Halloweentown Series Review
1. Halloweentown/Halloweentown II Double Feature - Halloweentown is my favourite movie of all time. Even ahead of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Jurassic Park (my previous favourites.) I've been waiting for seven years for this movie to come out. Until now, I've only had a copy I taped when it originally aired. I've gone crazy waiting for the dvd. And now I have it. This is the perfect fun Halloween season movie. There's something in it for everyone; funny looking monsters for the kids, action/danger for the older kids, and atmosphere for everybody. Now, onto the review.
Video 9/10 : The quality of the dvd is amazing for having two movies crammed onto one side of one disc. I didn't detect any rainbowing or shimmering or edge enhancement at all. I didn't see any flecks or really any grain to speak of. The picture was perfect. The only thing that I saw that was a little strange was during Halloweentown II. In the scene at the Pipers' Halloweentown party, Kal's Golem-Dad was helping Gwen pour punch into a bowl. For a couple of seconds, the film seems to either speed up slightly or skip a frame here or there. Then again, when Marnie and Aggie first get to Halloweentown and realize that it was Marnie's fault that Kall stole the spellbook. Aggie is talking to Marnie and it looks like the framerate is again slightly off but the audio still seems to be in sync with the video. Even with this, this dvd is top notch.
Audio 10/10 : The sound on both movies is great considering that there are two movie on one disc. Just amazing. The second the creepy wind and low music started, it took me back to when Halloweentown was first on.
Extras 5/10 : This is where the dvd got me. There's a short 3 minute short that Kimberly J. Brown hosts that shows a little about behind the scenes of the Halloweentown movies. They show how they did the makeup for the werewolf and troll for H3. They should've included the DCOM Extras that they showed right before the airing of Halloweentown High. These were infinately better than the short little....short that they DID give us. Other than that, they definately should've included the Monster Bash segments that were aired the same night as the original Halloweentown movie. Kimberly J. Brown was the host and showed kids different games and prizes that they could have at a Halloween party. That said, even if all the dvd had was the movie/movies, it would well be worth just about any price.
2. Halloweentown High - As soon as I first heard that there was going to be another Halloweentown movie, I was estatic. As I stated before, the Halloweentown movies are my favourite movies of all time. I wasn't disappointed. Halloweentown High was great. I had the copy that I taped off tv but this was greatly better. I can watch it as many times as I want without the dvd wearing out. tapes don't do that.
Video 10/10 : The video quality of Halloweentown High was top notch. Way better than when I taped it off tv. I didn't see any defects, color shifts, or brightness fluctuations. The picture was perfect. Absolutely perfect. The best thing is that I will be able to watch the movie for years and years and the quality, unlike a videotape, will never be any worse than it already maybe.
Audio 9/10 : Halloweentown High's sound was great. Better than even, I think, the original broadcast. I love the creepy music that plays during the introduction and narration. The only problem I had with it, the thing that's keeping me from giving it a full 10 out of 10, is the 5.1 surround sound. If you don't have a 5.1 setup, the sound can be kind of wonky, seeing as the 5.1 distinct channels of sound are compressed down into two channels. This can distort the sound somewhat. This happened to me near the end of the movie. The sound lowered in volume for a couple of seconds which was very distracting. But the strange thing is this problem wasn't present on the double feature disc with the first two movies. At least, I didn't hear any problem. If they had offered a 2.0 stereo option, I would've given the sound a full 10. This option should be mandatory on all dvds.
Extras 5/10 : As with the first disc, there were few extras. Even fewer, in fact. But the only extra feature that I really care that was missing was a commentary track. This is the one feature of a dvd that I really look forward to. Sometimes, a commentary can be more entertaining than the movie it's self. The commentary on Knight's Tale, for instance. If Kimberly J. Brown, Debbie Reynolds or both had done a commentary, I would've completely forgotten about the audio problem.
