It always puzzles me how adults can review movies that were meant for a young audience and review it negatively (through adult eyes), completely forgetting about a child's unique and innocent perspective on the film. Appropriate for anyone in the family, exciting, funny, and likable. This is an enjoyable movie, with good jobs of acting done by basically all of the characters. This film came out of a couple of decades when Disney was at its height of live action movies, when even film of this type they turned out was at least worthwhile. While I admit that most of the special effects in this film may seem cheesy by today's standards, they actually make the film even more fun to laugh at. Also, Dwayne Johnson is incredibly lacking in emotion and character compared to Eddie Albert in this movie. Essentially, the new version basically did away with the first 45 minutes or so of this film, which helped set up the story, develop the characters, and give us a better sense of why the kids are running away. The new version, in my opinion, lacks any kind of character development and is full of annoying characters that do nothing to help the movie. Having seen the new version of this film recently ("Race to Witch Mountain"), I cannot tell you how much of a pleasant surprise "Escape to Witch Mountain" was to me. It should be seen in conjunction with the sequel Return From Witch Mountain. Escape To Witch Mountain is one of Disney Studios best products post the death of the founder Walt Disney. Two other performances to look out for are Walter Barnes as a greedy sheriff and Reta Shaw who runs the orphanage where the kids are first taken. The special effects are before computer graphics took over, yet they are quite good. Some plot elements that would find themselves in the later and more acclaimed Cocoon are found in Escape To Witch Mountain. Albert works well with Eisenman and Richards and doesn't let the kids steal any scenes from him. Escape To Witch Mountain provides Eddie Albert with one of his best later career roles. He's a lonely and crusty old man, but those kids are charming and weave some magic that has nothing to do with their being aliens. Their biggest stroke of luck is gaining the trust and confidence of Eddie Albert. The kids get wise to Milland and Pleasance and run off, but Milland gets the law on his side and in pursuit of them. Pleasance works for tycoon Ray Milland who wants those children and will stop at nothing to see he gets possession of them. But some precognition has them warning Donald Pleasance about not getting in a car that shortly has an accident. These two have remarkable powers that they have to be careful about showing off. Richards has memories of being rescued from a body of water though. Those parents are the only ones they've ever known. Ike Eisenman and Kim Richards are two lower grade school kids who've been placed in an orphanage because their foster parents have died. The place mentioned in the title is a rendezvous point where they have to reach. One of the Magic Kingdom's most charming fantasies occurs as a two children from outer space try to return home in Escape To Witch Mountain.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |