Director: Nicolas Roag
Genre: Family/ Fantasy
In the list of movies adopted from the books of Roald Dahl, this one has sadly fallen into the seldom remembered or completely forgotten list. It was a good movie and played out very well. Dahl's most famous book and film adaptation so far is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. There have been other movies based on Dahl's books- James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and the recently released stop-motion animation movie Fantastic Mr. Fox. But who remembers The Witches?
This was a popular movie when I was a kid. I find it hard to understand why this film has been lost, in a manner of speaking, when it had a fine cast of talented actors and actresses including the gorgeous Anjelica Huston and also British comic actor Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean). It also had the classic and always entertaining make-up and creature special effects of Jim Henson, who also was the executive producer.
The story line involving witches is very original. Instead of the generic green skin-toned wicked witch with a black pointy hat and broomstick, the witches in the film- as based on Dahl's book- are much more inconspicuous. They look and act like everyone else. Unless you know the distinct subtle features of a witch, you would never know someone was a witch if even they were standing right next to you.
The witches have one ultimate purpose in life- to destroy children. A young boy named Luke learns how to identify witches from his grandmother who claims to have had experiences with them. Of course, Luke is rather skeptical about it all, but soon finds out his grandmother knew precisely what she was talking about. According to his grandmother, witches are well organized. There is a Grand High witch who is head of all witches in the world. Nobody knows who or where the Grand High witch is, except other witches.
After his parents die in an unfortunate accident, Luke ends up living with his grandmother. After a while, she becomes sick with diabetes. To help ease their loss and for the sake of her health, they take a holiday in England and stay at a fancy resort hotel.
There, Luke accidentally stumbles upon the yearly convention of witches being held by the Grand High witch herself. She has concocted a formula design to turn children into mice and has instructed the witches of England to wipe out all children in England without exception. As Luke's presence is discovered, the witches take him and turn him into a mouse.
Despite his now short furry stature, Luke attempts to turn the tables on all the witches with the help of his grandma.
For a kid’s film, I didn't find this terribly silly or ridiculously sappy. It played out well with enough room for audiences to use their imagination- something many movies don't let audiences do these days. The effects were well done and satisfied my expectations of Jim Henson and his creature shop. I honestly think this movie falls right behind Willi Wonka in standard and enjoyment.
For more information on how to identify witches, the writer himself- Roald Dahl- informatively explains the nature and characteristics of real witches. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QakMSCAhAOQ
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