Picture this: you’re snuggled under your favorite blanket, your mom has just set a steaming bowl of buttery popcorn on the table, and you get to press the button to start the film. Everything is right in the world and the opening credits to a brand-new movie have just begun.
With the live-action The Little Mermaid (2023) premiering in May of next year, I’ve been thinking a lot about movies from my childhood that always stuck with me. Many of them would make me laugh and some would you even make me cry.
During these early years of adolescence, there’s something indescribably magical about watching your favorite movie. Picture this: you’re snuggled under your favorite blanket, your mom has just set a steaming bowl of buttery popcorn on the table, and you get to press the button to start the film. Everything is right in the world and the opening credits to a brand-new movie have just begun.
For years, Disney Channel was a force to be reckoned with, as far as fall movies were concerned. All year, I’d await the arrival of Disney’s “Haunt-oberfest” marathon. Every night for the entire month of October, Disney would televise their scariest films and episodes from their fan-favorite sitcoms.
There’s nothing that can top the feeling of watching your favorite actors and actresses run from snotty-nosed ghouls or even mummies. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment to experience the early years of Disney Channel’s reign of terror. Now I can re-live the terror as I share my favorite fall favorite childhood movies with you all.
1. Halloweentown
Though the first installment of this series premiered in 1998 with Debbie Reynolds(who played the fearless grandmother to rival all grandmothers), it became part of Disney’s Haunt-oberfest, which I was able to enjoy during elementary school. The movies that followed after were quite mundane and lost most of their flavor, which I think is a common occurrence with popular series.
2. Twitches
Some years after their successful sitcom Sister, Sister ended; Tia and Tamera Mowry landed roles in this Disney Channel original film, depicting twin witches who were separated at birth. The twins set out to protect their magical kingdom from the darkness who turns out to be their evil uncle. This is also one of many early Disney movies where the soundtrack became a fan favorite.
3. Hocus Pocus
“I smell children,” has to be one of the most recited lines from this classic movie. I’ll argue that fact. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy are the perfect trio of witches who have been gathering the souls of children every Halloween night in hopes of gaining immortality. The sequel to the 1993 smash hit has received a fair rating from film critics and has amassed genuine interest across all generations, old and young.
4. The Haunted Mansion
Eddie Murphy in a family-friendly film? Yes, it was and it is possible. Murphy plays a self-absorbed realtor who takes his family on one last job listing before their weekend vacation. The mansion owner, who’s still grieving the untimely death of his beloved wife, turns out to be a ghost. This is one of my all-time favorite films featuring Murphy. It’s funny and perfect for a family movie night.
5. Smart House
If you ask anybody who grew up in the early 2000s, there’s a strong possibility that one of their favorite movies is Smart House. Though it wasn’t a Halloween-inspired film, it fit the category of having you on the edge of your seat. It follows the lives of a tech nerd, his younger sister, and their widowed father. When the son enters a competition to win a smart house, the family finds the house taking on the bodily form of a mother figure. Everything turns sour as she becomes overbearing and hard to live with. Like any other Disney film, all ends well and lessons are learned.
Though I’ve grown up and past watching these movies, I still return to them occasionally. Although, the pure, nostalgic feeling of watching Disney from the early 2000s is unbeatable. Now that we’re in an entirely different decade, the current Disney Channel platform has not come close to creating original movies like they did when I was younger. Authenticity and pure talent are what made us return year after year for the specials and original movie premiers. What a time it was to just be a kid and experience your first movie!