THE WITCHES
US, 2020, 104 minutes, Colour.
Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci, voices of: Chris Rock, Kristin Chenoweth.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis.
So many audiences have read the books of Roald Dahl and have enjoyed the film and stage versions. Think Matilda! Wonka and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! There has also been James and the Giant Peach. And, of course, The Witches, especially the film of the 1990s, starring Anjelica Huston as The Grand High Witch.
For many now adult audiences, that is their version of The Witches. And, so many audiences have made it their own over the last three decades. A remake? Always a challenge.
For one thing, the action has been transferred to the United States, to the state of Alabama, and the central characters are African-American?, bringing in significant race issues underlying the action.
We are introduced gradually to the themes of witches. A little boy, Raymond, loses his parents in a car accident. Distraught, is entrusted to his loving but no-nonsense grandma (the always-sympathetic Octavia Spencer). One day, Raymond sees a sinister woman in the local store. It is time for grandma to explain witches to him, especially her encounter as a little girl when her close friend was transformed into a chicken! Not sure about Chris Rock’s voiceover as the adult Raymond.
Actually, the witches are assembling for local activity at a hotel convention – where grandma and Raymond are staying. So begins the Witches action.
Roald Dahl’s books and films are for the young audience, drawing them in, upsetting or scaring them, children defying villains. Non-Roald? Dahl readers will be observers more than involved with the witches and their evil. For many, the image of the Grand High Witch is Anjelica Houston. This time she is Anne Hathaway. While she does her Anjelica Huston thing, rather a scenery-chewing performance, she is rather pretty and glamorous (especially compared to all the other witches were there to do her bidding), our wishing her to be a bit more credibly sinister.
Then, the special effects come into their own with the flair of director, Robert Zemeckis, the witches poisoned by their potions in the pea soup, there you really rising, flying, exploding. And, the Grand High Witch intends to turn all children into mice – which she does, especially Raymond, a rather toffee large English boy who has snobby parents who disdain him as he continually eats, and Raymond’s pet mouse Daisy who turns out to have been transformed earlier by the witches.
Lots of shenanigans, grandma doing her best with the children now turned into mice, building up to a confrontation with the Grand High Witch, especially at the mercy of her pet cat as she turns into a monstrous mouse herself!
This review is written from the point of view of an observer rather than a member of the young audience – many of whom will be scared by the action and the special effects but this reviewer was reassured (perhaps!) by a six year old at the session, that she liked it.
1. The popularity of Roald Dahl and his stories for younger audiences? Film versions? The version of The Witches in the 1990s? Comparisons?
2. The transition to the United States, to Alabama? Widening the target audience? The setting of the 1960s? The town, grandma’s house, the hotel, the interiors, the dining room, the balconies, the beach? The musical score?
3. The opening and the sense of realism, Chris Rock’s voice-over (accent and tone)? Raymond, his age, the accident, death of his parents, the police rescue, his grandma coming to see him, taking him home, his not wanting to eat, grandma trying to cheer him up, gradual success? The gift of the mouse, the name Daisy? In the store, Raymond seeing the witch, her appearance, the snake, the gloves, his fears?
4. Grandma, the story of the witches, her schoolfriend, being turned into a chicken?
5. Grandma and her knowledge of the witches, her stories? Going to the hotel, her room? Raymond with her? His meeting Boris, English, fat, hungry, his disdain for parents?
6. The arrival of the witches, the Grand High Witch, Anne Hathaway in the role, her scenery-chilling performance? Appearance, the slit extending her mouth? Bald? Her glamour and style? Raymond hiding?
7. Grand High Witch, the summoning of all the witches, the conference, their adulation of her, her speech, in the air, floating? Her accent? The threats? To turn all the children into mice? The appearance of the witches, wigs when people saw them, otherwise bald?
8. Boris, coming into the room, arrogant, the Grand High Witch and her threats, transforming him into a mouse? Raymond observing? The witch, sniffing him out, the search, transforming him and the boils on his face, becoming a mouse? Daisy and her arrival? The three, the witch and her pursuit, the tunnels, refuge? Moused?
9. The witches, the dinner, no garlic in the soup, the cheapest meal?
10. The mice and going to grandma, her wanting to save them? The plans? Getting the potion from the Witch’s room, the search of the room, the vast trunk of money? The manoeuvre for grandma’s knitting and lifting the bottle? The witch seeing this, thinking she had met grandma before?
11. The dinner, the Grand High Witch and her plan to distribute money, more potions, for the witches to pursue all the children around the world?
12. The manager of the hotel, the welcoming of the witches, the threat to brats and his insistence on rats? The discussions about the soup and no garlic? His interrogating grandma whether she had a mouse on her person? His apology, her getting the table near the kitchen?
13. The kitchen episode, the manoeuvres of the mice, Daisy talking, her past story, Boris and his always being hungry? The setting of the mouse traps in the rooms? Putting the potion in the soup?
14. The dinner, the witches standing to attention, the Grand High Witch recognising grandma, remembering the story of the chicken? The other witches, drinking their soup, their all exploding and floating around, becoming severe mice? The pandemonium among the guests?
15. The confrontation between grandma and the witch, the threats, the potion, her swallowing it, the vicious mouse she turned into, the cat and the gift of the cage, the cat going
into the cage, getting out, grandma putting the glass over her with the books on top, the cat and his destroying the witch?
16. Happy ending, the mice remaining mice, living with grandma, everyone getting older, the tours to warn the children about the witches?
