So, I grabbed the earlier movie version of the Roald Dahl book, and I am so glad I watched these in reverse order. Every time there was a repeated gag or plotpoint from the Zemeckis 2020 film, I was happy to discover that it worked better in this version.
This film was fairly well known for scaring the crap out of a generation of kids, and is lesser known for the saccharine-sweet happy ending that diverges from the book, but I was happyto have watched it.
Anjelica Houston was obviously having a blast playing the Grand High Witch, and the mouse effects ranged from pretty good to "Wait, how the hell did they pull that off?"
Yes, there were still a couple of WTF moments, but partly in gruesome and disturbing choices.
There was also a moment when Jim Carter, who would go on to play the butler in "Downton Abbey," has a mouse run up the leg of his trousers, then he flops around on the kitchen floor, screaming, "It's gone into my underpants!" Probably the most undignified film appearance outside of the Star Wars Prequels . . . yet today, he's married to that hot British actress Imelda Staunton, so go figure.
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