Review #206: The Witches (1990)

This review was originally written in 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #61: The Witches (1990)

I'll get this right out here: I'm well aware this is meant to be a children's film, so I'm not going to be particularly critical of the characters, or plot, or anything like that. If I was a child I probably would have been scared by this movie, but as an adult, I can see a lot of work went into it and there was plenty of fun to be had!

The Witches is a story about a boy who grew up being told all about witches by his grandmother: What they are, why they do what they do, how to spot them, how to stay safe from them, and so on. After his parents' untimely death he travels with his grandmother, and he stumbles upon a convention of witches staying at their hotel, and he sets out to foil their plans after being transformed into a mouse.

Apparently this movie was based on a Roald Dahl book, and that makes TOTAL sense given what we see. There's a lot of direct exposition from the witches about what their witch-ly plans are, there's a lot of hijinks trying to sneak around and mess up their plans, and so on. While yes it's very corny and yes it's very silly, this movie has a lot of heart, and not only that, it has some AMAZING effects! Obviously there's a lot of creature work involving the witches' horrific makeup and their human disguises and so on, but one moment in particular- almost exactly at the 1 hour mark- has a practical effect so smooth and surprising I had to rewind it three times to try and piece together how it was done! (The head witch, played by Anjelica Huston, is in the process of "putting on" her human face, so she's holding up an Anjelica Mask in front of her witchy face. In the span of time it takes one person to walk past her, the actress has gone back to simply having her normal human face, completely seamlessly. I'm pretty sure it's a very, very simple effect but it took me a while to sort it out because it's so well done!)

Also, I just CANNOT GET OVER HOW ADORABLE THE PUPPET MICE WERE HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GO ABOUT MY DAY KNOWING I CAN NEVER SNUGGLE ONE OF THOSE CUTE LITTLE THINGS OMGWTFBBQASDFGH

Anyway, it's a cute movie, go watch it!

Overall Rating: 9/10 Little Mice Driving Lego Cars

Double-Take Moment: During the first few scenes at the hotel, Rowan Atkinson (the actor playing Mr. Stringer, the hotel manager or whatever he was) is dressed identically to Mr. Bean, a character he was developing at the time for the TV show of the same name that went on to air before this movie finally released. When he came on screen I did a literal double take, and had to ask, "Wait, is Mr. Bean actually a character in this movie?"