This in one instance that I believe most would be perfectly fine with an older actress/ actor playing a younger role. This is like the exception for doing it, to keep the main characters going to the end. You just don’t make creepy scenes with with them unless the other actors with them are also adult actors playing younger characters.

i always forget that shes literally 14 in this and not in like..highschool...which makes the whole thing that much weirder

I honestly liked the movie. I was disappointed yes, but it seemed easier to deal with in what felt like a wrap up movie. Still not fair, obviously and I'm glad that Kimberly didn't let it ruin having been that character.

Look, I absolutely love Sara Paxton and Lucas Grabeel. But they could not save this egregious movie. Like I went in at the time with an open mind because I like Sara (and support a fellow Latina), but I was like “this was not it”. Also, Kimberly was really dedicated to the fans. She full on married Kal for us. (jk)

recasting Marnie was still one of the biggest Disney betrayals, like..did they think we wouldnt notice?? Other note: I always thought Luka should have been in the third movie because of course he would join a program to go the human world and hang out with Marnie in the process! (maybe they would have ended up together like i wanted as a kid, maybe not) but I know he quit acting after the second movie so Im not mad about it or anything, just something that bugged me as a child lol.

The my ma' rant was real tho

Felt the music was a bit to loud

Wow, crazy its "lost media" now, I remember watching this on TV SO VIVIDLY...

She is so nice. I met her in a mall like 2010 and I told her I loved her in Halloweentown and Rose Red and hoped to see her in more movies. I also got a really bad Cell phone picture with her lol it was a flip phone

Just remember that when Patrick Swayze was cast as Darry in the Outsiders movie he was pushing 40. Darry's character in the book was stated to be around 20 but looked older due to stress from having to take care of his brothers after their parents passed away. Age is literally no f**king excuse, especially when she was meant to look older since she was going to college.

They wanted to fullfill the hott teen daughter troupe that was still popular at that time. Kimberly was curvey and that wasn't in for lead casting. That's the quiet part out loud right there 💯

It’s actually so crazy to say that a 21 year old is too old to play a college freshman 😂 also Disney has since had actresses playing characters far younger than themselves especially when they write the story to have such little time actually passing between one film to another, but production takes longer than a year or two. It’s also ridiculous to recast the main character in the 4th movie, especially if it’s going to be the last one. It probably wouldn’t have been if they didn’t recast Marnie and if the writing wasn’t so bad. It was very jarring to see Marnie played by someone else. Deadass I didn’t recognize her as the character at all until they address her by name. There are so many whiffs in the writing over all. Like the completely wrote out Luke, who was obviously poised as a love interest of sorts or at least one of her close friends and then they never followed up on where Cal disappeared to and he never comes back even though they say in the end of the 2nd movie that they don’t think that that’s they last they’ll be seeing of him. 😂 The magic college theme really seems like the were trying to cash in on the “Harry Potter appeal”. I know JK Rolling(may she drink piss) doesn’t own the magic school concept, but they’ve literally been promising the audience a year of training with Grandma Aggie since the second movie which is supposed to take place when she graduates. It’s like the writers for the 4th movie didn’t actually watch any of the other 3 movies. They just ignored all the plot threads left there to build off of.

It’s actually so crazy to say that a 21 year old is too old to play a college freshman 😂 also Disney has since had actresses playing characters far younger than themselves especially when they write the story to have such little time actually passing between one film to another, but production takes longer than a year or two. It’s also ridiculous to recast the main character in the 4th movie, especially if it’s going to be the last one. It probably wouldn’t have been if they didn’t recast Marney and if the writing wasn’t so bad. It was very jarring to see Marney played by someone else. Deadass I didn’t recognize her as the character at all until they address her by name. There are so many whiffs in the writing over all. Like the completely wrote out Luke, who was obviously poised as a love interest of sorts or at least one of her close friends and then they never followed up on where Cal disappeared to and he never comes back even though they say in the end of the 2nd movie that they don’t think that that’s they last they’ll be seeing of him. 😂 The magic college theme really seems like the were trying to cash in on the “Harry Potter appeal”. I know JK Rolling(may she drink piss) doesn’t own the magic school concept, but they’ve literally been promising the audience a year of training with Grandma Aggie since the second movie which is supposed to take place when she graduates.

I never knew they did a recast. But then again I was really young when the movie came out .

I didn't even watch this one because I could not get over the recast

I for one do not support the recast. I didn't hate the concept of the movie, but it could have been done better.

They could’ve had the little sister Sophie be a teen protagonist in the movie. She was still young enough.

I was in middle school when Halloweentown 4 came out and I remember being so upset at Marnie being recast. And even at 12 years old, I immediately knew that they’d gotten rid of Kimberly because she was less “conventionally attractive”. Which is absolutely ridiculous, because she’s beautiful! But she wasn’t the waifish, model-like actress that reigned supreme at the time, and Sara was. The movie was bad no matter how you slice it, but recasting Marnie was unnecessary. Of course, no one is ever going to admit that they cast Sara because she was thinner and “prettier”, because can you imagine the shitstorm that would cause? Kimberly was not big by any stretch of the imagination, and even 18 years later, them admitting it would cause massive outcry. I’m sure they told Kimberly all sorts of things about why she was recast, but I doubt they ever actually said they wanted someone thinner and prettier. The age thing reads to me like a thinly veiled admission with plausible deniability.

i genuinely thought the girl from the fourth one was supposed to be a different character, I legit do not remember being told she was supposed to be marnie

I just feel the age issue was ironic because the characters were heading to college 🤨

Hollywood regularly casts 30+ year olds as 14 year olds every day, but a 21 year old playing 18 is too crazy?!?!

Nah, Kimberly wasn't in the movie because of her weight. Disney had a biased thing with chunky girls and Raven-Symone is a prime example of that when she was doing That's So Raven. Dylan Sprouse was also ridiculed for his weight being a male and probably the only one to date that had to deal with this since you rarely saw chunky dudes in leading Disney Channel TV or movie roles. Kim Rhodes who played Dylan's mother on both Suite Life shows did an interview saying that while filming the first show that one of the producers demanded he not eat any of the sugar treats offered on set until he slimmed down to look like his twin brother. Yep. So yeah, I have no doubt in my mind Kimberly had to deal with this issue being the LEAD ACTRESS in a very popular movie series. Image is everything with these companies and if you don't look like a model you're not gonna cut it in the long run. Kimberly was chunky from jump but got even more-so by the third movie so I can see them not wanting to deal with that image in yet another movie especially if she wasn't able to slim down in time if they demanded her to. But given Return was suppose to be the last movie, did it make sense to recast so late into the game? No. Frankly, Sophie should have been given the spotlight with her going to high school in Halloweentown to make up for her not being utilized in the third movie where she was basically a sitting duck. They didn't need Marnie at all. But given how chunky even Emily Roeske was by the third movie, I worry how this angle would have transpired going into the fourth if she were to be the lead. But given where things stand now where we did end up with Marnie in this movie, I didn't mind Sara Paxton in the role. I thought she looked beautiful and why would she say no? Actors need a job and there are so many of them and so little spots in this business. Most are back working 9-5 like jobs when they're not filming something and could be years before they snag something else whether it be a TV show or movie. This is one that was offered to her, so why pass it up? Like you said, if she didn't do it someone else would have and it's not like Sara and Kimberly were such good friends Sara just HAD to reject the role. She's not obligated to feel bad or sad about it because Kimberly does. Overall, I find Return to Halloweentown to be a fine movie. I actually like it better than the others because it was darker and gave us more history and the characters were mature. The college setting was also nice given Disney's aim to kids and generally dealing with middle school/high school stuff so a college-based story was refreshing and shows growth. Yes, it still had that Disney channel cheesiness to it, but it delivered. People should lay off of the movie and lay off Sara Paxton. As for why Debbie Reynolds wasn't in it much, I'm not sure if this was intentional or Debbie was sick or something and could only do a small bit, but I wish she could have had a bigger role. I could see her being that professor/agent that Marnie said reminded her of Aggie and thus Splendora could have simply been another ancestor rather than Aggie herself (maybe Aggie's mother). P.S., the blonde wig was not bad at all. I have no issues with it especially when she's wearing that hat thing anyway to cover up her scalp so you can't really TELL its fake by any hairline. It certainly had that medieval style bulkiness to it that I could buy being the case. Your beef is simply knowing it's not Sara's real hair, but they couldn't use her real hair because she already had it dyed brown for the role and having her dye it back and then straightening it to look of the ancient times might have been too much, so they went with the wig which is FINE. I barely ever hear people complain about it so you doing so is quite pathetic. -_-

Me as Kid: Kelly was being mistreated Me as an adult: Kelly was a spoiled brat that needed some discipline.

Yeah I never understood why she was recast for the fourth movie at all because it ain't making sense the age things stupid because they were going to college so it's not like she was still in high school or anything and even then you can still do older more mature stories like halloweentown too was the most darkest mature version of the story You could have easily went a little bit darker with the fourth movie not their adults you know what I'm saying and still kept that magic along which is what we wanted I don't know why they cast Sarah Paxton. Cuz it felt like it was a slapping our face and it's the reason why nobody really talks about return to halloweentown it's halloweentown halloweentown to calabars Revenge and halloweentown high after that the franchise ended there it's same thing as Cheetah girls want you to girls too we don't talk about one world because Raven wasn't in it like when they do dumb stuff like that don't we just don't accept it it's the same thing with Zenon Girl of the 21st century we talk about Zenon One and we talk about Zenon 3 we don't talk about Zenon the second movie.

lol what? Yet they casted the Mowry Twins who were in their late twenties to be college aged. Kim was done wrong and still looks like a teen today.

I think Kimberly does know why. I just think one, Kimberly doesn’t want to stir the pot and create drama, and two, it’s possible there’s some mild bitterness about it and so deflecting to “ask Disney” is both a, I don’t want to cause drama but also “Disney why do you tell fans the ridiculous reason you recast me!” Without directly saying it. And I love Daniel’s response to being asked about HT4 😂 we all feel that! Tbh, as much as I’d have wanted her to return, if this movie was really that bad, regardless of if she had been in it, it’s best she wasn’t. She got to end it on a high.

She’s too old to play a college student but let’s not talk about the elephant in the room that was Miley Cyrus’s 33 yr old tv brother in Hannah Montana playing a 19 yr old 🥴 Like, no shade on him, just sayin.

lmao leave Iceman alone

They wanted someone more attractive and skinny point-blank period. And it ruined it

I always thought it was because they wanted a really popular actress to lead the film and Sara Paxton was fairly popular at the time, Aquamarine came out earlier that year. And I think looks might have been a factor, Sara had more "conventionally attractive modelesque" features compared to Kimberly. It's fucked up but yeah, it's plausible. This whole age crap is new to me.

This is and the 3rd Brenan Frasier Mummy are the human versions of biting into a cookie thinking it was chocolate chip and getting oatmeal raisin

You should look into the So Weird recasting because that got zero explanation, and Disney NEVER mentions that show at all.

The recast killed the next one which was hinted there would be another after the 4th one.

#DisneyDiva ❤😊

oh he gonna have regrets cuz imma cyber bully him. i was so mad when they recast marnie. i watch all the movies every year except the last one because i decided its not cannon and i dont accept it

The only way they could make this up to me would be to have a Halloweentown 5 where Kal and Marnie ended up together 😍