Roald Dahl's The Witches (2020)

Written by Per Gunnar Jonsson on April 5, 2021

Unlike what a lot of people seems to think about this movie I though it was a fairly decent family movie. It’s not great but decent enough. I quite enjoyed it at least.

The story is what it is. It is a Roald Dahl story so it is somewhat dark but funny and with some light at the same time. Of course there are a bunch of whiners complaining that it is too dark and not suited for children. Well, everyone knows (or should now) what to expect from a Roald Dahl story so just go and see another movie then. My kids, even when they where younger, would have no problem with this movie. But then I would spend the time to watch it with them. It is called parenting.

The beginning felt a wee bit slow perhaps but once the grand witch, and in particular the three mice, entered the scene it became rather funny.

The one thing I did not like that much was the over the top silly acting of the witches, especially the grand witch. They could really have toned down that it bit to make her a bit more scary. Now she just became silly and somewhat annoying.

The special effects were quite nice. The mice was a bit cartoonish but that was okay for this movie. I quite liked how the grand witch’s mouth split open from time to time to reveal her “witchiness”.

Apparently a bunch of disability advocates, including British Paralympic swimmer Amy Marren, got unhinged and claimed the movie was “perpetuating bias against individuals with ectrodactyly and other limb differences.”

Seriously? Get a grip. It is fiction and a family movie about witches for Christ sake! Presenting witches or other supernatural creatures as having “abnormalities” like crows feet, fangs and God knows what is what makes witches. If these obsessive whiners and cancel culture freaks would have their way no movie worth watching and no book worth reading would ever be made.

Anyway, I felt it was an hour and 45 minutes that I enjoyed.