12 interesting things you didn’t know about ‘Halloweentown’
Halloweentown Even though it’s been over 20 years since the Disney Channel’s fourth original movie, “Halloweentown,” (1998) first aired, ’90s kids still look forward to watching the Cromwell kids get into some supernatural mischief once October rolls around.
And though you might consider yourself a wiz when it comes to “Halloweentown” trivia, there are some behind-the-scenes secrets not even the most loyal of fans know about the film.
To brush up on your facts, here are 12 things you probably didn’t know about the magic behind this cult-favorite movie.
The first installment of the “Halloweentown” franchise was presented to the director Duwayne Dunham as a $20 million to $30 million project — but that turned into just $4 million.
“I liked the story of the kids and their grandmother and the mother and the secret and all of that stuff,” Dunham said in an interview with MTV. “But it was like a $20 to $30 million movie when they presented it to me, and at that time, Disney Channel had just started production on their first movie, which was ‘Brink,’ and we were the second one.
“Our concept was great, but the scope was too much for us and our budget. So the trick was how do you keep the tone and the concept intact, and pare it down so we could afford to do this?”
Obviously, they made it work. The film was shot in a quick 24-day span, with actors doubling up costumes on the set to create the illusion of a busy town.
Benny the taxi driver wasn’t an actor dressed as a skeleton, nor was his character completely digitized.
During an interview with Baltimore Media Blog, Kimberly J. Brown, who played 13-year-old Marnie Cromwell, outed the man behind the curtain — or, I should say, the robot behind the skeleton — for what he truly was.
“One specific memory [I have from filming ‘Halloweentown’ is] of the character Benny,” Brown told the blog. “The actor dubbed his lines after filming, so we actually worked with a robot. I’ll always remember the ‘errr err’ sound it made.”
