Return from Witch Mountain (Special Edition)
by Jack Hannah, John Hough
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Actor: Bette Davis, Christopher Lee, Ike Eisenmann, Jack Soo, Kim RichardsDirector: Jack Hannah, John Hough
Producer: Jerome Courtland
Producer: Kevin Corcoran
Writer: Alexander Key
Writer: Bill Berg
Writer: Malcolm Marmorstein
Writer: Ralph Wright
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.75:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-02
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Return from Witch Mountain (Special Edition)
DVD Review: More Special Effects than the Original, but Weaker
Summary: 4 Stars
This 1978 movie was a follow up to the 1975 movie, "Escape to Witch Mountain." The original was more charming and clever than this movie, though this movie featured many more special effects than the original. Even though this movie was more formulaic than the original, it is worth having and watching, particularly if you enjoyed the original.
Tony (Ike Eisenmann) and Tia (Kim Richards) are back again. This time they are taking a vacation in Los Angeles as a reward for their efforts in helping their people establish the settlement at Witch Mountain. Uncle Bene (Denver Pyle) drops Tony and Tia off at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, where Tony and Tia catch a cab.
Things go awry almost immediately. The cab runs out of gas. The cab driver walks down the block to get more. While Tony and Tia are waiting for the driver to return, Tony senses that a man is about to fall from a building. What Tony does not know is that the man falls during an experiment conducted by Dr. Victor Gannon (Christopher Lee). Letha (Bette Davis) is financing Dr. Gannon's experiments.
Dr. Gannon recognizes Tony's potential immediately. If Dr. Gannon could combine Tony's mental powers with his mental control device, Dr. Gannon could have incredible power. Dr. Gannon captures Tony and they all return to Letha's house, where Dr. Gannon installs a control device on Tony. Unfortunately, Letha has significant financial problems and her goals are somewhat more immediate and financially oriented.
Letha and her nephew Sickle (Anthony James) take Tony and the control device to a museum that is displaying $3 million in gold. Since this movie is a Disney movie, we know that the heist will have to fail in some way. The heist fails when Tia shows up, supported by a gang of four boys. Tia begins interfering with Tony's disruption of the museum, and causes Letha, Sickle and Tony to leave in haste. Tia was not involved in trying to put $3 million in heavy gold into a station wagon, which you will have to see for yourself.
Dr. Gannon is furious, but he decides that perhaps he could combine his desire for power with Letha's need for money, and he plots to take control of a plutonium processing facility. Before Dr. Gannon and his gang head out, they trick Tia coming to Tony and then they capture her.
The end of the movie increases in excitement as Tia tries to stop Tony from wreaking havoc on the nuclear plant. Tony's actions throughout the movie confuse Tia because she is unaware of the control device until near the end of the movie. I leave the viewer to see how things work out for Tony, Tia, the group of boys that help Tia, Letha, Dr. Gannon, Sickle, and Mr. Yokomoto (Jack Soo), the truant officer who chases after Tia and the boys throughout the movie.
This movie is relatively weak, but I bumped my rating to four stars because of the actors involved and some of the special effects. Christopher Lee is always fun to watch. Letha is one of Bette Davis's lesser roles, but she was a great actress. Kim Richards, who was about 14-years-old at the time this movie was made, is incredibly cute and earnest. Of course, with Tia there has to be Tony, so Ike Eisenmann's presence is a requirement. The special effects range in quality. Some are very weak, but several are outstanding. I particularly enjoy the van scene at the end of the movie, which you will have to watch because I will say no more about that. Several of the scenes in the chase following the attempted museum heist are very good, and make this chase scene one of the better chases in a Disney film, particularly from this era.
This movie was almost too late. "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" shocked the world with breakthrough special effects in 1977. Subsequent films topped each other with ever-better stories and special effects. Had this movie come any later, there may not have been an audience for it in theaters, and direct-to-video releases were still in the future. Lucky for us this film was made so we can see, once more, the duo that charmed us in "Escape to Witch Mountain."
Enjoy!
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