THE WITCHES
***
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Screenwriters: Robert Zemeckis, Kenya Barris and Guillermo del Toro, based on the eponymous[e] book of the same name by Roald Dahl.
Principal cast:
Anne Hathaway
Octavia Spencer
Stanley Tucci
Chris Rock
Jahzir Bruno
Brian Bovell
Country: USA//Mexico/UK
Classification: M
Runtime: 104 mins.
Australian release date: 10 December 2020.
The director, co-writer and producer of the latest film version of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, Robert Zemeckis, says, “I think The Witches is one of Dahl’s best books, if not his best, and that’s why I was particularly interested in doing it. The witches are diabolically delicious. They are evil and unrepentant. They want to rid the world of children. I thought that was a wonderfully subversive idea for a children’s story.” Dahl’s parents were Norwegian and they regaled him with myths and legends about trolls, witches, elves and giants when he was a boy and those stories became grist for his writing mill in later years when he wrote The Witches in 1983. The children’s book was filmed for the first time in 1990 by Nicolas Roeg, with Angelica Huston as the Grand High Witch - this time, that honour falls to Anne Hathaway and the action has been transferred from England to the USA.
It’s 1967 when an eight-year-old boy (Jahzir Bruno, voiced by Chris Rock as an adult) is suddenly orphaned and is taken to live with his grandmother (Octavia Spencer) in Demopolis, a small town in Alabama. To cheer the lad up Grandma buys him a mouse, which he names Daisy but, when he goes to the local hardware store to get some things he needs to train his pet, he is accosted by a strange woman. When he tells Grandma about this incident, she recounts a terrible event from her youth and informs the boy that “witches are real” and, now that he has come to one’s attention, he won’t be able to get rid of her. She decides that they will have to go into hiding immediately, so the pair travel to an upmarket hotel where Grandma’s cousin is the chef. Unfortunately, however, the hotel is also the venue for a witches’ conference and it’s there that the boy overhears the Grand High Witch’s evil plan to turn the children of the world into mice. Before he can reveal her dastardly scheme, however, he and a friend are transformed into little rodents themselves. Luckily, they retain the power of speech so they are able to let Grandma know what has happened to them and she has a few tricks of her own up her sleeve. Thus, it falls to the old lady and the trio of mice (now including Daisy) to do their very best to stop the witches putting their awful conspiracy into action.
What follows is, at times, quite frightening and, to be honest, one wonders how young kids will take to it; The Witches is classified M and so is not really suitable for little ones. Dahl’s witches have malformed hands (they use gloves to hide them), their nostrils are extra-large, they don’t have toes, they wear wigs (causing itchiness and sores) to conceal their baldness and they have elongated mouths that can stretch to their ears - in other words, they are hideous… and scary. There are some terrifically malevolent performances, especially Anne Hathaway, who is outrageously camp and exaggerated - her ‘look’ is a triumph of overdone everything and her wardrobe is spectacular. Octavia Spencer is well cast as the doting grandmother and Chris Rock’s distinctive voice adds cred as he narrates the events that happened to his younger self.
The Witches is a crazy yarn but a difficult one to turn from page to screen; Roeg’s version wasn’t entirely successful and neither is this one. The problem screenwriters have is how to make Dahl’s novel interesting to parents while not scaring the bejesus out of their children and it’s a hard row to hoe. Zemeckis, Barris and del Toro have tried to make this negative positive by using uplifting lines like “Never give up what you are inside” and “We are family” while the little creatures band together to thwart the witches but, somehow, they’re not convincing enough for either age group to believe. And not enough to make Zemeckis’ movie as enchanting as Dahl’s wonderfully oddball book.
Screenwriters: Robert Zemeckis, Kenya Barris and Guillermo del Toro, based on the eponymous[e] book of the same name by Roald Dahl.
Principal cast:
Anne Hathaway
Octavia Spencer
Stanley Tucci
Chris Rock
Jahzir Bruno
Brian Bovell
Country: USA//Mexico/UK
Classification: M
Runtime: 104 mins.
Australian release date: 10 December 2020.
The director, co-writer and producer of the latest film version of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, Robert Zemeckis, says, “I think The Witches is one of Dahl’s best books, if not his best, and that’s why I was particularly interested in doing it. The witches are diabolically delicious. They are evil and unrepentant. They want to rid the world of children. I thought that was a wonderfully subversive idea for a children’s story.” Dahl’s parents were Norwegian and they regaled him with myths and legends about trolls, witches, elves and giants when he was a boy and those stories became grist for his writing mill in later years when he wrote The Witches in 1983. The children’s book was filmed for the first time in 1990 by Nicolas Roeg, with Angelica Huston as the Grand High Witch - this time, that honour falls to Anne Hathaway and the action has been transferred from England to the USA.
It’s 1967 when an eight-year-old boy (Jahzir Bruno, voiced by Chris Rock as an adult) is suddenly orphaned and is taken to live with his grandmother (Octavia Spencer) in Demopolis, a small town in Alabama. To cheer the lad up Grandma buys him a mouse, which he names Daisy but, when he goes to the local hardware store to get some things he needs to train his pet, he is accosted by a strange woman. When he tells Grandma about this incident, she recounts a terrible event from her youth and informs the boy that “witches are real” and, now that he has come to one’s attention, he won’t be able to get rid of her. She decides that they will have to go into hiding immediately, so the pair travel to an upmarket hotel where Grandma’s cousin is the chef. Unfortunately, however, the hotel is also the venue for a witches’ conference and it’s there that the boy overhears the Grand High Witch’s evil plan to turn the children of the world into mice. Before he can reveal her dastardly scheme, however, he and a friend are transformed into little rodents themselves. Luckily, they retain the power of speech so they are able to let Grandma know what has happened to them and she has a few tricks of her own up her sleeve. Thus, it falls to the old lady and the trio of mice (now including Daisy) to do their very best to stop the witches putting their awful conspiracy into action.
What follows is, at times, quite frightening and, to be honest, one wonders how young kids will take to it; The Witches is classified M and so is not really suitable for little ones. Dahl’s witches have malformed hands (they use gloves to hide them), their nostrils are extra-large, they don’t have toes, they wear wigs (causing itchiness and sores) to conceal their baldness and they have elongated mouths that can stretch to their ears - in other words, they are hideous… and scary. There are some terrifically malevolent performances, especially Anne Hathaway, who is outrageously camp and exaggerated - her ‘look’ is a triumph of overdone everything and her wardrobe is spectacular. Octavia Spencer is well cast as the doting grandmother and Chris Rock’s distinctive voice adds cred as he narrates the events that happened to his younger self.
The Witches is a crazy yarn but a difficult one to turn from page to screen; Roeg’s version wasn’t entirely successful and neither is this one. The problem screenwriters have is how to make Dahl’s novel interesting to parents while not scaring the bejesus out of their children and it’s a hard row to hoe. Zemeckis, Barris and del Toro have tried to make this negative positive by using uplifting lines like “Never give up what you are inside” and “We are family” while the little creatures band together to thwart the witches but, somehow, they’re not convincing enough for either age group to believe. And not enough to make Zemeckis’ movie as enchanting as Dahl’s wonderfully oddball book.
