Don Bluth’s The Witches

Based on the 1983 Book by Roald Dahl.

Premise
A young boy and His Distant Grandmother, must band together to defeat the Grand High Witch, and Her group of evil witches and warlocks.

Synopsis
In a small England town, an eight year old named Theo is brought to the home of Patricia, His Grandmother for the night. As Theo waited for His parents to return, His Grandmother tells Him that on their way home, Theo’s parents, were nowhere to be seen, even though their car wasn’t damaged. While Theo tends to Celia, Her white cat, a woman approaches Theo who offers a bar of chocolate. Theo, declines, saying that His dad taught Him never to accept anything from strangers. Persistent, The woman offers catnip. Theo takes Celia and ran to a public park, where children play. The woman gives up and leaves. After returning home, Theo tells His grandmother about what happened. The Grandmother, realizing this, tells Theo about Her experiences dealing with witches and the friends She lost to witches when She was a child. While explaining more, Patricia gets sick as Theo calls for a doctor. The doctor arrives saying Patricia has a sore throat, and orders Patricia to rest at the seaside for a few days. So, Theo and His Grandmother go to the Pinnacle Hotel, a 4-star hotel said to have the most promising food, atmosphere, and the best food in England. Before arriving, Patricia gives Theo two white mice and names them Sophie and Harold. After entering the hotel, Theo and Patricia are shown to their room, with a view of the seaside. Unaware that 15 buses, 12 containing women and three buses containing men arrive at the hotel, including their leader, Mrs. Delkash of Lebanon.

While exploring the hotel Theo meets the son of the hotel Caterer, Bruno Jenkins, judging the taste, detail, and ingredients. Hours later, as Theo tries to get Celia to behave and not to eat his two mice, The hotel Manager, Mr. Stringer tells Him that mice are not allowed in the hotel. Patricia tells the manager that She has photographic evidence of mice in the hotel (not including Theo’s mice) and suggests that if nothing is done, She’ll inform the health department. The manager relents saying that as long as the mice stay in the room, he won’t argue, and asks if he could borrow the cat for a day. Theo agreed. (Since the hotel does allow cats) At breakfast, Patricia notices something off, as She looked at Mrs. Delkash and two others. Meanwhile, Celia goes to the top floor to look for mice, hoping She won’t encounter any. After locating a rat, Celia panics and unknowingly goes into Mrs. Delkash’s suite, hiding, and encounters a black cat named Snakeroot. But, before Celia could get a chance to free the black cat from His cage, Mrs. Delkash tosses Celia out, and the manager berates Delkash for forbidding Celia to do her job, getting rid of any rats. After Theo and Patricia finish their breakfast, Theo goes in the arcade playing some games, but after spending almost a dollar on the games played, and that the games weren’t much fun, He heads for his hotel room, but accidentally goes in an empty room with almost 200 seats. Before He could leave, Theo hides under a tablecloth, as Mrs. Delkash and her group enter the room.

With the doors locked, windows shaded, and cameras shorted out, the group of 195 remove their disguises, revealing that the 195 people are witches and warlocks! During the meeting, Mrs. Delkash, who is the Grand High Witch, has the other witches return to their homes of origin, with currency equal to $1,000,000 to buy arcades, card shops, candy shops, and recreation centers to sell chocolate, spiked with formula 86, which a single drop will turn a human into a mouse in less than a minute. Mrs. Delkash has the others disguise themselves awaiting a guest of dishonor, which is Bruno! Delkash gives a bar of chocolate with a droplet of the formula, and Bruno eats it. After 20 seconds, Bruno turns into a mouse and runs away. As the Witches meeting is about to close, one of the warlocks asked if there’s a cure if ingested by an adult or fellow witch. Delkash says, “Why would we make a cure for filthy children to go back to being human again?” As the witches and warlocks leave, one witch senses that a child is in the room. Theo, makes a run for the pool room, and uses a fire hose to spray his pursuers, thinking the witches will melt with water. But, it does no effect, as Delkash grabs Theo, and pours a few droplets of Formula 86, forcing Theo to turn into a mouse, who escapes through the ventilation shaft, where He meets up with Bruno, including Sophie and Harold. Theo and Bruno traverse the ventilation system, leading to the first floor, all the way to Patricia’s room. Meanwhile, Celia after completing her task of searching the hotel for any mice meets up with Snakeroot, whom she frees from his cage, and go to a drive-in movie theater, where they watch a romantic movie as Snakeroot explains His past.

Theo explains all that’s happened and what the Grand High Witch intends to do to the world’s children. So, the three of them devise a plan to stop the Grand High Witch. Hours later, Theo sneaks inside Delkash’s room and goes to search for a bottle of Formule 86 to collect, and finds a cabinet, Luke successfully grabs one and was about to sneak back to His room, but is spotted by Celia and Snakeroot, after returning from the drive-in. Snakeroot goes after Theo as Celia cowers from seeing a mouse. Theo manages to escape, as Snakeroot apologizes for failing to capture the mouse. But, Celia apologizes for being musophobic, and kisses Snakeroot, making him smile. As Mrs. Delkash is returning, Celia nuzzles Snakeroot for a great night, and exits the room seconds before Delkash came in.

The next day, As the witches prepare the luncheon to celebrate the start of their plan to take effect, Delkash throws out Snakeroot for falling in love with a mortal cat (hinted by his eyes turning light blue). Snakeroot goes to the beach thinking about what to do, now, that He doesn’t have an owner anymore. As the luncheon starts in 20 minutes, Patricia sneaks Theo and the formula 86 in the kitchen to find out what the witches are going to eat.

Bonus characters

 * Celia - A gentle Khaomanee Cat with green eyes.
 * Snakeroot - A depressed black cat with dark blue eyes, and Mrs. Delkash’s familiar.