The Witches (DVD) new Recommended for all ages.

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The Witches (DVD) new Recommended for all ages.

Recently at the school I work at they had this as their home-time story, which led me - a life-long Dahl fan - to re-read both The Witches and Matilda, my favourite Dahl books (as well as Danny the Champion of the World), and rent the movies.

It's said that Roald Dahl, by then close to the end of his life, cried when he saw this film of one of his best books (god knows what he might have thought of "Matilda"!). However for once I couldn't disagree with his assessment more - the film is richly comic, frighteningly fantastic and despite the fact that Luke has become an American kid (while all the rest of the characters are Norwegian or British - it would have been more believeable had Luke been English too as he was in the book), Jim Henson's puppetry adds the icing on the cake, the mice looking like proper mice as far as possible rather than too cartoonish, and the hideous vision of the Grand High Witch without her mask is enough to give every sensitive child nightmares. It appears that a lot of the film was shot on location, even the indoor scenes, lending it a fresh, exciting air.

Anjelica Huston, despite her tacky Eastern-European-cum-German accent which is never quite believeable, and Jane Horrocks (playing Jane Horrocks as always :-) although the wig is actually scarier than when she takes it off!) are tantalisingly witchy, and although her name escapes me, the lady who plays Luke's Norwegian grandmother - of course Dahl's parents were both Norwegian, so it is logical that the Land of the Midnight Sun should feature so prominently, and it is rendered in an incredibly vivid way - is a wonderful "bestemama" for Luke, the kind of granny all of us dream of having as children (though I'm happy to say my granny is wonderful without smoking cigars or giving me white mice as pets!). Rowan Atkinson and his clumsy hotel staff are all-too-believable. The added twist with Horrocks' character is ironed in to the main Dahl narrative with a minimum of fuss; it is not simply grafted onto the story without some verisimilitude.

The ending of the book, while in keeping with Dahl's understated climaxes, would have looked dull on film, and on balance I would have to say that I agree with the decision to "Disneyfy" it - only really because the rest of the movie is so tragicomically funny that we can relax in the Jim Henson team's capable hands. It's a really good watch for adults too, and like Dahl's books themselves, it treats children as intelligent human beings in their own right, with wonderful (and accurate) glimpses of another European culture and a powerful supporting cast (Bruno's parents run away with their scenes - as does the chambermaid with her ill-advised cosmetic treatment!). Recommended for all ages.