Journey of The Witches

THE WITCHES

JOURNEY

OCTOBER 2021

WHERE THE STORY BEGAN AND WHERE ITS BEEN SINCE

Roald Dahl wrote the children’s novel ‘The Witches’ in 1983. The novel won the Whitbread book award in 1983 despite the mixed reviews regarding misogyny. Some women were offended and annoyed at the way the women were portrayed in the story. The story was made for children and the illustrator Quentin Blake did a really good job of making child friendly, cartoon illustrations.  Blake is well known for his illustrations in ‘The Witches’. He has a very noticeable drawing style which you see throughout nearly all of Dahl’s books. 

Roald Dahl’s ‘the witches’ first became a movie in 1990 with Nicolas Roeg as the director. The movie made $15.3 million in box office where as the 2020 movie adaption of the book grossed $26.9 million. However, although the 2020 remake made more money, it wasn’t as highly rated. The 2020 only got 61% of watchers enjoy the film and the 1990 version had 83% of viewers enjoy the film. Back when Roeg’s was made there wasn’t any social media to advertise the film which could explain why Robert Zemeckis 2020 got more watchers. The two movies were each made with leads that took on the role of the grand high witch very differently. Anjelica Huston (1990) made the witch evil and dark. She’s very obviously sinister and twisted. However, Anne Hathaway made the character classy and deceiving not as apparent with her evilness.                 

Reviews from the screenplays: 

1990’s – “Better than a simple round of Hocus pocus, The Witches casts the right kind of spell.”

“The Witches" is more fun for parents than kids and not all that much fun for anyone.”

“The Witches feels like a throwaway feature rather than a fully-realised fantasy adventure...”

“The Witches is a delectably creepy movie guaranteed to keep night lights burning bright.”

“The best Halloween treat is watching 'The Witches'.”

“The combo of Roald Dahl and Nicolas Roeg promises something deep and dark, but Roeg unexpectedly includes ample amounts of ill-fitting humour that nullifies much of the mood. As for Dahl, he initially tried to have his name removed from the picture.”

“Chock-full of gleeful nastiness, The Witches also retains a clear focus on its young audience, often with a mouse-view of the world.”

“It's not a film for small children. But for precocious first-graders with a warped sense of humour and an appetite for chills, thrills and spills, nothing could be better.”

As you can see, there were many mixed feelings about the original movie. However, there were way way more positive than negative reviews.

 

2020’s – “This entertaining new version is much truer in tone to the book, where the line separating the silly and the sinister is often blurred.”

 

“I can't even tell what Zemeckis was getting at. This is not scary, not silly, not topical. Least of all entertaining.”

 

“There's a lack of overall magic, either of the twisted or charming type - unless sending viewers clamouring to find wherever the original is currently streaming counts.”

“Those who were terrified by the 1990 version may be put off by a lack of practical effects and Hathaway's absolutely over-the-top performance in the 2020 film. But the new version ought to inspire and truly terrify a new generation of budding horror fans.”

“This new adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic is yet another example of how a film can end up being so much less than the sum of its parts.”

 

“Audiences have understandably not taken kindly to the filmmakers' artistic licence.”

 

“Dodgy CGI aside, The Witches is a colourful, cartoonish treat for the whole family that boasts a never-been-campier Anne Hathaway as the Grand High Witch.”

 

“The Witches is enormous fun, bringing new life to an old story.”

Of course, like any movie people have their different opinions. For the 2020 version of ‘The Witches’ there was only a few more good reviews than bad on rotten tomatoes.

 

David wood is an actor, author, composer, director, magician and producer. He is the talented man that adapted ‘The Witches’ book into a play. It was first presented by Clarion Productions at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield 1992 and on tour including a Christmas west end season, at the Duke of York’s theatre, London. Clarion toured the play again a few years later, including a West End season at the Vaudeville Theatre, London. Since then there have been many productions abroad, notably in Belgium and Scandinavian countries, as well as a repertory production at the Hay market Theatre, Leicester, and many amateur productions. It’s really impressive how David wood managed to create such a successful play after starting off just being a kid with a dream, creating his own little puppet shows. Wood states that his old magic days really helped him understand children. Here’s his thoughts in his own words, “ In my teens, I did cabaret with a dance band, acted in school and local plays, and went on drama courses. At Oxford University, where I read English, I spent most of my time acting in plays, and writing and performing songs. I scraped through my degree and became an actor/writer. Looking back, it was almost inevitable that I would concentrate on writing and performing for children, because my early magic shows at birthday parties and in church halls taught me lots about how children, en masse, react - techniques I have used ever since in my plays and books.” As an actor David was lucky enough to star with Malcolm MacDowell in the film If..., with Shelley Winters on TV in The Vamp, and opposite Sir Michael Redgrave on stage in Voyage Round My Father. But children's theatre became his biggest interest after he wrote his first play for children in 1967. Since then, he has written another sixty and they are performed all over the world. The Gingerbread Man is his most popular. He adapted six Roald Dahl books for the stage not just ‘The Witches’, plus Dick King-Smith's The Sheep-pig (as Babe), Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden and Philip Pullman's Clockwork. Writing books for children was a pleasant additional activity for Wood, mainly in association with Richard Fowler, the illustrator and paper engineer. For Walker Books, he wrote Sidney the Monster, which won the Nottingham Children's Book of the Year award, this is really impressive. David is chair of action for children’s arts, which promotes and celebrates arts for children. It’s nice to see someone who makes plays and writes for children actually help and encourage said children to get involved in the arts.