Released in 1990, ‘The Witches’ is based on a book penned by Roald Dahl, with
the same name. It was the last flick produced by Jim Henson. It revolves around
the nine-year-old Luke and his grandmother, who go on a vacation to England and
bump into the masked witches, who have gathered to plan how to turn all
England's children into mice. Luke overhears them only to be turned to a mouse,
with a purpose of making an escape, alerting his grandmother and turning back to
a human. It is a well-executed movie, is creative and the subject has been
handled well.
Plot
Luke is a young boy who lives with his grandma, a very warm and sympathetic
woman. She often tells him her bead experience with witches. She tells him that
witches hate children and wish to remove them from the world, because they have
sensitive noses and can smell bad. Grandma also tells Luke about her childhood
friend, Erika, who was captured by a witch. She also tells him that witches are
headed by a Grand High Witch and have a purple glint to their eyes.
Soon, Luke and his grandmother go on a vacation to England, where the convention
of ‘Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children’ is being organized.
The convention is actually a cover-up for the meeting of all the witches of
England. The meeting is presided over by the Grand High Witch, who is furious
with the witches of England because of their failure to carry out their duty of
annihilating the children of England. She demands that the children of England
be killed before she returns (within a year).
The Grand High Witch reveals a plan for completing the task in a year. She gives
a magical formula to the witches, which she calls 'Formula 86'. Whosoever
ingests this formula will become a mouse. Luke happens to see all this, but is
soon found out by the witches and turned into a mouse. But, he retains his power
of speech and human intelligence. Eventually, Luke and his grandmother work
together and end up killing all the cruel witches. A nice, beautiful and
friendly witch helps Luke and turns him back to a human as well.
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