ReviewThe Witches movie review: Anne Hathaway glams up for striking Roald Dahl fantasy adaptation

This version of Roald Dahl’s children’s fantasy relocates the story to Alabama where a boy and his grandmother stumble across witches turning children into mice

Anne Hathaway’s cackling Grand High Witch and Octavia Spencer’s turn as the grandmother are fantastic, though the three mice look a little cartoonish

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Anne Hathaway in a still from The Witches (category TBC), directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Published: 12:00am, 22 Oct 2020Updated: 5:43am, 22 Oct 2020

3.5/5 stars

There is some serious heavyweight power behind this new version of The Witches. Roald Dahl’s 1983 children’s fantasy is directed by Robert Zemeckis ( Back to the Future ), co-written by Guillermo del Toro ( Pan’s Labyrinth ) and co-produced by Alfonso Cuarón ( Roma , Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ). It also stars Anne Hathaway, and a considerable amount of visual effects are deployed to bring Dahl’s tale of real-life witches to life.

Relocating to 1960s Alabama in the US – the book was set in Britain and Norway – the story revolves around Charlie (Jahzir Kadeem Bruno) and his grandmother Agatha (Octavia Spencer) stumbling across a coven of witches.

Witches exist in “every city, every state and every country”, we’re told, and they’ve certainly checked into the fancy old-fashioned hotel – run by Stanley Tucci’s obsequious Mr Stringer – where Charlie and Agatha are staying.

Leading this pack of spell-casters is the Grand High Witch (Hathaway), who is plotting to rid the world of children by turning them into mice. Soon enough, Charlie suffers this rodent fate alongside tubby English boy Bruno (Codie-Lei Eastick). When they meet Daisy (Kristin Chenoweth), who has long been “mouseified”, they join forces to try and outwit the Grand High Witch.

Hathaway’s cackling creature, with her elongated fingers and Joker-like smile that slices into her cheeks, looks fantastic. Sporting a dress that sees the gold trim turn into a snake, she also can smash a podium with the flick of a finger and float in the air. Sadly, the three mice aren’t quite as convincing; they look a little cartoonish.