October 27, 2020
In 1968, Hero Boy (Jahzir Kadeem Bruno) had lost his parents in a car accident and went to live with his Grandma (Octavia Spencer). To keep him entertained, Grandma told him stories about witches and how they hated children. She warned him that witches may look like typical women, but they had ugly feet and hands that they hid in shoes and gloves, a bald head that they hid with itchy wigs and had mouths that opened wide at the corners.
One day, Grandma and Boy went for a vacation a seaside hotel at the same time with a big group of witches led by their Grand High Witch (Anne Hathaway) came in to have their annual meeting. Boy and his new friend Bruno Jenkins (Codie-Lei Eastick) were their first victims of the witches' plot to turn all children into mice using chocolate bars treated with a magical purple potion. With Grandma and Boy's pet mouse Daisy (voice of Kristin Chenoweth), they have to try to thwart the witches' evil plans.
The screenplay of this film was adapted from a 1983 book by Roald Dahl. We know Mr. Dahl wanted to scare kids against gluttony, as he did in his other book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." There had already been another film version done in 1990 starring Anjelica Huston as the Grand High Witch. That version used Jim Henson's animatronic technology to animate the mice, which may be charming to older viewers, would look dated for today's children.
The tone of that film was much darker and scarier, with Huston even able to remove her mask to reveal a grotesque witch face. In contrast, this new film by Robert Zemeckis was done in a lighter, more childish and comical vein. The cute special effects of the mice and their humorous antics were of course all computer-generated, giving it a flashier and more colorful image quality which is more in consonance with the frenetic tastes of young viewers of today.
Anne Hathaway played her Grand High Witch in a considerably more hyperactive and over-the-top style than Huston did, which catered to kiddie viewers (but which older viewers may find annoying, especially her accent). Octavia Spencer's Grandma was significantly warmer and more loving, in contrast with Maia Zetterling's rather disinterested portrayal of Grandma Helga in 1990. Stanley Tucci played the hotel manager Mr. Stringer, a character who was more noticeable with the ever scene-stealing Rowan Atkinson in 1990.
The transposition of the setting to Alabama in the 1960s, with the main protagonists as African-Americans was quite a major change from the 1990 version. I was most nervous about that scene of a black Grandma showing a rich white couple that their had turned into a mouse, which could have serious racial repercussions for that time in US history. However, this casting was apparently just for inclusivity's sake and nothing more.
The fate of the Boy was a complete departure from that of the 1990 version. In 1990, there was a good witch who was able to turn Luke back from mouse to boy, but this remake ended things a different way. The voice narrating the story was that of the Boy as an adult (Chris Rock) who was telling his story to school kids to warn them about witches. This scenario opened up the possibility for future sequels as Boy, Grandma and friends go cross-country, or maybe even abroad, to fight more witches. 6/10.
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