When it comes to some of the most prominent authors in
literary history, one whose work has consistently stood the test of time is
Roald Dahl. From 1942 up until his death in 1990, Dahl was responsible for
penning a whole bunch of classics such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda. To date, his
various novels and short stories have sold over 250 million copies worldwide
and are widely touted for their creative imagery and their unabashed knack for
dark humor to contrast with their primarily whimsical nature. Many of his works
have been adapted to the big screen over the years although it is worth noting
that, when he was alive, Dahl was usually quite critical about them for the
various changes that were made to his stories. This included the last adaptation
that was released before his death, 1990’s The Witches, which was
directed by Nicolas Roeg and notably produced by none other than Jim Henson.
Dahl, however, was not too pleased with this adaptation of his 1983 novel,
namely due to its drastically different ending. Nevertheless, the film was
well-received by critics and while it wasn’t exactly a box-office hit, it has
since gone on to become a cult classic of its time. But now there’s a new
adaptation of The Witches upon us, and just like the 1990 film, this one
is star-studded on both sides of the camera. For starters, the cast is
headlined by a pair of Oscar winners in Anne Hathaway and Octavia Spencer. And
as for the behind-the-scenes crew, the film serves as the latest outing from
director Robert Zemeckis, AKA the man who’s given us films like Who Framed
Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, and this reviewer’s favorite film of
all-time, Back to the Future. However, Zemeckis isn’t the only big-name
filmmaker attached to this project as it was originally proposed as a
stop-motion film directed by Guillermo Del Toro, who instead serves as a
producer alongside his good friend Alfonso Cuaron while also being one of the
credited screenwriters alongside Zemeckis and Black-ish creator Kenya
Barris. And while it may be far from being the best project that any of these
men have ever worked on, it still manages to be a decently charming family
flick that delivers a solid new take on Roald Dahl’s classic story.
In 1968, a young boy (Jahzir Kadeem Bruno) loses both of his
parents in a car crash. He’s then sent to live with his grandmother (Octavia
Spencer) in Alabama, and while it does take a while, she does help him start to
overcome his grief. However, their idyllic lifestyle is soon threatened when
the young boy has his first encounter with a witch. And since his grandmother
is quite familiar with witches after seeing one when she was a child, she tells
him everything that he needs to know about them; namely, that witches are
really demonic creatures and are notorious for hating children and doing anything
they can to get rid of them. Thus, to avoid any further witch-based encounters,
the young boy and his grandmother promptly decide to take a vacation and stay
at a prestigious hotel. Unfortunately, they end up arriving at the exact same
time as a whole group of witches led by the most powerful witch in the world,
the Grand High Witch (Anne Hathaway). The young boy ends up eavesdropping on their
meeting, where the Grand High Witch reveals her newest scheme to get rid of all
the children in the world by using a special potion to turn them into mice. And
to make matters worse, the young boy is then discovered by the Grand High
Witch, who immediately uses her potion to turn him into a mouse. Now stuck in
mouse form, the young boy crosses paths with two other kids that were recently turned
into mice, food-loving Bruno (Codie-Lei Eastick) and a girl named Mary (voiced
by Kristin Chenoweth), who is revealed to be the mouse that the young boy had
been keeping as a pet for the past few months. With both their help and his
grandmother’s, the young boy now finds himself in a time-sensitive situation as
he and his friends work to stop the Grand High Witch’s sinister plan before anyone
else ends up suffering the same fate as them.
While it may be easy to simply call this film a ‘remake’ of its
1990 counterpart, this new version of The Witches does manage to avoid
being a straight-forward retelling of its classic story, whether it’s by having
African-American protagonists or revealing that the kid’s pet mouse was a
transformed kid as well. Plus, if there’s one advantage that this film has over
the previous film, it’s that its ending is a lot more faithful to the book since,
as noted earlier, Dahl took significant issue with the 1990 film for having a more
traditional ‘happy ending’. Granted, the changes that this film makes does mean
that it takes a lot more liberties with its source material than even the 1990
film did, but at the very least, this isn’t a case like Artemis Fowl where
the changes that were made significantly alter the story beyond recognition. At
the end of the day, most of these changes are simply from a cosmetic
standpoint, and for the most part, the film does an excellent job of
maintaining Roald Dahl’s whimsical style that delivers a good-natured adventure
where the kids are the heroes but is still allowed to have the delightfully
twisted dark humor that Dahl was well-known for. And while I’m aware that the
film has gotten some criticism for supposedly being ‘too scary for children’,
I’d argue that it’s relatively tame compared to all the other family-friendly
films over the years that have gained notoriety for their darker moments (and
yes, this includes the 1990 adaptation of The Witches). All this makes
up for the fact that the film ends up feeling like a routine affair for the
filmmakers who are attached to it, especially Robert Zemeckis. It’s not that the
film is ‘bad’ or anything since, if Zemeckis’ past work wasn’t enough of an
indication, he’s not that kind of director. It’s just that, like what happened
when Tim Burton made his remake of Planet of the Apes in 2001, this is
one of those instances where, if you didn’t know that this was directed by the
guy who made Back to the Future, you probably wouldn’t have figured that
out until the credits because it could’ve been done by anybody.
For many people, one of the best aspects of the 1990 film
was Angelica Huston’s standout turn as the Grand High Witch. But while that may
have been an undeniably tough act to follow, Anne Hathaway proves that she’s
more than capable of taking on that daunting task. With an over-exaggerated
accent that’s matched by an equally over-the-top performance, Hathaway is
clearly having a lot of fun as the main antagonist. And sure, it’s completely
understandable if some may find her performance to be a bit too campy at
times, but at the end of the day, she’s still one of the best parts of this
film. This strong performance from Hathaway is then perfectly matched by
Octavia Spencer’s equally terrific turn as the main protagonist’s grandmother. Spencer
has always been well-known for playing characters like this who are very much good-natured
protagonists but can still dish out some tough love when necessary, usually through some delightfully spunky snark. And while he’s not in the film too
much, we also get the always-reliable Stanley Tucci as the manager of the hotel
that all the main characters end up at who mostly spends his time trying to
deal with the eccentric gestures of the Grand High Witch. Finally, to close out
the main cast, we have newcomer Jahzir Kadeem Bruno as the main protagonist
who, just like in the original novel (and not the 1990 film where he was named
Luke), is unnamed. He is credited as ‘Hero Boy’, however, which is rather ironic
because that makes him the second main character in a Robert Zemeckis film to
be called that since that’s also what the main protagonist of The Polar
Express was credited as. Nevertheless, while this may only be his first leading
role in a film (that and his character is a mouse for half of it), Bruno
instantly makes a strong first impression with some solid charisma for his age.
While it’s admittedly been a while since I’ve done so, I did
read The Witches when I was younger. It was one of many Roald Dahl books
that I read growing up alongside other classics such as Matilda and Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory. However, you may be surprised to learn that I
never watched its 1990 film adaptation. Simply put, it was just one of those films
that was never on my radar back then. As such, it goes without saying that I don’t
have the kind of connection to it that many others from my generation have, which
has clearly had a major influence on folks’ thoughts towards this new
adaptation. I mean, if the usual reception towards Disney’s recent string of
live-action remakes wasn’t enough of an indication, folks are always a lot
stricter when it comes to remakes. And yet, from the perspective of someone who
hasn’t seen the 1990 adaptation of The Witches, I’d argue that this new
version of the story is a genuinely harmless affair. It avoids being a direct carbon
copy of its predecessor and even manages to deliver a more faithful take on the
novel’s ending… even if the changes that it makes everywhere else are more prominent
than those from the 1990 film. Really, at the end of the day, the worst thing
that I can say about this film is that it’s arguably the most by-the-numbers feature
that Robert Zemeckis has ever directed. To be fair, his direction is solid as always,
but at the same time, I will admit that I’m curious about how this film would’ve
turned out had it been the Guillermo Del Toro-directed stop-motion film that it
was originally planned to be. Ultimately, though, the film does manage to be a
nice showcase of Roald Dahl’s brilliant storytelling and could very well serve
as a gateway for younger generations to experience the rest of his work.
Rating: 3.5/5
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