Which witch?

Bruce and I have been having a mini Anjelica Huston fest. Last month we watched two the Addams Family movies and two days ago we watched The Witches which is a favorite movie on several counts besides her. Its based on a Roald Dahl book, and in his way of foreshadowing the climax of the movie he takes a simple notion, like a hotel setting out traps for rodents, and blows it all out of proportion with the rest of the story.

By the time you are ready for the witches to be vanquished everything follows in a logical fashion, the witches get a taste of their own poison and become mice. There even seems to be an embedded moral message, which seems anti-ethical to Dahl's vision but I suspect was there all along (I just can't remember if it is in the book), as a maid who's been dallying with her boss also succumbs to the potion. Grand hilarity ensues and I like the fact that the Grandma seems identical to the witches, save for her extreme prejudice against them. Extreme prejudice seems the only thing I can find objectionable at all about Dahl's writing for children.

If that is not all, Jane Horricks, known as "Bubble" in Absolutely Fabulous and the star of Little Voice, plays the head witch's assistant who eventually quits out of protest for being excluded, therefore becoming a good witch and bringing the ending around full circle. A decently executed movie by the Henson Studio which I can recommend to any cynical adult...and I can too attest that all freshly cleaned children do smell like dog-do.