This re-imagining of Roald Dahl’s classic novel, The Witches, was a great time. I had a lot of fun with this entertaining film. While I still prefer the 1990 version, I feel there is room to be a fan of both. I don’t feel this is a remake at all but merely another adaptation of the same source novel. I think people need to focus more on comparing the movie to the book rather than the 1990 film. This version is a lot more faithful to the source material than the previous attempt, minus the setting change and the race bending.
The 1990 film was a lot darker and dramatic while this one is more comedic and light-hearted, but I never expected this to be a copy of the other movie since it’s long been called a re-imagining and is precisely what was delivered. Most people who are bashing this version are only doing it merely out of their love for the 1990 version. At the same time, it doesn’t surpass what came before. It’s still an enjoyable film that worked for me in its own way.
For those not familiar with the source material, it follows an orphaned young boy named Charlie who stumbles across a conference of witches while staying with his grandmother Agatha at a hotel and gets transformed into a mouse by the Grand High Witch when he discovers her plan to turn all children into vermin. With the help of two other children turned into mice named Bruno and Mary, Charlie and Agatha must foil the witches’ scheme and destroy the Grand High Witch.
One of my favorite aspects of this re-imagining was moving the story from the 1980’s England to the late 60’s Alabama. I feel it makes the film more accessible to the American audience. It also changes the opening and ending from the original movie, with the ending, in particular, being more faithful to the book, and I liked those changes. It helped this film in feeling more like a re-imagining instead of a remake.
The opening was great stuff and very emotional. It set the tone for this version to emphasize family this time around that I enjoyed. This version feels a lot more like a family film than the original ever did. I’m big on family, and I was very close to my grandmother, who sadly isn’t here anymore, so those early scenes with Charlie and his grandma hit me differently. The change to the ending is something I enjoyed because it’s more faithful to the book while still managing to be a happy ending as where the original film changed the novel’s ending in a more cookie-cutter manner.
While she can’t come close to Angelica Huston’s iconic work in the original, Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway nonetheless does a great job as the Grand High Witch. You can tell she had such a great time filming this, reveling at the chance to ham it up. She looked great while doing her thing with some fantastic costumes. While I feel Angelica’s take was a lot scarier, I fully expect kids from this generation to be scared of hers, just like my generation was terrified by Angelica. She gave the character her spin, similar to how she didn’t retreat ground with her take on Catwoman. My one issue with her performance was the accent. There were moments where I found it hard to understand what she was saying. But the accent fits perfectly with this version of the character.
Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer as Charlie’s grandmother Agatha was great as expected. I liked her better than the actress that played the grandma in the original. She’s a very charismatic actress and brought a charm and humor to the role that wasn’t in the original. She knew how to balance the humor with the warmth of a lovable grandma in a way that only a few selective actresses can. Similar to her Oscar-winning work in The Help, Octavia is just so great when playing southern characters since she is from Alabama, where the film takes place. The change to the grandmas’ backstory, however, is something I wasn’t a fan of. Her original back story was great and added more to her history with the Grand High Witch.
Jahzir Brüno as our hero, Charlie, does a decent job. While he’s not in human form for much of the film, he brings a lot of heart to the movie with Octavia’s relationship. I liked him better during his mice form as he came off as having more personality.
I was disappointed by how wasted Stanley Tucci was. He is an incredible actor who has delivered the goods for decades now. While I didn’t expect the role to be huge, it is much smaller than it was in the book and the 1990 version. Mr. Bean himself, Rowan Atkinson, who played Tucci’s hotel manager character in the original, had a lot more to do. And given the same material to do, I am 100% sure that Tucci would have excelled. For the little bit of screen time he did have, he did a stable job and was his usual charming self, but his role could have been given to any no-name actor.
The narration by Chris Rock, who is meant to be an older version of our hero Charlie was excellent. It reminded me of my time as a teen watching Everybody Hates Chris. It wasn’t used a lot, but I enjoyed the few times they injected it into the story as there is something about his voice that works for me in terms of narration.
The film’s visual effects were hit and miss for me. I feel there was too much of an overreliance on it, which isn’t shocking once you know who the film director is. The CGI on the mice, as we saw in the trailer, wasn’t right. It feels rushed, almost like it wasn’t done, and looked more like working print material. Some of the CGI used on Anne for scenes where her arms stretched out also didn’t work for me.
However, where the CGI did excel for me was the witches’ look, which was excellent and very disturbing. I loved the shots of the witches opening their mouths. It’s a truly terrifying look. While I still prefer the original makeup work because I’m a sucker for practical effects and makeup, I will say I feel the CGI look on their faces will do the same job as the original to scare and haunt young viewers will see this as their version. I wish at least Anne would have had an unmasking form.
Another aspect that must be praised is the production design. The hotel setting of the film was gorgeous and mesmerizing; the full score of the legendary Alan Silvestri was terrific.
Oscar-winner Robert Zemeckis directs the film. He has an extensive background working with visual effects in films such as The Polar Express and his Jim Carrey starring A Christmas Carol. So it was very shocking to me that the CGI wasn’t better and was only really sub-par. While he has many more popular films such as Back to the Future, tonally and stylistically, this reminded me of his lesser work, Death Becomes Her. I found myself thinking of that film a lot during this with how it felt campy and over the top at times but still restrained. The Witches is easily his best film in 8 years since his Oscar-nominated Flight, and his last three films had been somewhat disappointing.
Guillermo Del Toro and Kenya Barris co-wrote the script with Zemeckis, and you get a sense of both their styles in this film. The film has the dark and horror feel you get from some of Del Toro’s work while also having the family dynamics of Barris’s work, such as in Black-ish. I was glad Barris restrained himself and didn’t make the film too preachy. Although they substituted the white leads for black ones and most of the hotel staff were black, it didn’t draw much attention. You didn’t see them deal with racism, which gave the story it’s telling a universal feel. My only criticism is about their script and its lack of character development; however, I feel the original did this a lot better, especially regarding the grandmother character.
My biggest takeaway from The Witches is that I LOVED that it wasn’t a copy and paste of the original, like last year’s The Lion King, which had NO changes. It’s a perfect Halloween film that is perfectly suited for at-home streaming. Warner made the smart choice not to delay the movie a year like originally intended and drop it on HBO Max.
The Witches will work for a younger generation, and they now have their version like most of us did growing up with the original. I will be watching this again.
