Did someone call 2021 “The Year of Family Friendly Movies” or am I just very out of touch with the usual Halloween movie releases? I thought I would be watching a lot of slasher horror movies. Instead I’m watching movies about 12-year olds and magic. I’m not complaining. This is just not what I expected.

Scaredy Cats is the story of Willa Ward (Sophia Reid-Gantzert). On her 12th birthday, her father (Michael Teigen) gives her a cat-shaped necklace that belonged to her mother (Lauren McGibbon) who is no longer with them. Soon, Willa finds out that the necklace is magic and her mother was a witch. Now that the magic has been activated, two bad witches, Sneak (April Telek) and Wanda (Carolyn Taylor), are trying to steal it from the young witch. Willa gathers her two best friends, Scout (Ava Augustin) and Lucy (Daphne Hoskins), to help her defeat the evil witches and save their town.

Again, we have a series instead of a stand-alone movie. This one is aimed at rather young children. It’s created by the same people that did the Air Bud movies. (And all of the other movies - Snow Buddies, Santa Buddies, MVP, etc.) The reason this series is titled Scaredy Cats is because the three girls turn into cats. Frequently. At least once each episode. But at least it is cute.

When I read the synopsis, I thought this was going to be so dumbed down that it annoyed me. Instead, the series is actually good. Well, the CGI is bad but I didn’t expect cinema-level graphics. The story is quite interesting - a witch who leaves her daughter a gift to help her protect the town. They even make fun of the fact that Willa is 12. Her mother’s instructions were to give Willa the necklace when she “comes of age.” Apparently, her dad thought that meant 12. Everyone else thought it would be 18.

This is definitely a Halloween movie for elementary school aged kids. There isn’t anything particularly scary about it, despite the fact that Netflix has “fear” listed on the G-rating warning. So, if your kids are looking for a Halloween series to watch this season, this is it. The episodes are, on average, a half hour long...except for episode one, which is about 45 minutes. Just long enough to keep the little ones entertained before their attention span runs away.