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’ car crashed, but no bodies were found. Fearing His parents died, Theo went into despair. Days later, While Theo tends to Celia, Her gray 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 more chocolate. 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. Patricia, after hearing 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 5-star hotel said to have the most promising beautiful landscape, atmosphere, and the best food in England. Before arriving, Patricia gives Theo two spotted mice. After entering the hotel, Theo and Patricia are shown to their room, with a view of the seaside. As 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 of the food being served. 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 animals 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 few days, to get rid of any mice lurking and 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 one, 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 mice. After Theo and Patricia finish their breakfast, Theo goes to the art room to draw a depiction of his cat, Celia. Once done, He heads for his hotel room, but accidentally goes in an empty room with almost 200 seats. Before He could leave, Theo hears someone coming and hides under a tablecloth, dropping his colored pencil 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 they are all witches and warlocks, each one with a familiar. (Cats, Crows, Falcons, Weasels, Bats, and Raccoons.) During the meeting, Mrs. Delkash, (and her familiar, a black cat) 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, 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, as a warlock spots the dropped pencil, with the stench of a child. 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 his two pet mice. 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 starts to have feelings for Celia.

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, and finds a cabinet, filled with bottles of the formula. Luke successfully grabs one and was about to sneak back to His room, but is spotted by Celia and Snakeroot, just 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. Hearing Mrs. Delkash coming back, Celia kisses Snakeroot’s nose for a great night, and exits the room.

The next day, As the witches prepare the luncheon to celebrate the start of their plan to eliminate all children all over the world, 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 where to go, 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. After a few close calls, Theo gets on top of a pot rack and drops the formula bottle in the pot of gravy to be used in the witches’ dinner, with Black Pudding, green peas, and carrots. Mr. Sorrel, (Delkash’s manservant, who located the pencil) disguised as a chef, samples the gravy, but slowly turns into a mouse, retreating back to Delkash’s room, hoping to find a cure. At the dining hall, the witches and warlocks are given their dinners. Bruno’s mother is wondering what Delkash’s group is eating, and goes to find out, but is stopped by Bruno, who runs in front, causing her to shriek, and almost faint in Bruno’s Dad’s arms as the witches and warlocks turn into mice, one by one. The hotel staff, guests, and the predatory familiars kill the transformed witches (save for a few that escaped the dining hall) with whatever they got, as Patricia returns Bruno back to his parents, revealing that Mrs. Delkash is the grand high witch, responsible for destroying the lives of children for many years. Delkash slowly turns into a hairless grotesque rat, and tries to escape, but are cut off by Celia who devours the witch. (Since Celia is not afraid of rats.)

Theo goes inside Delkash’s room one more time with a luggage tag, and gets out. As Patricia, Theo, Celia, and Snakeroot head for home, Mr. Sorrel (Now back to normal) watches them leave as he looks at the pencil Luke dropped. The next day, A giant trunk is delivered to Patricia’s house, containing $500 Million and a book containing the names of Delkash’s successors. Moments later, Mr. Sorrel in a blue car, (after reading a paper “Unexplainable! Mouse People!” regarding the defeat of Delkash and Her followers) comes to Patricia’s house, and incants a spell from Delkash’s book, restoring Theo back to being a human. Then, He drops off Theo’s parents and returns Theo’s lost pencil and pet mice and drives off, happy that the age of witches is about to change for the better.

During the end credits, there are sepia photos of Theo, his parents, and Patricia looking at the night sky. Snakeroot fights off a savage dog as Celia watches proudly. Theo and his grandmother fishing, Celia and Snakeroot looking through binoculars, and Theo with Bruno telling children about witches, Snakeroot feeling Celia’s stomach, who is about to have kittens. Theo’s parents in His newly renovated treehouse, Celia tending to Her four kittens as Snakeroot watches. Then, in the living room, is a picture of Theo’s family, and next to it, is a professionally-drawn portrait of Theo’s family as mice.

In a Mid-Credits scene, Three months later, the surviving Witches and Warlocks finally arrive at the Grand High Witch’s library to find a book, which can change them back to normal, but to their horror, Celia, Snakeroot, and their four kittens (magically sent by Mr. Sorrel) attack them.

Bonus characters

 * Celia - A gentle Khaomanee Cat with green eyes.
 * Snakeroot - A depressed black cat with dark blue eyes, and Mrs. Delkash’s familiar.
 * Mr. Sorrel - The Grand High Witch’s manservant.

Transcript
Don Bluth’s The Witches/Transcript