A dark fairy tale featuring scary make-up
“The Witches” was the third and final contribution to feature film fantasy by Muppets creator Jim Henson. It was released shortly after his death. As in his two previous films, “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth,” “The Witches” used Henson’s experience with creature creation and puppetry to make possible things in a live-action format that were previously possible only in animation.<br /><br />Grandma Helga (Mai Zetterling, “The Man Who Finally Died”) is preparing her grandson, Luke (Jasen Fisher), for the possibility of encountering witches. Though witches are everywhere, having infiltrated society, they are seldom noticed. The key to identifying them is a purple light in their eyes and a frequent itching of the scalp. They hate children, equate their scent to dog droppings, and dedicate their lives to destroying them.<br /><br />Luke’s first encounter with a witch is at the home of Grandma Helga, who is caring for him following the death of his parents. Grandmother and grandson take a seaside vacation at a hotel in Cornwall, where Luke discovers that a crowd of witches has gathered for a convention led by the Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston). At that meeting, a nefarious plan is revealed. A special secret formula that turns all who swallow it into mice will be added to all the chocolate bars across England, making children, who love sweets, easy to exterminate.<br /><br />Luke overhears this plan and is discovered by the witches, who capture and transform him into a mouse. In this form, he succeeds in escaping, and he and Helga work feverishly to stop the witches from setting their plan in motion.<br /><br />Adapted by screenwriter Alan Scott from a children’s novel by Roald Dahl, “The Witches” has a storybook look with sumptuous production design. The premise is unsettling. Witches are ubiquitous. They live all over the world, work at ordinary jobs, dress in typical clothing. The thing that makes them so dangerous is that they don’t look dangerous, so most people have no warning when suddenly encountering them.<br /><br />There are some genuinely disturbing sequences — the kind that imbed themselves in young minds. At one point in the movie, a witch captures a young girl in a painting, where she’s doomed to live out the rest of her days as a miniature image. As time passes, the sad-eyed girl in the painting ages and her family watches her grow old on canvas until finally she fades away entirely. In another scene, a witch pushes a baby carriage perilously close to the edge of a cliff.<br /><br />Director Nicolas Roeg (“Don’t Look Now,” “The Man Who Fell to Earth”) intended to remain faithful to the book, which ends with Luke living out his life as a mouse, hunting witches with Grandma by his side. Warner Brothers had Roeg substitute a more upbeat ending. Even so, the fact that the goal of witches to murder children is very dark and disturbing. The film is probably too scary and intense for young children.<br /><br />Roeg assembled a first-rate cast for the movie. As a fashionable personification of Evil, Huston treats her minions, strangers, and especially children with haughty arrogance. A highlight of the movie is watching the Grand High Witch’s alter-ego, Miss Ernst, change into a bald, wart-ridden hag. Anjelica Huston’s portrayal is especially horrifying because we see what the witch actually looks like in a then state-of-the-art transformation.<br /><br />Zetterling explains her tales of witch lore to Luke matter-of-factly, as if she’s telling him a bedtime story. Her delivery combines grandmotherly affection and gravity, with a generous helping of playfulness tossed in. Young Jasen Fisher plays Luke with childlike optimism, even after he’s turned into a mouse. He never loses his spirit, and is convinced that, with Grandma’s help, things will turn out OK.<br /><br />Made before the widespread us of CGI, “The Witches” shows its age in terms of special effects. Occasionally real mice are used, but when expressions are required, the creatures look like the puppets they are. The make-up, however, has stood the test of time quite well. The monstrous appearance of the Grand High Witch is truly frightening and has likely caused nightmares for those who saw the film as a child. Relying on stereotypes of the witch, the make-up emphasizes a long, hooked, hairy nose, glaring eyes, and a mouth that looks ready to consume anyone under the age of ten. It took in the neighborhood of six hours to apply, with an assortment of prosthetics that transformed Huston into an unrecognizable crone.<br /><br />The imagery in “The Witches” is more memorable than the film itself. It uses odd angles and wide lenses to create intentionally distorted views, giving the movie a kind of surrealism. Roald Dahl liked the film and believed it captured his book’s dark story. It also manages to be a fun picture to watch. As in most fairy tales, “The Witches” has its scary moments, but through perseverance and focus, good triumphs.<br /><br />The only bonus material on the PG-rated Blu-ray release from Warner Archive is the film’s trailer.<br /><br />“The Witches” begins at a leisurely pace and builds suspense until the end when a number of plot threads are wrapped up very quickly. The movie contains quite a few images that might make little ones bury their heads. Jim Henson’s contributions add to the fairy tale nature of the story, and the movie's combination of live actors, puppets, and elaborate make-up provide an engrossing, if sometimes unsettling, tale of good vs. evil.
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 {"Genre": "Kids & Family, Comedy", "Format": "NTSC, Widescreen", "Contributor": "Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Jasen Fisher, Nicolas Roeg, Rowan Atkinson", "Language": "English", "Runtime": "1 hour and 32 minutes", "MPAA rating": "PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)", "Product Dimensions": "0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.12 Ounces", "Audio Description": "English", "Director": "Nicolas Roeg", "Media Format": "NTSC, Widescreen", "Run time": "1 hour and 32 minutes", "Release date": "August 20, 2019", "Actors": "Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Jasen Fisher, Rowan Atkinson", "Subtitles": "English, Spanish", "Studio": "Warner Archives", "Country of Origin": "USA", "Number of discs": "1"}

Here is a brief synopsis of the title : From Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Wizard of Oz, many classic tales through the centuries wouldn't be half as exciting without the devious doings of a witch. Now add another to the venerable tradition of stories that deliver family fun every witch way, a collaboration combining the effects wizardry of executive producer Jim Henson and the imagination of Willy Wonka creator Roald Dahl. Academy Award winner* Anjelica Huston won the Los Angeles and National Society of Film Critics Best Actress awards for her marvelous work as the Grand High Witch in this enchanting fable directed by Nicolas Roeg. Jasen Fisher plays Luke, the 9-year-old boy who must foil the plans of a society of witches to turn the world's children into mice. It won't be easy: They've already transformed him into one! But some big, bad witches may be no match for the resourcefulness of a single tiny rodent..