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October 18, 2006
Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)
Recent conversations about and accidental stumblings upon of old movies that I or other people consider classic childhood movies have led me to add a bunch of stuff to Netflix that I somehow missed as a kid. One of them was Escape to Witch Mountain, about a couple of kids who have special powers and are trying to figure out where they came from, while being chased down by evil people who want to exploit those powers.
Starring Jason O'Day of Green Acres fame as the older man who befriends the runaway children, and Kim Richards (whom I guess I slightly remember from Different Strokes) and Ike Eisenmann as the twins, Tia and Tony Malone, this movie was kind of freaky to me at first, but I actually fell into it and enjoyed it.
I found a site that listed this and many of my favorite Disney movies from my childhood, as some of the worst mistakes Disney has made. I disagree. A person without a child's eye can never understand what it's like for a kid to imagine these things happening to himself, and people like that will never understand why I love A Spaceman in King Arthur's Court.
Escape goes to a few too many shots of Tia having flashbacks, but it's got so much for us to like, including the kids' ability to move things, read each other's thoughts, and communicate with wild animals. The story almost reminds me of the first in a series of superhero movies, as the heroes discover their talents and learn to develop them. It's got the confusion of the young hero, coupled with plenty of chase scenes, but is also filled with an element of humanity in Jason's story that makes it feel a bit more rooted. When the origins of the twins are revealed, it's slightly ridiculous, but a pleasant diversion from what we as an audience are expecting. I would say the one moment of the movie that could have been avoided was the upside-down helicopter, but it's actually just another example of Disney's playfulness in live-action movies that I would have loved as a kid. And I have to admit, it made me laugh.
Thanks for mentioning this one, Nate.
Posted by Jeri 
at 05:49:12 pm | movies, netflix/tivo | 1 comment »
1 comment
little known fact, there was a third witch mountain movie, called "beyond witch mountain." stars tracey gold as tia and some guy as tony who i don't think ever went anywhere after that.
it's utterly dreadful. they wanted to turn witch mountain into a weekly series -- you know, tia and tony run around fighting crime and constantly trying not to get co-opted by evil madmen -- but the pilot was so bad it never got made. the one bright spot is eddie albert comes back for it, but he seems uncomfortable and out of sorts throughout the whole thing.
and kim richards and ike eisenmann, the two kids in the real two movies, reunited in 1978 for a hilarious made-for-TV movie called "devil dog: the hound of hell." astonishingly DD got released on DVD not long ago on a two-dvd special edition loaded with interviews and extras! DD is also not a fine work of art but it's so-bad-it's-good, whereas beyond witch mountain is so-bad-it's-just-beyond-bad.
kim richards aka tia was just in that new movie black snake moan, with christina ricci and sam jackson. it's a small role but an important one, and she does a great job.
so. there. more witch mountain info than you could possibly have ever wanted. the witch mountain movies actually have quite a following among us folks old enough to have seen the originals when they were in theaters or on wild/wonderful world of disney.
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