Through four seasons and 106 episodes, Wizards of Waverly Place had to develop a system to always have new and exciting spells that audiences could remember. While the Disney Channel show also featured a bunch of common recurring incantations, like teleportation, transformation, body swapping, and changing outfits — the ability to improvise spells made the possibilities endless. That, paired with Alex’s mischievous creativity, afforded the series plenty of scenarios that, although bizarre, were totally plausible according to the show’s magic system.
Notably, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’s positive reviews demonstrate how the revival pays homage to what made the original so enticing, including its limitless and light-hearted use of magic. Throughout its run, the popular Disney Channel show proved quite ingenious in offering new twists to old and never-before-heard incantations. Pretty early in season 1, the Wizards of Waverly Place characters were warned that, although everything that rhymes can become an incantation, the words’ meaning will be taken literally. This opened the way for many quick fixup spells but also led to some unintentional results that proved very entertaining to watch.
10 “Some people are a gem, some people are a rat, to learn who’s who, give me the ear of a bat.”
Season 1, Episode 7, “Alex’s Choice”
In “Alex’s Choice,” Alex must determine whether to let Harper get hurt, or use magic to prevent it. When popular mean girl Gigi invites an excited Harper to her tea party, Alex uses a spell to get the supersonic hearing of a bat to eavesdrop on Gigi. She hears her talking to her friends about a plan to give Harper the Loser Crown at the event.
By this point in season 1, Harper still doesn’t know about the Russo’s family powers, which is why Alex can’t explain how she knows about Gigi’s “
who can bring the biggest loser contest
.”
Although it is an efficient way to spy on others, the fact that the spell gives its user literally the ear of a bat is very unexpected and comical. It may also be the only incantation to grant its wizard an animal organ. In previous episodes in season 1, Alex had only used spells for selfish purposes. However, this moment marks a change and shows she is actually a good friend to Harper, as she goes out of her way to protect her from being bullied.
9 “Piggly, Wiggly, Get in the Jiggly.”
Season 2, Episode 6, “Saving WizTech Part 1”
When WizTech is infested with plastic balls, Professor Crumbs asks Jerry to host some of the students from the school. Ronald, who orchestrated the attack, develops a crush on Alex and tries to charm her, making her doubt her relationship with the unaffectionate Dean. Ronald uses “ Piggly, Wiggly, Get in the Jiggly ” to trap Alex’s boyfriend in a giant piece of gelatin, so he can later shapeshift into him and pretend to break up with Alex.
WizTech is meant to reference
Harry Potter
’s Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The school’s setting is castle-like; Professor Crumbs’ appearance is similar to Dumbledore’s’ and the student’s robe uniform is a parody copy of Hogwarts, as all students must wear thick round glasses.
Although having an evil guy trying to separate a couple is not rare, the fact that Ronald takes pride in trapping “precious Dean in a jiggly fruit dessert,” makes the spell embody the ridiculousness and over-the-top nature of teenage love. The episode makes fun of this by carrying the running joke that a two-month relationship breaks the longest relationship record in normal and wizard school.
8 “Alex, Haper, Cambia Coporum, Meum Capora, Sua Numinavi.”
Season 2, Episode 20, “Family Game Night”
In “Family Game Night,” Alex switches bodies with Harper so the latter can do an exam for her. After the reverse incantation fails, the best friends get trapped in the other’s body. To remediate it, Alex randomly picks a combination of swapping spells, offering an unexpected demonstration of body-switching magic.
The spells featured in the episode include “
Hairbranium Excamchangium”
; “
After all that’s been said, we want to switch back our heads”;
“
Voicius Rightnoisius”;
and “
This has all been a pain, now we want to switch back our brains”
, all of which serve a different purpose than the intended by Alex.
Taking body swapping one step further, “Family Game Night” sees Alex and Harper switch bodies, hair, and voices until both of their brains get stuck in Alex’s head amid a charades family evening. The gimmick produces many funny and original exchanges, as Selena Gomez and Jennifer Stone brilliantly imitate each other’s characters — leading up to Gomez having to play both at the same time. As the cherry on top, Wizards of Waverly Place further develops its magic world by having Justin explain that the wizarding memo said the body-switching spell had been suffering glitches.
7 “From the place where dark beasts dwell, I summon a floogie with this spell.”
Season 1, Episode 1, “Everything Is Not What It Seems”
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place’s new and returning cast of troublemakers set out to continue the original’s limitless and fun approach to magic. In its first episode, Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown) conjures up a class-three monster into the room of Justin’s sons, Milo and Roman. Called a “floogie,” the creature is the size of a medium dog and its many eyes can freeze its victims. When Billie attacks it, the monster gets bigger.
Clearly taking advantage of the advancement of visual effects, the new Disney+ show gives form to a monster that the 2009 show couldn’t present due to its limited technology. The revival successfully hints at an expansion of Wizard of Waverly Place’s already extensive and bizarre list of spells, combinations, and monsters. The show will no doubt see Billie, like Alex before her, cause all kinds of mayhem with her spontaneous creativity and zero regard for consequences.
6 “Here’s the brass tacks. Turn this girl back to Max.”
Season 4, Episode 5, “Three Maxes And A Little Lady” — Introducing Maxine Russo
When Max moves the wizard family competition to an earlier date, his siblings try to change the date by shapeshifting into him. When he confronts them about it, Alex and Justin throw a spell that collides and forms a mutant spell, turning Max into a little girl. Despite Alex and Justin’s efforts to transform their youngest sibling back, Maxine Russo threatens to stay indefinitely and ends up getting plenty of attention in Wizards of Waverly Place.
The mutant spell is not so much what’s bizarre, but that it lasts for seven episodes, mysteriously replacing recurring actor Jake T. Austin with Just Go With It ’s actress Bailee Madison. As usual, the creative Disney Channel show manages to pull off another wacky plot, greatly benefiting from the child performer’s charm and her chemistry with the rest of the cast.
5 “I’m old enough to hang with actress/model/spokeswoman Ruby Donahue, so get me into Night of the Halloween Sorority Party Disaster 2.”
Season 1, Episode 9, “Movies”
“Movies” perfectly encapsulates the older sibling versus middle child rivalry that drives Wizards of Waverly Place. When Alex gets jealous that Justin can hang out with his 17-year-old friends, she sets out to befriend them. Having been introduced to spell improvisation, Alex makes up one that gets her in the R-rated horror movie the group’s watching; however, as Jerry warned, magic takes her words literally.
The horror movie that Alex is excited to see,
Night of the Halloween Sorority Party Disaster 2
, is a reference to the horror/comedy franchise,
Slumber Party Massacre
. The movie’s setting is similar, and the villain notably uses an unusual murder weapon.
Alex ends up inside the movie, offering a hilarious metafiction moment, since she signals the absurdity of horror movie formulas and provokes the actresses to break character. The spell holds so many possibilities that it’s a mystery why it wasn’t used again in the series. However, it was a great device to set up the siblings’ contrasting abilities — as Alex, although unintentionally, easily created the cool incantation, while Justin had to try harder to replicate it.
4 “When you’re tired of the same old story, turn some pages… trash can.”
Season 3, Episode 13, “Dude Looks Like Shakira”
Uncle Kelbo brought one of the coolest storylines in Wizards of Waverly Place. In season 3, he confessed he created Shakira with a transformation spell. The episode establishes its randomness early on when Shakira walks into Waverly Place and states she must sing a duet with a fan to fix her tour bus. She and Alex sing “Gypsy” until Uncle Kelbo changes back to normal, asking for help with his uncontrollable transformations.
When Alex concludes the incantation has been contaminated, the sick wizard is cured by drinking a smoothie made of troll liver, dragon tongue, cinnamon, and elf eye-boogers. The plot is completely unexpected yet perfectly adheres to the kind of randomness that works in the magic world of Wizards of Waverly Place. It also marked the greatest star cameo in the Disney Channel show.
3 “Take away color and sound, this is where revenge is found.“
Season 2, Episode 21, “Justin’s New Girlfriend”
After Alex tries to sabotage Justin and Harper’s growing friendship out of jealousy, the pair set out to punish her. As they both are enthusiasts of silent movies, and Alex isn’t, they decide to trap her in one. The black-and-white sequence where Alex runs after Justin and Harper marks one of the show’s best displays of physical comedy and a great homage to Charlie Chaplin movies.
Related
Every Major Original Wizards Of Waverly Place Character’s Replacement In Disney+’s Sequel Show Explained
While Wizards Beyond Waverly Place is a reboot of the original series over a decade later, the show sticks to the formula with similar characters.
Apart from being a homage that you’d rarely see in a children’s TV show, the actors’ outstanding performance elevates the charming incantation to an unforgettable and special bit. For the episode, Wizards of Waverly Place pulled an unusual but smart move, putting David Henry and Jennifer Stone in the spotlight. The actor and actress use their bodies to propel their acting, showcasing great comedic prowess and revealing never-before-seen on-screen chemistry.
2 “Murrieta-animata.”
Season 1, Episode 10, “Pop Me and We Both Go Down”
“Murrieta-animata” is not one of the most bizarre spells, but it has a bizarre effect when Alex accidentally uses it to animate Justin’s zit. The zit develops a face and personality that matches his grossness, that of a cunning and lewd man. The spell is introduced earlier in the episode, but Jerry withholds the counter-spell until Alex captures the animated trophy man running loose in the house.
In “Alex’s Spring Fling,” Alex gives life to a handsome mannequin to make her ex-boyfriend jealous. However, when the mannequin develops real feelings, the group learns that animated objects cannot stay that way for too long without catastrophic effects.
After playing Justin’s wingman with his date, the zit makes a move on several women at junior prom — causing Miranda (Lucy Hale) to get mad at Justin, thinking it is him making the crude comments. Alex gets to the prom in time and uses the counter-incantation, “Garibay Immobilitay,” to un-animate the zit. It remains one of the Wizards of Waverly Place’s most bizarre and witty storylines, perfectly giving form to an embarrassing experience of adolescence.
1 “Scrubby dubby, into the tubby” & “Argyle, bobby, tube. Knee-high, into socks turn this guy.”
Season 3, Episode 5, “Night at the Lazerama” — Featuring Max’s Conscience
In season 3, Max takes his conscience out of his body to help him win the Wizard test. Conscience, played by the peculiarly charming Moises Arias, always wears Max’s clothes but bottomed up and with a tie — giving the pair a hilariously odd appearance. The character joins the Russo’s for three episodes and is responsible for one of the most wacky plot twists in the show.
In Wizards of Waverly Place’s most bizarre spell, Conscience grows his own conscience. Trying to sabotage her brother’s wizard studies, Alex makes Harper convince Conscience to take a break apart from Max. Unforeseen to anyone, when the character is by himself, he starts to become his own person — growing a conscience inside his backpack. This creates a weird chain of consciences that links back to Max and forces him to return his study buddy to his body. Alex’s spell to return conscience is as baffling as his second sprout — she turns Max into a washing machine, Conscience into socks, and then mixes them both.
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place follows adult Justin Russo, who leads a normal life until his sister Alex asks for help with a young wizard-in-training. Justin must revive his magical skills to mentor the trainee while balancing his family life and safeguarding the Wizard World’s future.
- Character(s)
- Justin Russo , Billie , Roman Russo , Milo Russo , Winter , Giada Russo , Alex Russo
- Release Date
- October 29, 2024
- Seasons
- 1