Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Plot synopsis:
The movie centers around Sabrina Sawyer, who is sent to live with her eccentric aunts in Riverdale. On her 16th birthday, Sabrina discovers that she is a witch. Sabrina then develops a crush on Seth, the cutest boy in school who happens to be dating Katie La More, the school's "queen bee." Sabrina has to find a way to use her newly discovered magical power to get Seth to notice her, but at the same time not cast a love spell, which could backfire on her.
After Katie dumps Seth, he starts to notice Sabrina. Sabrina is able to use her magic to win a track competition and get Seth to ask her to the Spring Fling. Katie discovers Sabrina's secret and sets out to let everyone know what Sabrina is. Sabrina has to use her magic to turn Katie into a poodle to stop her but later changes her back. All the while, Harvey likes Sabrina and waits to see if she will have a change of heart and start to notice him. The story ends happily with Sabrina and Harvey together at the dance.

Tags: romantic

Review:
I don't know why everyone's being so hard on this movie.
No it's not like the TV series, but come on, this was made BEFORE the TV series as a movie all on its own, of course it's different.
Instead of endlessly comparing it to the TV show and complaining, why not try letting it stand on it's own?I actually really like this movie, so much so that I recently bought it on DVD.
Back when this movie was made Melissa Joan Hart was young enough to be able to pull off playing a TEENAGE witch and she did a really good job.
Melissa Joan Hart was so sweet in this film, she was cute but not too much, and her acting was just fine.
I really enjoyed Michelle Beaudoin as Marnie, Sabrina's best friend.
Beaudoin had great chemsitry with Hart and it was very easy to believe their friendship, which felt very natural.
I also thought Lalainia Lindbjerg was super as the malicious Queen Bee character Katie and Ryan Reynolds was great as hunky Seth, while Tobias Mehler was perfect as Harvey.
They weren't so bad but I'm not that keen on them either.The storyline was good enough...Sabrina Saywer is relatively new in River Dale.
She has a crush on Seth, a senior and the hottest guy in school.
But Seth is invovled with Queen Bee Katie, however when Katie breaks up with him Seth begins noticing Sabrina.
When Sabrina uses her newly discovered magical powers to win a track competition, Seth asks her to the Spring Fling dance at school but by this time Sabrina's unsure if Seth really is the guy for her.
All the while poor Harvey, who's liked Sabrina all along, has to wait to see if Sabrina will have a change of heart.Sabrina, The Teenage Witch plays very much like a chick flick aimed at young teens.
It clearly was made on a low budget but it still (in my opinion) looked good and it's just a cute movie that's fun if you have some time on your hands.
Try and watch it with an open mind, forget about the TV show while you do, and don#t judge this little bit of fluff too harshly.
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, The Movie..
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, well, of course the movie is about Sabrina, a teenage girl who is sent to live with her two strange aunts.
Whilst there, on her sixteenth birthday, Sabrina finds out she's a witch.
At first, she doesn't know what to think, but she soon gets used to it.
It's good that Melissa Joan Hart who also plays Sabrina in the TV Show, of the same name plays Sabrina here too as she really suits the role.
It's a shame we don't have the likes of Jenna Leigh Green here though who played Libby Chessler for a few years on Sabrina, the TV Show, as she was really great, but fans of the show will most likely like this movie, anyway.
I also think this is better then some of the other Sabrina TV movies..
I do think the the TV series based on this TV flick is better, but this movie did set the course for laugh-out-loud comedy series.
Most of the casting is messed up, except for Michelle Beaudoin as Marny, Sabrina's best friend.
Michelle went on to play Sabrina's best friend Jenny for a season, which was good.
The voice in the show is much better..
Show vs Movie.
I think the previous comments can be explained by some clarification.
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch the movie came first.
Given the popularity of the movie, a TV show spawned off of it (much the same as what happened with Buffy, the movie was first) and the cast changes and other changes were made.
I liked the series, but it's important to note that since Sabrina was already popular by that point because of the movie, the series had the opportunity to be much more polished and complete.
Taken with that in mind, it's much easier to enjoy the movie as the delightful first romp through the Sabrina world that it is, rather than comparing to the much-improved later works..
Rather than Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick as the aunts, Nick Bakay as Salem, we have an entirely different cast.
The only ones that are the same as they appeared on the show were Melissa Joan Hart and Michelle Beudoin.
Sabrina Sawyer instead of Sabrina Spellman, a British Salem instead of the one we all know and love.
The movie was okay, but it just doesn't compare to the greatness of the TV show.
I recommend "Sabrina Goes to Rome" or "Sabrina Down Under."  Those movies are more up-to-date..
If you love the series, you'll love the movie!.
I myself grew up watching the Sabrina the Teenage Witch episodes.
If you are a big fan of Melissa Joan Hart or love the series then you will definitely love this movie.
The movie takes place at the beginning when Sabrina just discovers that she is a witch.
But, it is a great started movie to the series.
I loved watching it.
If you like Sabrina, then watch this movie.
RE: Sabrina Movie's.
I would love to own the series of films that Melissa Joan Hart has been in.
IE: Sabrina Goes To Rome, Right Connections, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sabrina Goes to Austrailia (to save the mermaid colony), and of course I would like the family to go to the theatre to see Drive me Crazy which is coming out soon.
This is basically a cheap TV movie with a very thin plot.
Sabrina fights with the high school's ice queen over a boy and Sabrina uses some magic to win his heart.
Maybe that's enough for an episode in the series, but not for an entire movie..
I am a huge fan of the TV show, but this movie was not exactly like it.
I thought that the movie would be like the beginning of the TV series, and have the same cast and set as before.
They're funny in the real show, but in this movie how they shut their eyes and mumble is almost creepy.
I also think that this should have had something more to do with the Other Realm and being a witch than popularity and crushes.
Also, Salem's voice in this is British, and he doesn't even make one funny remark.Even though this was far from the quality of the TV series, I am very glad that it aired.
Overall, I'm glad that this movie exists, but I wish it had been like the TV show..
The funniest character was probably the cat, but everyone played a good part.
"A girl, sent by her parents to live with her two eccentric aunts and attend a new high school, finds out on her sixteenth birthday that she is a witch".
This premise sets up Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) to be a blend of "Bewitched" and "Mean Girls".This teen movie belongs to the "high-school-queen-bee-gets-her-comeuppance" sub-genre of which there are endless examples.
Apparently there is a huge viewing demographic who on some basic level repeatedly get off erotically or emotionally on this humiliation dynamic.
Sabrina competes with other girls in track and field events; winning several of them by using her powers to cheat.
The story hedges a bit on this issue, as her magic is mostly used in response to unwarranted attacks by her rival; but in several of the track & field events her cheating makes losers out of all the other participants and no attempt is made at rationalization or justification.The problem with casting someone like Melissa Joan Hart as your good girl love interest is the absence of even a hint of physical sizzle.
Which means that to stay remotely credible with viewers, the bad girl she plays off has to be several erotic levels below Megan Fox; hence Tori Spelling lookalike Lalainia Lindbjerg as Katy Lemore (apparently a play on L'Amore).
And Hart's rival Libby in the 1996-2003 series would be played by the even less sizzling Jenna Leigh Green.
And since Katy does not rank especially high on the queen bee badness scale Sabrina's extreme revenge is way out of proportion.
To appreciate the missed opportunity just check out Samantha's inspired abuse of rival Sheila Sommers (played by gorgeous Nancy Kovack) in several episodes of "Bewitched".But the producers should get some credit for a glammed up Katy in the "Zapped" (1982) inspired final comeuppance scene.
Although Sabina has tortured Katy throughout the movie she saves the most extreme for the end, reducing her rival to a disheveled and whimpering wreck.
With this "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" sets a new standard in teen movie queen bee degradation, if that is your idea of a turn on or a good time.
Going any further with this sort of thing would cross into "Carrie" territory and that is an entirely different genre.Sabina's bad boy hunk Seth is played by sleepy looking Ryan Reynolds, he is relatively harmless and almost cluelessly disengaged.
Reynolds would play an almost identical character three years later in "Dick".
"Dead Like Me's" Daisy - Laura Harris - plays one of Katy's friends and has a lot of what the main actresses are missing.Then again, what do I know?
for fans of the TV show and Ryan Reynolds is in it too.
Sixteen year old Sabrina Sawyer (Melissa Joan Hart) moves in with her aunts Hilda (Sherry Miller) and Zelda (Charlene Fernetz) in Riverdale.
Marnie Littlefield (Michelle Beaudoin) is her best friend at school.
They have a crush on hot jock Seth (Ryan Reynolds).
Harvey has a secret crash on Sabrina.
Katy Lemore spices up her love life by breaking up with Seth.
On her birthday, Sabrina is given her spell book and then their cat Salem starts talking.
She tries to win Seth with witchcraft but it requires love with a pure heart from Seth or else she'll be turned into a witch's familiar.It's fine as a teen romance.
Harvey could be played by an actor with a bit more charm.
This is for the TV show's fans and also anybody who wants to see Ryan Reynolds in his 80s fluffy golden blonde hair.
I didn't know about it until after watching the series.
I watched it on regular TV as a Disney movie, then rented it to see what was censored and what I missed.
Simply put, the movie is sexier.
The aunts were better looking than the TV show version, no hard feelings to them!
Sabrina got to do sexier activities too.
(At least in the movie she never farted!
I hate fart jokes!) Salem was a familiar rather than a male witch under a cat sentence.
I only came here to see what her movie version's last name was.
I also had to reply, because I hate people who watch a movie just to hate it and give it bad reviews.
I intend to buy the DVD of the movie now that "Columbia DVD" is offering it.
I'll get the series too.
This movie is very thin when it comes to the plot.
I'm not a fan of the series, nor of this movie.
I think adding a few more plot elements would have made it a halfway decent movie, but unfortunately, it doesn't work in the end.
The acting is decent, tho I'm far from a fan of Melissa Joan Hart, but nothing spectacular anywhere in the movie.
I'm not sure they have this movie on dvd or vhs or anything, but if they do, only spend the cash if you're a HUGE fan of the series.
Against my expectations, I actually enjoyed this movie.
I must provide one of the dissenting voices here as an individual who actually enjoyed this movie as relaxing and light entertainment even though the character development had a few flaws, the script could have been improved at times and the plot was essentially one that had been explored in many different contexts.
It is infinitely better than the subsequent `Sabrina' movie that was produced and I actually came away quite impressed with the quality of the actingIndeed I think it was the quality of the acting that turned this movie from what could have been an exceedingly weak teenage movie into one that was entertaining and enjoyable.
While usually not a fan of Melissa Joan Hart, she actually provided some high quality acting here and gave her character a real personality and a dimension that was very enjoyable to witness.
Michelle Beaudoin also was excellent in her role, as was Ryan Reynolds as Seth and Tobias Mehler as Harvey.
And Lalaina Lindbjergh provides an excellent portrayal of quintessential snob Katie Lemore.
The only major criticism I have is to do with Seth's character development later on in the movie but I won't give that away because it would be classified as a spoiler.
Yet I think it was Sherry Miller and Charlene Fernetz who really provided the most excellent, comprehensive and in depth portrayals of their respective characters.
The two gave the characters of Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda so much creativity, depth, imagination and appeal as well as an elegance and grace that went well beyond what the scriptwriters had in mind.
Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda completely stole the show and it was a shame we didn't see more of the excellent acting of Miller and Fernetz in this movie and indeed that we haven't heard more from Miller and Fernetz on the acting scene.
Sure, the plot was predictable, but the acting made up for it in my view.
If you are looking for some light and enjoyable entertainment for younger audiences, this movie quite definitely fits the bill..
Stays true to the comic!!!!!.
This movie was really good.
It stayed very true to the comic of which it was based on.
Most of the characters personalities stayed the same from the comic to the movie.
Only difference is Harvey is a bit more like his character in show.
The other difference (and something that is the same in the comic that is TV series) Sabrina's last name is Spellman not Sowyer.
Other than the last name thing the movie stayed true to the comics and the Archie world in general.
I have nothing against the TV show it was very good but still the comics are way better.
That's why I like the movie so much.
I dislike how people are majorly comparing the movie to the TV show.
It's just comparing Buffy the vampire slayer the movie to the TV series.
Both movies were the reason why we have these great TV shows (agian not the biggest fan of Sabrina the TV series but it was great as far as TV shows of the 90s go)..
I do like this movie, but I don't think that they did a very good job at making the movie to a TV series and what I mean is that Harvey isn't the same person he is a nerd in this movie has like no friends and not that cute.
In the TV series Harvey is basically the opposite.
Sabrina's last name isn't even Spellman in this movie.
The aunts aren't as comical in this movie and are obviously not the same actresses Hilda is smart and Zelda is more ditsy in this movie and the actresses chosen to play Hilda and Zelda look like they should of been switched around....this Hilda looks more like the TV Zelda and this Zelda looks more like the TV Hilda.
Sabrina cant just think about something she wants and point she has to make up an incantation for every little thing she wants, I'm thinking an incantation for ice cream is going to sound like a bad rap song.
Salem is not as amusing and was turned into a witch familiar for using magic to win a girls heart and kissing her when she wasn't his true love or something it sounds more like when Sabrina first kisses Harvey in the TV show and turns him into a frog and the only way for him to be human again is true love.
I think Salem is a bore compared to the evil,self-centered,world dominating Salem everyone knows and loves on TV.
Also in this movie Sabrina's parents are both witches and have to go on a sabbatical cause she has to go to someone to train her to use her magic on TV her mom is mortal and dad is a witch and the woman who plays his girlfriend Gayle is the same as this movie's aunt Zelda, but the reason she's with her aunts on TV is cause she can't see her mother or her mom turns into wax and her dad is busy working in the magic book so he's like stuck in the book yeah its different but its still a lot more interesting than what is happening with her dad in this movie.
I love Sabrina the teenage witch I just think its obvious that some people weren't thinking at all when they made this movie then switched it to a TV series..
the TV series is way better.
**SPOILERS**   **SPOILERS** I have seen the tv series and loved it.
So, I was really looking forward to the movie.
There are many similar teenager movies.
A normal guy (Harvey) falls in love to a Girl (Sabrina).
But she loves the top athlete of the school (Seth).
She dates him, finds out that he is a dork, and finally falls in love with the other guy (Harvey).The fact that Sabrina is a witch, is only a minor part in the movie.
With some small changes, she wouldn't use her magic at all.For me, the only thing that makes this movie worth watching it is some of the female actors.The TV Series is way better.