet at Witch University, but this website does not mention the names of at least two of them. What I can write is that Dr. Grogg is falsely benevolent, Dr. Goodwin (Leslie Pomeroy) has an aura of menace, Silas Sinister (the Sinister sisters' father) is repetitive and rather flat, yet imposing, and Professor Periwinkle, who was a friend of Marnie's grandmother, is very likable.

Ethan's (Lucas Grabeel, reprising his role from "Halloweentown High") character seems to have completely changed. He went from static and pompous to unusually flirtatious and caring. That was not a bad change; it was just unexpected. Aneesa (Summer Bishil) is a newcomer, but fills out her role very well.

But enough about the characters. The story was very good. There were a few pop culture references (some of which seemed a little anachronistic) such as "ring tone," "G-Unit," "shimmy," and "Spiderman," but their usage was funny. And every so often there was a shot of Judith Hoag yelling odd things at a birdbath or a toilet. The whole time travel storyline was very interesting; it was marred ever so slightly by the fact that Splendora Cromwell was not as ancient an ancestor as she would be expected to be. Overall, though, the movie was very enjoyable, and I feel that it was the best Halloweentown installment to date.

I thought Sara Paxton did a great job. I liked KJBrown in the first 3, but I really can't even imagine her being in the new one. I think she's too old/mature to play a teenager in a teen movie. (But I feel like Kimberly has taken a step down by doing a horror movie.) If Disney wanted to continue with the Halloweentown series, they definitely needed a fresher, younger, more "hip" actress to play the part and give the series a new beginning. Because there will be a sequel! The book the amulet is hidden in has an S on it....Is that for "Sinister" or "Sequel?" Actually, I didn't like the ending. I don't know why Marnie opened the box RIGHT after Splendora told her about the dangerous power of the Gift! And then when she had the chance, why didn't she destroy it? And why would she hide it in some book that anyone could find? Maybe I just don't get it. And a little kiss between her and Ethan would have been nice. (I REALLY can't picture Kimberly getting romantic with him! It had to be Sara.) P.S. In the library, Dylan says he skipped a grade because of his magical speed reading. That's how he's in college, too, assuming he was only a year behind her.

It wasn't exactly wow good but it was OK.The end was kid of short but in the beginning they kinda got straight to the point. I wish Disney would make there movies a little longer and people might be more interested.The acting was good and so was the special effects.

This movie is good probably for 10 11 or 12 year old. If you are much older than that I'll advise you not to waste your time and turn to MTV. This might because little kids want to see something with witchcraft magic and slobbering monsters.

I think most of you would rather watch High School Musical and I know why, the singing was good and so was the acting but, I'd rather watch this movie.After this movie you might want to watch more Disney movies or just give up after watching this movie.

Well this movie was about a freshman college student who finds there are secrets behind her school and the amulet her grandmother had locked in a box one-thousand years before. The amulet can make people do anything...........including turn the town into slaves!