Directed by Robert Zemeckis, The Witches is one of the most anticipated movies of 2020. Now it is finally available on HBO Max. The movie is based off the book by Roald Dahl. And previously, it was made into a film in 1990 by Nicolas Roeg. While there are many similarities to the book than to the previous movie, still there are some changes.
The variations in the book, the 1990 movie, and the latest movie
Similar to the novel, the plan for defeating the witches is the same. The Grandmother, grandson, and his two friends plot to pilfer the potion. Actually, the witches planned to use the potion on the children and turn them into mice.
But the grandmother and the gang, steal it and use it against them, making the plan of the witches a failure. Between the present movie and the ancestor, there are some variations.
The kitchen trip is shot in the Zemeckis style. Don’t know what that is? It is full of danger, animation, and live-action. But the level of danger in the book does not match with the movie. In the book and the 1990 movie, the Grand High Witch along with other witches, has dinner and turn into mice. And then, the hotel guests kill them. However, in the latest movie, the scenes show everyone simply trying to kill the mice. But none of them are shown dead.
In the 2020 movie, the Grand High Witch never eats the soup. And this does not happen neither in the book nor in the old version of the movie. Furthermore, the defeat of the Grand High Witch too is portrayed differently.
Roald Dahl hated the ending of the old version of the movie
Apparently, Roald Dahl hated the ending of the 1990 movie. The reason is that its ending is completely different from the book. The ending of the 1990 movie features a good witch that turns back all the mice into children, which means, Roeg gave a happy ending. Here, the mice are not transformed back into children. So, all the three mice stay together with the Grandmother and make use of the Grand High Witch’s money and potions to defeat other witches around the country.
