The Witches (2020 movie)

***Roald Dahl's The Witches***, or simply ***The Witches***, is a 2020 supernatural comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis, Kenya Barris, and Guillermo del Toro. It is based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl and is the second feature-length adaptation of the novel. The film stars Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, and Stanley Tucci, and is narrated by Chris Rock.

## Plot

In 1968, young Charlie Hansen lives with his grandmother Agatha in Demopolis, Alabama, after a car accident kills his parents in Chicago. Gradually, Charlie is cheered up by Agatha who buys him a pet mouse whom he names Daisy. One day, Charlie buys a box of nails to train Daisy and to build a house for her as well. He is approached by a witch trying to lure him with a snake and a caramel, but Agatha calls him, and the witch disappears.

After telling Agatha about the encounter, Charlie learns that the witches are in fact real. She says a witch cursed her childhood friend Alice into spending the rest of her life as a chicken. Agatha says that witches never leave once they find a child. Frantically, they decide to stay in a nearby hotel where her cousin Eston is the executive chef. While there, Agatha teaches Charlie how to tell a witch from an ordinary woman: real witches have claws instead of fingernails, which they hide by wearing gloves; are bald, which they hide by wearing wigs that give them rashes; have square feet with no toes, have mouths that can open nearly to their ears, have and a powerful sense of smell aided by extendable nostrils, which they use to sniff out children.

The next day, Charlie takes Daisy and a rope to do some training at a grand hall. During his walk there, he meets a gluttonous but friendly boy named Bruno, who is pulled away by his mother. Charlie visits the grand hall, thinking he will be alone. As he is getting ready to train Daisy, a group of witches led by their all-powerful leader, the Grand High Witch, enters the grand hall. Charlie hides under the stage, and overhears the Grand High Witch planning to give the world's children a potion, mixed into confectionery products, that will transform them into mice. The Grand High Witch waits for Bruno to arrive, to whom she earlier gave a Swiss chocolate bar laced with the potion. After Bruno arrives, he turns into a mouse and enters the vent where Charlie and Daisy are hiding. The Grand High Witch discovers Charlie and forcibly transforms him into a mouse with the potion, before they escape.

Fleeing to the hotel room where Charlie and his grandmother are staying, they tell Agatha about the witches' plan and discover that the Grand High Witch is staying in the hotel room below them and that Daisy was once an orphaned young human girl named Mary turned into a mouse by a witch. Charlie, Bruno, and Mary devise a plan to get a bottle of the potion so that Agatha can devise a cure to turn them back into children. The plan to get the potion is successful, but since she is unable to create a cure, they instead decide to put the potion into a broth of pea soup which will be given to the witches during their dinner.

All the witches drink the soup except the Grand High Witch, who realizes that she met Agatha before; she was the witch who turned Alice into a chicken. While the mice steal the Grand High Witch's room key, the witches all begin turning into rats, and chaos ensues. She and the mice flee to the Grand High Witch's room, Agatha starts to collect all the potions to destroy them. The Grand High Witch finds Agatha, and tries killing her, but the mice intervene and trick the Grand High Witch into swallowing her own potion, transforming her into a rat.

Since his parents can no longer accept him, Bruno joins Mary, Charlie, and Agatha to go home with The Grand High Witch's trunk and become a family. Years later, Charlie and Agatha advise young children to eradicate the witches.

## Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics, who mostly praised the performances and visuals but criticized its script, deeming it inferior to Roeg's film despite being more faithful to the book.

Numerous disability advocates accused the film of perpetuating bias against individuals with limb differences due to depicting witches with three fingers. Warner Bros. issued a statement in which they apologized for offending people with disabilities. Hathaway also issued an apology over the film's portrayal, saying "I particularly want to say I'm sorry to kids with limb differences... Now that I know better I promise I'll do better."

## Cast

* Anne Hathaway as the Grand High Witch
* Octavia Spencer as Agatha Hansen
	+ Miranda Sarfo Peprah portrays a young version of Agatha.
* Stanley Tucci as Mr Stringer
* Jahzir Bruno as Charlie Hansen
	+ Chris Rock as the voice of Older Charlie Hansen
* Codie-Lei Eastick as Bruno Jenkins
* Kristin Chenoweth as the voice of Daisy
* Charles Edwards as Mr Jenkins
* Morgana Robinson as Mrs Jenkins
* Josette Simon as Zelda
* Eugenia Caruso as Consuella
* Orla O'Rourke as Saoirse
* Simon Manyonda as Sous-Chef
* Philippe Spall as a Chef
* Brian Bovell as Reginald