Well, that’s certainly a downgrade from the other two movies.

The concept is rather interesting. Switching around the "fish-out-of-water" element and not having Marnie and siblings discover Halloweentown for a third time, but kids from Halloweentown learning the ways of the human world, works pretty well. It leads to some interesting and funny moments that keep the film entertaining.

I also like the concept of the Knights, something between myth and reality and a real danger to Halloweentown residents. The overall message of acceptance is also a nice one and can’t be taught enough.

Very representative for this is the relationship between Dylan and pink Troll Natalie (who is way cooler than Trolls' Poppy), only their odd final decision to not give their relationship a chance, because they find each other physically disgusting is a weird paradox to the rest of the film.

Which brings us to the many problems it has.

It starts with the villain, who is played as a plot twist, but him being evil is as obvious as the color of the grass. He is also quite boring. Over-the-top but still manages to leave no impact, especially compared to Kalabar and his son, who both were overly dramatic as well, but in the fun diva way.

The movie also tries to do way too much in its relatively short run time. While the first two had a very straightforward storyline, this one tried to overcompensate or something. The Halloweentown kids get to know the mortal world, Marnie bets her family’s magic because she believes in inter-realm world peace, evil Knights attack, Marnie gets a new love interest, Aggie gets a love interest, Dylan gets a love interest, Marnie and Aggie get into a fight... it’s just too much. And because of that every element falls short. Also, important characters like Sophie (who basically disappears into off-screen land) and Gwen (who is suddenly super cool with using magic) are cut short.

It also feels like some characters act out of their normal behavior for some reason. As mentioned before, Gwen is suddenly super fine with magic, Marnie is complete pushy overachiever and Aggie is very judgey and naive all of sudden. Only Dylan seems to be in-character and acts based on the previous two films.

The love stories also don’t really work. I talked about Dylan and Natalie before, so let’s look at Aggie and the school Principal (who I‘m sure has a name). They flirt throughout the movie and he is also very obviously in cahoots with the villain and Aggie just misses all the signs and instead focuses on Marnie‘s new boy toy. He also gets a blink and you miss it redemption "arc."

Then there are Marnie and her new love interest Cody, the blandest love interest since Blane in Pretty in Pink. So, where the hell is Luke? You know, a character audiences have connected with, who has great chemistry with Marnie, who has been with her through quite a few crisis and who would have made a lot of sense in the film? Was Phillip van Dyke not available or what’s with that nonsense?

Anyway, it has its moments and it’s still better than the Marnie-replacing sequel that we choose to ignore.