The Disney Channel Original Movie Halloweentown premiered in 1998, and the viewers were forever changed when they met the Cromwell family. The fantasy film spawned a successful four-film franchise — Halloweentown, Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge, Halloweentown High, and Return to Halloweentown, all of which focused on the history of the Cromwells, one of the most powerful families of witches and warlocks in the spooky town. The tight-knit crew includes Aggie Cromwell, Gwen Piper, Marnie Piper, Dylan Piper, and Sophie Piper. Aggie is Gwen’s mother, while Gwen is Marnie, Dylan, and Sophie’s mother. When the first movie premiered, the three kids had no clue about their family history until they followed their grandmother back to her hometown.
Gwen married a human, and she chose to raise her family in the mortal world instead of in Halloweentown alongside Aggie, even after her husband died. The matriarch also decided to hide the fact that the Cromwells came from a long line of witches from Marnie, Dylan, and Sophie. However, Marnie always felt as if she was different, which led to her, Dylan, and Sophie hitching a ride back to Halloweentown with their grandmother on one Halloween night. Once they arrived in the magical place, they learned all about how they had powers as witches, and after some conflict, Gwen agreed to let her children embrace their abilities in Halloweentown.
5 Spell Casting
One of the first things Marnie, Dylan, and Sophie learned how to do as witches (and as a warlock) was spell casting in the first Halloweentown movie. Once the three Piper kids arrived at their grandmother’s house in Halloweentown, Aggie decided to start training Marnie to be a witch since she was 13 years old, which is when magical beings typically start learning how to control their powers and abilities. So, instead of letting Gwen know that her children had snuck out of their beds to travel to a different world, Aggie got caught up in teaching Marnie everything she knew as an experienced witch.
Marnie immediately got to put her skills to the test because of an evil presence invading Halloweentown. She, along with her grandmother, created a potion to fill up Merlin’s talisman and used a spell to activate it, which would later be used to defeat the villain of the story, Kalabar. This was one of the first spells Marnie cast in the Disney Channel film series, and she would go on to exercise that perk of being a witch throughout the franchise.
Dylan and Sophie even got in on the fun from time to time, seeing as they both had magic in their blood. As a matter of fact, Sophie was one of the first ones in the family (other than Aggie and Gwen, of course) to cast a spell in Halloweentown. The youngest Piper child used magic to unlock the gate to Aggie’s house in the 1998 fantasy movie. Other facets of spell casting used throughout all four films other than potion making included molecular combustion, time travel, curse breaking, reality warping, and conjuration.
4 Mind Control
The power to control minds did not come up until the final film in the Disney Channel Original Movie franchise — Return to Halloweentown, which premiered in 2006. The fourth installment featured many changes, including the recasting of Marnie Piper. Instead of Kimberly J. Brown, who had portrayed the protagonist since the beginning of the story, Sara Paxton took over the role. The film also highlighted Marnie’s first year in college in Halloweentown, where she learned there was a lot about her family history (in particular, her grandmother’s past) that she was unaware of.
Thousands of years ago, Aggie used to be the Queen of Halloweentown, and as a formidable ruler, she possessed something called the Gift. The Gift gave Aggie the ability to control people’s minds, and its magic was manifested in a necklace. Because its power was too strong, and one person should never hold that much control over others, Aggie locked the necklace and buried it hundreds of feet underneath the town.
The necklace resurfaced in Return to Halloweentown, and Marnie was forced into using it (since only Cromwells could wield the Gift). She, along with her family, destroyed the necklace for good at the end of the film. So now, the Cromwells do not have the power of mind control.
3 Telekinesis
Telekinesis was one of the first powers showcased in Halloweentown, and the power was not even used on purpose. Marnie, Dylan, and Sophie were stuck at home while every other kid was out trick-or-treating, and, as one could imagine, they were not too happy about it. Plus, Gwen wouldn’t allow Sophie to have a cookie before dinner. So when the youngest child turned her back to her mother and pouted, she muttered, “I really want that cookie,” she unknowingly used her powers as a witch to levitate a cookie and make it come toward her. However, Gwen saw this, grabbed the cookie out of the air, and stuffed it into her mouth before Sophie could see.
This was only one example of the Cromwell family using telekinesis in the Halloweentown film series. There were multiple other instances throughout all four movies where Marnie and the others levitated objects with their mind. Although, as a new witch, Marnie had some trouble perfecting the power in the story.
2 Broomstick Riding
Aggie also showed her granddaughter, Marnie, how to ride a broomstick in Halloweentown. As a young witch, receiving her first broomstick was an honor and a privilege, and Aggie was more than happy to gift Marnie with one in the Disney Channel Original Movie. As opposed to some of the other powers that the Cromwell family wields, Marnie was able to figure out broomstick riding pretty quickly. Throughout the rest of the Halloweentown film series, Marnie is frequently seen on her broomstick in the night sky. Related: Where To Watch The Halloweentown Movies
1 Extrasensory Perception
The final power that the Cromwell family possessed in the Halloweentown franchise was extrasensory perception, which means that they could all sense when something was wrong or had a gut feeling that was always right. Extrasensory perception was one of the first witch abilities showcased in the first Disney Channel film. When Halloweentown began, Sophie claimed that “someone is coming” as she stared out the window, which turned out to be her grandmother.
