This was clearly not lost on the people who
hired Robert Zemeckis to do a new adaptation
for another generation of children. There are
scores of filmmakers who could have done
their own Roeg-adjacent update, but this time
they decided to soften the edges and lighten
the tone. And even though the story is still
fundamentally troubling (not least because
there seems to be a not-so-subtle message that
childless women are dangerous, child-hating
demons), Zemeckis has put a brighter and more
family friendly stamp on the material.
Zemeckis shares credit for the new script
with Guillermo del Toro and Kenya Barris. This
unexpected but inspired grouping updates
the story to focus on a Black family in the
1960s South. Chris Rock provides the voice
of the protagonist, Hero Boy, who is recalling
his experience first encountering witches as a
young orphaned boy played by Jahzir Bruno.
After his parents die in a car crash, he moves in
with his kind Grandma (Octavia Spencer) who
has her own history with witches.
When the boy has a run in with a witch in the local
store, they flee the town to hide out at a fancy
hotel. Unfortunately for them, the Grand High
Witch (Anne Hathaway) has decided to hold a
convention there at the same time to hatch a plan
that would turn the world’s children into mice.
Hathaway goes full vamp as the Grand High
Witch with an over the top, vaguely Eastern
European accent and grand gestures to
match. Although less horrific than Huston
was, Zemeckis can’t resist going big with the
digital effects and gives her elaborate scars
on the sides of her cheeks that open into a
Venom-like mouth when she’s not in disguise.