The special effects, previously provided by a combination of prosthetics and Jim Henson’s puppetry, are now extravagantly digital. That turns out to be a not-so-fine idea, despite the best efforts of Anne Hathaway as the Grand High Witch, previously played by Anjelica Huston. What was weirdly but deliciously scary has grown ponderously out of scale, even for witches at their malign worst. The director was Robert Zemeckis, working from a screenplay he wrote with Kenya Barris and Guillermo del Toro. Spencer’s performance is quite wonderful—warns her grandson that witches hate children; they turn them into lower, smaller animals.

Source: Wall Street Journal October 22, 2020 20:15 UTC