Roald Dahl Retrospective Episode 16: Roald Dahl's The Witches

In this episode of the Roald Dahl Retrospective, Patricia, Arun, and special guests Jim Bevan and James "Jaimetud" Sullivan discuss about the 2020 film Roald Dahl's The Witches, which is based on the 1982 book The Witches written by Robert Zemekis, Guillermo del Toro, and Kenya Barris and directed by Zemekis. It stars Jahzir Kadeem Bruno, Octavia Spencer, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Codie-Lei Eastick, Kristen Chenoweth, and Chris Rock.    The film takes place in Demopolis, Alabama in 1968 where a young boy had lost his parents in a car accident and is sent to live with his grandmother. A witch approaches him at the local corner store and they relocate at a grand hotel to hide from them not knowing that a witch convention is being held there. The boy turns into a mouse and meets with a boy named Bruno who also got turned into a mouse and the boy's pet mouse named Mary who went through a similar fate. It's up to them to stop the witches from turning all the children into mice. Can they defeat them? Will they be able to turn back into human?   The movie was originally suppose to air in theaters, but due to COVID-19, it was released on HBO Max. It's currently the lowest graded Roald Dahl adaptation on Rotten Tomatoes at 49% with critics stating that the film was nowhere near as frightening or engaging compared to the 1990 version. How do they feel about it? Listen and find out.