The Witches (2020)

 

(Image courtesy of digitalspy.com)

Do you believe that there's a biasness when you watch a movie that's directed or produced by some of your favorite names in movies? We do. 

The Witches is a 2020 remake of the 1990 movie with the same name adapted from the children's book written by Roald Dahl. This remake stars Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Octavia Spencer, Jahzir Kadeem Bruno and features voices by Chris Rock and Kristin Chenoweth. 

It tells the story of an orphaned boy played by Jahzir Kadeem Bruno who has been sent to live with his grandmother (Octavia Spencer). One day at a grocery store, he's offered candy by a witch. He later regales the incident to his grandmother who opens up about her own encounter with a witch when she was a little girl. They then pack their bags and stay the night at a hotel in the city where they happen to have booked their stay at the same time the convention of witches was holding their annual meeting at the hotel. 

We enjoyed the original movie starring Anjelica Huston and this remake wasn't too bad either. However, we don't know if its the current technology, but it doesn't really have a Roald Dahl feel to it. It just feels like a typical children's movie. 

Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Octavia Spencer and Jahzir Kadeem Bruno did well in their roles but it didn't impress. 

The design for the witches also fell flat to give us the scares that the original delivered. Did we grow up and become desensitized to creature make up? Absolutely not. Anjelica Huston's witch transformation still scares the bejeezus out of us. 

(Image courtesy of vocal.media)

The plot and lead characters of the movie reflect the current era and that's fine with us. The script, production quality were normal for the 20th century, but throughout the movie, there was nothing Roald Dahl about it. 

What we can talk about of note for this movie was that it was directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron with music by Alan Silvestri. With these notable names helming the project, we expected more than what was delivered. 

All in all, we give The Witches 👻👻 ghost emojis out of five. 



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