The Witches

Well if I learned something from watching this, it's that Roald Dahl is scary. So since I am contractually obligated to review scary movies this is The Witches. Like I said before it is based on the children's novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. Oh and before I start I would like to say some thing. I have decided to now only do a cartoon on Fridays because it is hard to make cartoons. Enough of that though; let's start my review of The Witches.

We open with a boy named Luke (Jasen Fisher) staying with his Grandma (Mai Zetterling). His Grandma is telling him about Witches. She says that Witches hate children and that they do anything to destroy them. Luke's parents die of mysterious circumstances (they never explain how they die) so Luke now is living with his grandmother. Luke sees a woman who he thinks is a witch and tells his Grandmother about it. On his birthday Luke's Grandmother gives him two pet mice that he names Mary and William. Also as a special birthday present they are going to a hotel. At the hotel Luke meets a boy named Bruno (Charlie Potter). Meanwhile an important woman named Miss. Eva Ernst (Anjellica Huston) enters the hotel for a convention she is hosting. Luke and his Grandmother make the hotel manager think that the hotel is full of mice. Luke goes into an empty room to teach his mice tricks. But it turns out that the room is part of the important convention.


It also turns out that the women in the convention are really witches and that Miss. Eva Erst is really The Grand Head Witch. Luke hears about their plan to eliminate all children in England. They will host a big party and at the party all children will be given free sweets and in the sweets is a formula that will turn them into mice. They demonstrate the formula on Bruno. Luke escapes from the Witches but they chase him and manage to catch him. They use the formula on Luke too and he is turned into a mouse. Luke as a mouse finds Bruno and Luke decides to find his Grandmother. They find Luke's Grandmother and tell her what happened. They come up with a plan; first they try explaining what happened to Bruno's parents to see if they can help. Then they go into the kitchen and pour the formula into the soup specially made for the convention.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

Luke breaks into The Grand High Witches room where he sees several bottles of the formula. He takes it and jumps into his Grandma's purse. Talking to Bruno's parents doesn't work because they think Luke's Grandmother is crazy. Luke sneaks into the kitchen to try and put the formula in the soup. Luke puts the formula in the soup and escapes the kitchen to his Grandmother. The Witches all eat the soup but Bruno's Father (Bill Patterson) also orders the soup. Luke's Grandmother stops him just in time and convinces them Bruno is a mouse. The Grand High Witch is defeated and everyone leaves the Hotel. Luke and his Grandmother are at home coming up with a plan to take down all the Witches in America but then suddenly one of the Witches that wasn't killed is good now for some reason and she turns Luke back into a boy. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

I remember this movie being really scary. But now looking back on it, it's kind of silly. The first half of the movie has some good build up to the reveal of the witches and some of the make up and puppets are pretty good looking. But a lot of the actors are over the top and the witches aren't as scary as they used to be for me. Also the ending didn't make too much sense and Roald Dahl himself said he didn't like how they changed the ending. But I still kind of like this movie. I mean  yes it's over the top and not as scary as I remember but I think it could be an entertaining scary movie for the family. See you next time.