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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Cable Telefilm > Halloweentown High, I & II (2 DVDs)

Halloweentown I & II + Halloweentown High (2 DVDs)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Telefilms: C

 

 

When I was a kid, Disney used to release all kinds of vinyl records, including for holidays.  One 12” release had a stupid piece on side one and surprisingly good radio drama-like Horror piece on the other.  When taking a look at the made-for-cable-TV Halloweentown telefilms, they sadly leaned towards that first vinyl side.  Very fake, phony, plastic and dull, the franchise could only find an audience in the overly enclosed world that is The Disney Channel, which always has the feel of a bizarre living mall where everything feels only half alive.

 

Anyhow, we know everyone on a first name basis as if they were our friends, like the nametags at a fast food place, though with even less human contact.  Then there is the sort of semblance of scripts where everyone in the family turns out to be good witches.  Faster than you can say Harry Potter, bad make-up and visual effects worse than Worst Witch (reviewed elsewhere on the site) turn up at every corner and Sid & Marty Krofft suddenly looks more cutting edge than the visual effects in Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds.

 

The 1.33 X 1 full frame image is as phony and if it were not transferred better, would have been a color bleeding disaster from the way it was shot.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is nothing great and a slight step above Pro Logic surround, which is punchy even where it need not be.  Extras include all kinds of promos for other Disney product, plus some self-congratulatory featurettes on the telefilms.  Pass on these unless you have kids pestering you to death for them.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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