Two teen witches who were separated at birth and were adopted by two different families meet on their 21st birthday and must use their powers to save the world in which they were born, where their birth mother still lives
– Danielle, IMDB
Released in 2004, Twitches is a Disney Channel Original made-for-TV movie. It stars real-life twins Tia and Tamera Mowry in the titular roles, who fellow 90s kids will recognize from the ABC sitcom Sister, Sister, where Tia and Tamera played long-lost twin sisters who are reunited after being separated at birth. Twitches was filmed entirely in Toronto, with the castle scenes being shot at Casa Loma, a castle in Toronto that was also featured in Princess: A Modern Fairy tale.
The film is based on a book series, also named Twitches, that was published by Scholastic Press and written by H. B. Gilmour and Randi Reisfeld. The film is based on the events of the first book, titled Twitches: The Power of Two.
Some thoughts from me (Potential spoilers below…)
There aren’t many Halloween related Princess movies, why I’m not super sure. While the stereotypical Princess doesn’t really mesh well with Halloween, that just all the more reason to do a Halloween special featuring a Princess. You’d be able to instantly corner the market, that’s for sure. Other than Twitches to date I’ve only come across one other Princess movie that deals with Halloween, that being The Adventures of Princess Sydney: Night of the Pumpkins.
To start off, Twitches is a halfway decent film. There’s still plenty to laugh about, but that’s because this is a film that’s clearly aiming for a younger audience. It’s not guaranteed in a kid-friendly film, but sometimes when a movie is aiming to be appealing to younger audiences it becomes enjoyably cheesy for adults to watch. Twitches is one of those films, where the exaggerated performances of the actors, coupled with how everyone is taking the plot very seriously), generates a fair amount of giggles (Well, it does for me at least, an admittedly immature adult).
For instance the twins, who in universe are in their early 20s, don’t really act their age. They come across as much younger maturity wise, which is possibly as a result of them being aged up from the book series (Where they are 14 years old). So seeing these two 20 year-olds acting like they’re still in their mid-teens can be pretty amusing.
That said, there is some decent peril in this film, although it’s somewhat hampered by the made-for-TV budget. The Twitches are menaced by an evil Darkness, which manifests itself as a roiling cloud of black smoke. It’s a cool idea with some potential, but the execution in the final film is a bit lacking, which adds to the overall cheesy-vibe.
Honestly though, this one kind of gets away with being an okay film, to the point where I almost hesitate to put it up on the blog. For adults wanting a decent Halloween film to watch, there are definitely better ones out there. For the target audience of this film, I think this is a good safe watch.
This is a very niche thing to point out, but it’s my duty as a millennial Canadian to mention that one of the Twitches’ magical guardians is played by Pat Kelly, who my generation may recognize as PJ Pat from YTV’s the Zone. For non-millennial Canadian’s, Pat was a Program Jockey on a kids TV channel, basically a host who would pop up between shows to say jokes or do little skits. Honestly it was pretty great getting to see him in this film, as I remembered what a big deal it felt for him to leave The Zone way back in the day. So if you’re like me, you may want to check this film out purely for the nostalgia of seeing PJ Pat again.
Bad Princess Movies 
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