The Witches (Exclusive Mini Review Series)

The Witches (Exclusive Series)

Initial release date: October 22, 2020

Studios: Warner Brothers HBO Max ImageMovers

Plot: In late 1967, a young orphaned boy goes to live with his loving grandma in the rural Alabama town of Demopolis. As the boy and his grandmother encounter some deceptively glamorous but thoroughly diabolical witches, she wisely whisks him away to a seaside resort. Regrettably, they arrive at precisely the same time that the world’s Grand High Witch has gathered her fellow cronies from around the globe - undercover - to carry out her nefarious plans.

Cast

Anne Hathaway (HBO Max’s Locked Down) - Grand High Witch

Octavia Spencer (Netflix’s Thunder Force; Ma) - Grandma

Stanley Tucci (Supernova) - Mr. Stringer

Jahzir Bruno (Christmas Chronicles 2) - Hero Boy

Chris Rock (Spiral) - Older Hero Mouse

Codie-Lei Eastick (Holmes & Watson) - Bruno Jenkins

Kristin Chenoweth (The Star) - Daisy/Mary

Charles Edwards (Netflix’s The Crown) - Mr. Jenkins

Josette Simon (Detective Pikachu) - Zelda

Writer(s): Robert Zemeckis (Welcome to Marwen)

Kenya Barris (Coming 2 America)

Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape of Water; Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark)

Roald Dahl (based on the book by)

Director: Robert Zemeckis (Welcome to Marwen)

Rated PG for scary images/moments, language and thematic elements (106 min)

When I first saw the trailer for ‘The Witches,’ I figured it would be an interesting fun little family flick. The first bit of the movie isn’t too bad. But, as soon as the society of witches are introduced, the movie goes downhill real quick!

Octavia Spencer (the grandma) and Stanley Tucci (hotel manager) do an okay job in their roles and try to make the best of it. Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of the Grand High Witch isn’t that great. I’m sure she wanted the portrayal to be a bit cartoonish (which is fine) but kinda took it way too far. Even with the accent she used, you couldn’t understand her half the time.

Even the CGI for the witches isn’t that great. The original movie adaptation will always be remembered as a classic and will likely be more remembered than this 2020 adaptation.

Here are a few interesting tidbits about ‘The Witches’:

• The original 1983 novel was largely set in the UK (with a few scenes in Norway). This movie adaptation is set in the state of Alabama, but, ironically, was mostly filmed in the UK.

• Producer Guillermo del Toro wanted the film to be a stop-motion picture.

• Keeping in line with the novel, the main antagonist is unnamed. He is credited as ‘Hero Boy’, however, which makes him the second main protagonist in a Robert Zemeckis movie to be named after the main protagonist of ‘The Polar Express.’

• This 2020 version was released 30 years after the 1990 movie adaptation.

• Judge Doom from ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit,’ one of Zemeckis’ previous book-based films, was one of Hathaway’s influences for her performance of The Grand High Witch. She was also inspired by Chernabog, the nocturnal demon from the ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ segment in ‘Fantasia,’ reasoning that she viewed the evil creatures in the film as more akin to demons whose disguise makes them appear like traditional witches.

• Talks of a new adaptation of Dahl’s novel began in December 2008. No further developments on the potential project emerged until a decade later in June 2018, when Zemeckis was hired to write and direct.

• ‘The Witches’ was scheduled to be released on October 16, 2020. On October 25, 2019, Warner Bros. moved up the release of the film by a week. However, on June 12, 2020, WB announced that they pulled the film off the 2020 schedule due to the pandemic.

• The film was digitally released in the US on October 22, 2020 via HBO Max. In November, Variety reported the film was the 9th most watched straight to streaming title of 2020 up to that point.