Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge, on Disney Channel
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wikis: Disney; Disney Channel; Halloween Specials; Halloweentown; Made for TV Movie
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Caution: spoilers.
Well, this starts with the main character, Marnie, recapping the events of the first movie. Since I'll assume you've already seen that one if you're watching this one (or even just reading this review), I'll reveal something I refrained from revealing in my previous review. The villain from that movie is none other than Kalabar, who, as you know, was defeated back then, hence the subtitle of the sequel, "Kalabar's Revenge." Except, it isn't, really. Um, but first, I want to mention that in Marnie's recap, I think she said it's been two years since the previous movie (though it came out three years after the first one), but also I think later on, Aggie said she'd been in the mortal world for one year. I dunno, whatever. It's not that important.
In any event, it's once again Halloween night, however many years it's been. And of course, it's important to note that the portal between Halloweentown and the mortal world can only be opened on this one day, until midnight. Anyway, Gwen is hosting a Halloween party for a bunch of neighborhood children, I guess. And Marnie and Dylan are planning to go to another party, at the high school, a bit later. Meanwhile, a couple of people show up at Gwen's party, who had just moved to town: Alex, and his son, Kal.
Kal and Marnie quickly take a liking to each other, and she ends up breaking the rules by taking him into her grandmother's room. He seems interested in magic, though Marnie keeps mentioning that it's all pretend. Anyway, we see him use magic himself, to steal Aggie's spell book, though Marnie doesn't see this. And they make a date to go to the high school party together later. Meanwhile, Alex invites Gwen to the same party, saying they could probably always use more chaperones.
But soon after Alex and Kal ostensibly head back to their house, Aggie, Sophie, and Marnie find that magic doesn't seem to be working properly, so Aggie and Marnie decide to take the bus to Halloweentown to investigate. It doesn't show up, so they open a portal themselves. Once there, they find everyone and everything in Halloweentown is turning grey, and all the people fairly apathetic or whatever (oh, and all the creatures have turned into humans, or what Aggie describes as a Halloweentown caricature of humans, the way humans in the mortal world caricature magical creatures). Contacting Dylan and Sophie back home, they learn that Aggie's spell book is missing. So, they go to Aggie's house to look for her spare, but that's gone, too. They're accompanied by Luke, who at one point suddenly returns to normal. At first they think the grey spell must have worn off, though it didn't wear off for anyone else.
Oh, and they learn that Kal is actually the son of Kalabar, so really it's Kal seeking revenge, or at least trying to continue his father's plan of conquest in both worlds. And at midnight, he intends to cast a spell turning everyone at the high school party into whatever costumes they're wearing.
Anyway, there's a creature named Gort, and um, everything that gets lost in either world ends up at his place, so Marnie, Aggie, and Luke go there to look for Aggie's spare spell book. But they fail to find it, and Aggie eventually turns grey herself. So it's up to Marnie and Luke to figure out how to break the spell. And also, Kal has trapped them in Gort's place, and prevented them from opening a portal to return to the mortal world. And stuff.
I guess I should mention that Dylan decided to stay home and babysit Sophie, so that their mom could go to the other party with Alex. But eventually Sophie starts thinking there's something wrong, that Alex isn't really Kal's father. Well, I guess they knew from their contact with Marnie and Aggie who Kal's real father was, so obviously Alex couldn't be his father. But um... Sophie came up with a theory about who or what Alex actually was, so they went to the party to warn their mom.
And um... well, I'll leave out the steps that Marnie and Luke take to eventually figure out how to save the day, but eventually the day gets saved. Or the next day does, anyway, because they don't make it in time for the midnight deadline. But, spoiler: eventually they figure out how to open a portal any time, even if it's not Halloween. So, Aggie will move back to Halloweentown, and the kids can visit her whenever they want. Meanwhile, Kal's defeated, but they expect him to return someday, so they plan to be ready for him. And that's all I can say, except that the movie really wasn't quite as good as the first one, but it was still okay. I guess.