Review: Escape to Witch Mountain (DMC #56)
Anyone else wishing they had a psychic sibling? Last night we watched the first of many films in the Witch Mountain saga, Escape to Witch Mountain (1975). It marks the 56th film in the Disnerd Movie Challenge. In case you need it, the synopsis is below, otherwise you can skip ahead to our review.
Synopsis
After their previous foster parents passed away, siblings Tony and Tia arrive at Pine Woods Child Welfare Department where the kindly Mrs. Grindley greets them. A boy named Truck tries to bully them, but Tony uses his telekinetic ability to fight Truck. Tia communicates with Tony telepathically, scolding him for using his powers in front of other people. That night, Tia and Tony hear dogs nearly 20 miles away. They worry they might soon see the dogs. The next day, the kids are about to leave on a field trip when Truck steals Tia’s star case. A black cat named Winky intervenes, saving the star case from the bully just before the children are hurried onto the bus. After the field trip, Tia and Tony are returning to the bus when Tia gets a premonition that a man (Deranian) must not get into his car. The children warn him and he obeys, moments before an out-of-control tow truck careens into his car—right where Deranian would have been sitting. Deranian reports back to his employer, Aristotle Bolt, saying he’s found what Bolt has been looking for. The next day, Deranian arrives at the foster home to thank Tia and ask about her premonition. The children reveal little, but Deranian gets their names from Truck. Meanwhile, Tia and Tony discover a map hidden in Tia’s star case. Tia has vague memories of being at sea, but she can’t make sense of them. Tony uses his harmonica to telekinetically draw the image of a house on his mirror (which the audience recognizes as Bolt’s property). It’s the place where the dogs are. The siblings know their powers only allow them to see places they’ve been to, or places they’re going to go, and Tia is afraid they’ll be going to this place soon. The next day, Deranian arrives and poses as the children’s long lost Uncle Lucas, even bringing falsified paperwork to prove it. Mrs. Grindley approves of the paperwork and sends the children (and Winky) off with Deranian.
When they reach Bolt’s property, Bolt comes to greet the children and gives them ice cream cones to eat as he gives them a tour of their new home. They have their own suite, complete with their own bedrooms, loads of toys, a puppet theater, and even a private corner for Winky. Later, the children have their first riding lesson where Tia expertly tames the wild horse, Thunderhead, using her powers to speak to him. The next day, Bolt’s security cameras catch the children using their powers to play with puppets and Bolt plots to use the evidence to blackmail the children into doing his bidding. At dinner, Bolt tells the children he knows they’re psychic. He wants to use them to look for oil or predict natural disasters so he can use the information for his own financial gain. Though Deranian locks the children in their suite that night, Tia uses her powers to unlock the door. The children and Winky make their escape, but an alarm sounds and the dogs are released. Tia uses her powers to tell the dogs to chase the guards instead, and then telepathically calls Thunderbolt to meet them. The children and Winky escape, riding Thunderhead.
The children leave Thunderhead at a veterinarian clinic, but they’re still being followed. They hide in the back of an RV belonging to Jason O’Day. When Jason reaches the beach, he discovers the cat and the children. He offers the children breakfast, presumably before he sends them on their way. However, the sheriff’s department is now looking for the RV. After the children share their story and show off their powers to Jason, he agrees to let them join him. Though the cops give chase, Tia and Tony use their powers to outsmart them. Meanwhile, more of Tia’s memories are coming back about their time at sea—there was an accident, and someone saved them. While Jason and the children sleep in the RV, Deranian and his driver find them. The kids use their powers to point a floating gun at the men as the RV drives off. Jason intends to lose the cops following the car so the kids can run, intending for them all to meet back at his brother Hiram’s place, but when he drops the kids off, the local sheriff spots them and captures them, putting them in jail. While in prison, Tia finally remembers it was Uncle Bene who saved them after the boating accident. The children use their powers to escape prison, but now that the sheriff has seen their powers he’s rallied a hunting party to chase after them. The kids make it to Hiram’s house and meet up with Jason. Tia remembers that they need to talk to someone named Castaway, and the children realize their map is pointing to a place known locally as Witch Mountain. Jason tells the children how Hiram mentioned legends about strangers who settled at Witch Mountain and might be the people the children are looking for. Deranian and his driver arrive, and Tia summons a bear to distract them while the children and Jason flee. The children finally remember that they came from another planet—other spaceships made it to Witch Mountain, but they were the only survivors from their spaceship which crashed at sea. Jason and the children make it to Misty Valley Cooperative and use the phone there to contact Mr. Castaway who tells the children to lure Bolt and Deranian to Witch Mountain. He has a plan to make sure those men never try to find the children again. A chase ensues, with the children eventually using their powers to make the RV fly to their destination while Bolt gives chase in a helicopter and Deranian follows in his car on the ground. When they reach Witch Mountain, the children say goodbye to Jason and ask him to look after Winky for them. Uncle Bene appears from the woods—he’s alive!—and is happily reunited with the children. He tells Jason there are more children lost on earth, and Jason decides he’ll make it his mission to find those children and bring them home to Witch Mountain. As Bolt and Deranian close in, Uncle Bene and the children disappear into the woods and take off in a giant flying saucer.
Thoughts Before Watching
Megan: I remember liking Race to Witch Mountain (the 2009 sequel/remake) well enough, but I don’t really remember much of the plot or anything about the characters. After watching The Strongest Man in the World, I’m cautiously optimistic about this one. At the very least it seems to be in the fantasy/scifi genre that I enjoy.
Kevin: I somewhat remember seeing the 1995 television version of this movie, but it wasn’t something that struck a chord with me, so I didn’t watch the 2009 film either. Until we put together this challenge I wasn’t even aware that the original version was released way back in the ‘70s. Time has changed a bit; although I’m still a bit skeptical about older films, I share the opinion with Megan that this has the type of science fiction I can get behind.
Thoughts After Watching
Megan: Let me start this off by saying I really enjoyed this movie! I loved the scifi/fantasy world that was created with the alien backstory and the children’s powers. Honestly, the kids were super adorable (as was the cat!). I’ve never read the book this film is based on, or any of the sequels, but I have to imagine that Jason promising to find other children like Tia and Tony is probably the connecting thread through all the various sequels. At least, I really hope it is. I kind of like the idea of this formerly grumpy old dude driving around the country in an RV with his black cat trying to save kids with psychic abilities. (Although, having just typed that, it also sounds potentially creepy, like some guy in an RV running around kidnapping people… But hey, if you’ve seen this movie, you totally know what I meant and also love the idea of Jason finding his own extended foster family of alien orphans.) Having seen this movie, I’m now curious to watch all the other films in the series to see if or how they all connect to each other. I’m really hoping there’s some through-line with the characters!
The main characters are developed well. The villains…not so much.
Kevin: All in all, the acting in this movie is on point, even from the kids playing Tia and Tony. Let’s just all admit it, child actors are usually not great. Like any skill, it takes time to develop good acting. Occasionally you’ll get the rare child prodigy that appears to be a natural. Kim Richards (Tia) and Ike Eisenmann aren’t super amazing, but they still do a really wonderful job with the material, and the relationship they establish with Eddie Albert (Jason O’Day) looks completely real, quite possibly because the feelings were real as the result of working together on the film. Because of this, the main characters are well developed. Tia and Tony don’t have much of a character arc, but because the actors perform so well they avoid the trap that often befalls child actors. Other sci-fi depictions of children seem to make them kind of cold, detached, and analytical. In other words, not human. This movie does the opposite by giving Tia and Tony room to show everything across the emotional spectrum. Their personalities are well defined, so we can easily see them as two separate characters (I’ve heard this is one of the criticisms of the 2009 remake, that the kids in that movie are depicted in the usual detached, analytical trope). Jason O’Day gets a full character arc; his journey from cranky loner to compassionate fatherly figure may be simple and formulaic, but it’s all that’s needed for this story. On the other hand, the villains aren’t developed much, if at all. This isn’t really a problem since the story wants to focus on the protagonists. Still, I was left wondering just why Aristotle Bolt was so interested in the children. We get minimal information—basically, it’s because he has an interest in the occult and magic. But, why? Other than this fascination with magic, he’s not much more than an evil rich man. Also, I think Deranian was a bit of a missed opportunity. I think if the filmmakers had a bit more time with him, he could have been developed as a reluctant servant to Bolt. The first time we meet Deranian we do see that he has some measure of compassion when he checks in on his driver after the car accident. After this, Deranian spends the remainder of the film blindly following Bolt’s orders with as much stoicism as a stereotypical burly bodyguard. It would have been interesting to see some arc with Deranian.
Megan: I totally agree about the villains. From what I gleaned in watching this film, Aristotle Bolt wants to find someone who can accurately predict the future…so he can financially gain from those predictions. Basically, rich guy wants to get richer. It’s pretty weak as far as villains are concerned. Okay, he wants to exploit the children’s powers to achieve that financial gain, but…why the obsession with seeing the future for financial gain anyway? The dude lives in a giant mansion, essentially an island unto itself, with dogs, horses, and plenty of people working for him. It’s not like he’s someone who’s down on their luck and about to be bankrupt. That financial motivation I would understand. However, when he already has so much wealth, it’s hard to understand why he would strive so exceedingly hard to get a means to maybe more fortune. Yeah, it’s a maybe. There’s no evidence in the film that the children can predict anything that would be big enough to impact the stock market. They seem only able to predict things that they will either witness or experience in some way. Bolt might think the children can do more than that, but we, the audience, know that he’s kind of chasing them without a good enough reason. Deranian’s motivations in staying with his employer are similarly mystifying. What is he getting out of this deal? Is he paid so handsomely he doesn’t bat an eye at kidnapping children? Is he hoping to use the children for his own personal gain in some way? We really aren’t given any insight to his thinking, which, as Kevin said, is really a missed opportunity to make both villains more menacing.
Was anyone else sad when Tia and Tony left Jason?
Kevin: To be honest, I was caught completely off guard by how much I grew to care about Jason O’Day and the way he took on his role helping the children. It’s not that I thought there’d be no chemistry at all, rather that I was surprised how well they worked together. From reading some reviews online, it appears the portrayal of this relationship has met mixed reviews. This is completely fine, as art is subjective anyway, but I fall firmly into the camp that these three characters had genuine chemistry. I don’t know if its the acting (which, as I said, is actually quite good) or a good script and direction, but I wholeheartedly believed Jason’s transformation from bitter old man to loving father figure and guardian. I mean, how could anyone resist loving those two kids?! Sure, there is a little bit of suspension of disbelief at work here, because most human children do not talk or act like Tony or Tia do. This was done to separate the orphans from Jason and establish their “otherworldliness,” so to speak. Although there’s this small degree of separation, Tony and Tia don’t ever feel so removed that it’s hard to care about them. They’re both just too adorable and quirky, and they look like they have so much fun using their powers while trying to get away from Bolt and his henchmen. I am here for it and I love it! There’s one moment that sticks out to me; after having just escaped the sheriff’s office and finding their way to Hiram’s house, Tia joyfully exclaims “Jason!” and runs right into his waiting arms. This one moment highlights how far these three characters have come. By the time we’ve reached Witch Mountain, I was not ready for the kids to depart from Jason. I get it, this is the moment they (and we, the audience) have been waiting for. The whole point was to get Tony and Tia to their family, and they succeeded. But when we finally meet Uncle Bene, a man who looks just as warm and loving as Jason has become, I did not want the kids to leave just yet. Why would I? We spent all of our time hanging out with the kids and getting to know them, then meeting Jason later on and growing to care about him, too, that I wasn’t interested in Uncle Bene. And to top it all off, Tia just gives Jason her cat, Winky, and it’s such a tender moment. When Jason decides that he will make it his mission to help more children find their way to Witch Mountain, you know that we have witnessed a full arc from a man who began his journey wanting nothing more than to be left alone, to someone willing to help strangers find their way home. I understand Jason is a recurring character in the sequels, so I would very much love to see more of him.
Not much female representation, but not much sexism, either
Megan: This film pretty quickly passes the Bechdel test at the beginning of the film with several brief conversations between Mrs. Grindley (played by Reta Shaw, who you might recognize from her role as one of the nannies in Mary Poppins) and Tia that aren’t about the male characters in the film. While Mrs. Grindley does most of the talking, Tia gets in a few lines of her own, making these conversations fully count toward passing the Bechdel test. However, that’s about all the female-to-female conversation or interaction we get throughout the entire film. After the first act, Tia is the only named female character we ever see on screen, which makes it impossible to have any Bechdel-test-worthy conversations. To this film’s credit, it largely eschews any sexist or otherwise problematic lines or scenes. The only hint of it is in the set design for the children’s rooms, with Tia’s room being very pink and Tony’s being very…yellow (because, you know, girls can “only” have pink but boys can have any color but pink). That’s pretty much it, though. Perhaps the film avoids sexism because the central female character is a child and not a grown woman? Or perhaps it’s a result of so few female characters to begin with? Or perhaps the film’s creators actually gave some thought to how they were presenting the material and avoided such things on purpose? Given the time this film was made, and the bits of cultural sexism that seeped into other films of this era, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t really find any sexist moments in this film.
On a similar note, can we just pause for a moment to appreciate the sort of powerful role model Tia is for young girls? She’s young, but she’s got power—and she knows how to use it. She’s even better at using her powers than her brother, Tony is, and she’s younger than him! Usually it’s the older brother who’s “better” at everything and taking care of the younger sister, so I loved seeing Tia be the more powerful sibling here. It’s also great to see that she and Tony basically treat each other as equals. Tony isn’t jealous of Tia for being better at certain psychic abilities than he is, and Tia doesn’t lord her abilities over him. They’re true partners in everything, and it makes their relationship all the more enjoyable to watch.
Minor Complaints
Megan: My only other minor complaints with this film are that certain scenes go on a bit too long. The puppet scene, for one, seemed to last just a little bit too long. I get that the filmmakers were probably impressed with themselves and the movie magic they created, but the important moment of that scene is that the whole thing is being recorded by Bolt’s hidden cameras. We don’t need to see the puppets dancing around quite so long in order for that plot point to land. The other moment that I felt went on too long was the final chase at the end where the RV is being chased down by both Deranian’s car and Bolt’s helicopter. Some of the moments in the chase were really fun, like when the helicopter gets flipped upside-down, but I personally didn’t need to see all the interconnecting footage of the entire chase from beginning to end. Some of that could have been lost on the cutting room floor and no one would have known the difference. Also, the device of Tia’s conveniently timed memories/flashbacks gets a little annoying. Why couldn’t she remember everything sooner? What made her lose her memories in the first place? Was there some magic that was purposefully holding back her memories until she was old enough to make the journey to Witch Mountain? Without these explanations, it comes off a bit like sloppy storytelling. I almost would have rather seen Tia’s star case magically unlock when she reached a certain age, and perhaps the box itself could have been a puzzle to reveal those clues to lead them to Witch Mountain. Even with these minor issues, though, I still really enjoyed the film.
A pleasant surprise
Kevin: I liked this one, far more than I really expected I would! It’s by no means a great movie, but it has an engaging enough story for anyone to enjoy. The effects aren’t half bad either. While Star Wars would come out just two years later and completely redefine Hollywood special effects, Escape to Witch Mountain makes great use of the kinds of effects Disney had become well known for by this time. The relationship between orphans Tony and Tia and this story’s father figure, Jason, is endearing. I also enjoyed that there is the tiniest hint of “scary” moments. I put that in quotes because they’re really more just hair-raising and slightly creepy (honestly, Darby O’Gill and the Little People is more scary if only because of the banshee). There are some questions left unanswered. For example, why did Uncle Bene not go find the children once he knew they were safe? Did the movie explain that it was supposed to be a journey the children had to endure alone, and I missed or something? However, these unanswered questions do not at all detract from the movie. Suffice to say, I’m so glad we finally watched this movie, and I can’t wait to watch the other films in the franchise!