Movie Analysis: "The Worst Witch: The Movie"

Well the other day I signed up for some stupid Blockbuster program: which means I get even more free movies sent to me, more than I have time to watch as a matter of fact. Well, per my interest in movies about magic, I found this "The Worst Witch: The Movie" film that I had never heard of before so I decided to rent it and watch it this Saturday morning when I plan to catch up on my rough week's piling up of work to do.


First, the movie stars Fairuza Balk -- star of "Return to Oz", "The Craft," and other things. First, I'd like to note that I always confuse the names "Fairuza Balk" with "Veruca Salt" -- the bad egg from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I can't help but notice that her characters are all the same. Dorothy from Return to Oz could just as easily have been a witch - in fact, Glinda even asks her in the original Wizard of Oz if she's a good witch or a bad witch!


But let's take a moment to focus on the film in general. Take Return to Oz and combine with Harry Potter, take out any semblance of production value and you get this film. Lets look at some similarities: an old-English style boarding school filled with little witches (the movie is a girls only school.) Our star is an amateur witch with no real skills, social outcast, disliked by most of the school, she has her only real friend that's got her back, but then also has the hear of the head master/mistress. She tries to do well, but the evil second in command of the school is always out to get her. Don't forget the evil, rich, privileged and popular school bully. Throw in a "learn to fly" scene that ends badly, and a broomstick-game where our star's broom is cursed, and voila! Magically, you have cloned the same story line!


But if you add bad 1980s graphics, and a few more musical numbers than I think anyone expected, you have a movie that is identifiably "The Worst Witch."

Next up: "Cowboys & Aliens" as I work on CKI, ASG and Student Teaching stuff!

Video of the Day: "Anything Can Happen on Halloween" by... Tim Curry? This song is from the movie, and um, is very 1980s. Also, very bad. I just... I can't even describe it, I'm not sure why the universe decided it was necessary this happen/I see this. Per the comments on youtube: "I wonder if the effects guy put this video on his resume."



Song of the Day: "This is Aperture" by assorted Aperture Science Lab-bots. Alright, originally the Tim Curry thing was also the song of the day -- but since I've found this, this clearly out-does it! Parody of sorts of "This is Halloween" from Nightmare Before Christmas, only awesomer!

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