Twitches Too

(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Twitches Too)

Doug (vo): It's Twitches Too, spelled with two "O"s, because...clever? If you saw my review of the first film, you know that I thought it was actually kind of well done...eh, for what it is. It was a good family-fantasy that had some good laughs, some legitimately good drama, and some magical elements. The sequel is...pretty much the same. And not in a bad way like everything is on repeat. They do throw in a lot of new stuff. Heck, they actually take out a lot of the annoying things from the first one, like, they very rarely say "Go, Twitches!" or do any catchphrases. In fact, I can only think of two at the end, where they do that stupid little dance and then they both go, "Loser!" Oh, that's painful. The rest of the film is once again kind of cheesy, but kind of interesting, too.

Story
Doug (vo): Our Twitches, played again by the Mowry sisters, find that being friends is one thing, but being sisters living together is something different. They're snipping at each other more, having disagreements, and not always getting along. But at the end of the day, they're still sisters and they still connect. But that comes to a bit of a head when their mother, their real mother, reveals that another evil force is slowly slipping into their kingdom and they need their magic to stop it, particularly during an eclipse. It seems that someone, or something, in the shadow world is starting to infriltrate their real world. Their magic can get rid of it for good, but there's one problem. While most of the people think it's Thantos, the villain from the first film, one of the sisters thinks it's her father. And because we don't see things from the point of view of the shadowy monster, it very well could be. This creates a rift between the sisters, as well as the rest of the family, including their bickering protectors, who have now decided to get married. All throughout the film, magical clues, backstories, shadows sneaking around, all indicate something is up, but we don't quite know what. Is it the villain? Is it the father? Even if it is the father, look at this portrait of him. (That portrait of the father is shown) Maybe he's a bad guy, too. After all, they were related.

Review
Doug (vo): The pacing and atmosphere in this movie is still reasonably well done. So many times, you'll just see a shadow sneaking in the background, and you have no idea. Is this for good or for evil? And this creates a nice family dynamic among our heroes.

(Scenes focusing on the main characters and their dilemmas are shown)

Doug (vo): In fact, there's even more than that. They find out that not everybody can use magic. In fact, it's practically outlawed. While the mother sees this as a necessity, one of the sisters doesn't. And both sides have very legitimate points. It's not something like Little Mermaid 3, where all music is outlawed and that's obviously bad. Here, it actually kind of makes sense the choices that people make, and the arguments they have for their side. Again, I feel like that's strangely the strength of these movies, is that there actually is kind of a family connection. Disagreements don't always mean one is obviously right and one is obviously wrong. But on top of that, there's a ton of other things that Disney Channel viewers would like. You get to see them go on dates, you find out one might be a prince, but then it turns out he's just wearing a butler's outfit because he works in the kitchen. There's a boyfriend who used to date one of the sisters and now he's dating the other one, but this shadow suddenly possesses him, maybe it seems to be following him. There's all sorts of nice little touches going on.

(Several scenes focusing on the film's effects and production design are shown)

Doug (vo): The effects are still...pretty bad, but they're at least a little better than the last one. They at least try to go more cinematic with them. Sometimes, they work, other times, they're...pretty awkward. Thankfully, a lot of it is shot more cinematically, so you're more looking at the nice sets and cinematography than you are how bad the effects are...eh, for the most part. Again, they can be really awkward. It's funny, because I just had to watch Return to Halloweentown, where a lot of it obviously steals from Harry Potter. Here, this one steals from Harry Potter, too, but it also kind of steals from Lord of the Rings, which shadowy figures and even a ring and a dark presence trying to take human form and...yeah, on the one hand, I could shout "rip-off", it does seem to come back to its own thing just enough. And the elements it does borrow from Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings seem to be good elements that they're borrowing from. Like, there's a backstory about how the mother and father met. The father wanted to get the mother a gift, and so, she asked for a star. And that's exactly what he got her: a star that can fit in her pocket. That seems Harry Potter-esque, but...it's just different enough to let it pass. That dark presence you always feel watching you and always seems to be around very much feels like Sauron from Lord of the Rings. But again, they add that you don't know if it's evil, and you don't know what it can do. It's almost like it's similar ideas, but they changes they make are just enough to make as though it's not really distracting and you're still invested in the story.

Final thought
Doug (vo): Add some good one-liners, and even some good dramatic moments, and, yeah, you have a sequel about as good as the first one. It still has some hammered-in moments and schmaltzy moments, but, again, I think that's kind of expected from a Disney Channel movie. When it wants to get a small laugh out of you, it works. And when it wants to get a little emotion out of you, it works then, too. I'm actually kind of surprised I liked these movies as much as I did. I doubt I'll play it again, but I was glad I sat down and watched them once. It felt like there was a lot more to it than just Sister, Sister if they were witches. It has its own universe, it has its own identity, and it has more than enough to keep kids entertained. I know it's weird, but as these Disney Channel movies go, these films are surprisingly pretty decent.

(The final scene, showing all the characters celebrating at a wedding reception, is shown)