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Escape to Witch Mountain

Escape to Witch Mountain

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $15.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Two kids searching for home.
Review: I just got my DVD copies of both films(This & Return from witch mountain.) This is a very good movie. It's about two kids who have supernatural powers. They can forsee the future, talk to animals, lift things in the air-and jump 15 feet in the air to catch a baseball.

However, they don't know how they got these powers. Where they born with these powers? The two kids Tony & Tia(Played by Ike Eisenmann & Kim Richards)are different from the other kids. After a confrontation with Truck(Dermott Downs), They discover a map inside of Tia's star case.

After saving the life of a man, he comes and claims to be thier uncle-they are forced to live with him. It turns out that his employer is none other than Mr. Bolt(Ray Miland)who wants to use them for his own ends. Tia smells rotten fish (Try Rotten eggs)-she senses very strongly-that Mr Bolt is not a very nice man and she senses danger if they stay at Mr. Bolt's Mansion.

Then, when they dine with Mr. Bolt(I never did say he wasn't a gentleman-just not a very nice one)Mr Bolt tells them that he knows about thier powers and tells them how to make it profitable. After going to another room, Tia & Tony overhear a coversation that MR. Bolt is planning to have them locked away on a deserted island. Tia & Tony then make plans of esacpe.

They do escape and are chased till the end of the film. Helping them is a crusty old man Jason O'Day(Well played by Eddie Albert)Who has a winnebego.

I must say that the Chemistry between Eisenmann & Richards worked so well, people think they are brother & Sister in real life. They are not related in real life. I think it's the acting talents of these two is what made it work so well. Dirctor John Hough(The legend of hell house)did a remarkable job on this film.

The special effects were great for it's time. Some of them were cheezy, but in those days(The 70's)they didn't have computors. But in my opinion, the powers these kids have is not the real story. The real story is that two childern are searching for home, and discovering who they really are. This is the story.

The DVD has some special features on it and an audio commentary by Kim & Ike and John Hough. It provides a lot of insight on how the film was made.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Superb and timeless.
Review: I like Escape To Witch Mountain better than any other Disney film. It's probably in the top 5 best kid-movies ever made for that matter. I'm now 36, but was 7 when I first saw it. I probably had a crush on Kim Richards back then but I clearly remember seeing the movie at the theater and loving it.

Looking at the dvd now.. the direction by John Hough is crisp and the effects, though not digital, have loads of SOUL, creativity and charm. When a car full of bad guys wrecks.. the fact that they show the 4 occupants safely getting out of the car is a nice touch (after all kids are watching this).. and that (and lots of other things in this movie) speak to the innocence that still actually existed for those of us lucky to be kids in the 1970s... there was still a common-respect in large parts of society.. kids could be kids .. and all the in-your-face junk that permeates much of the world of kids today was years away...

Back on the subject at hand...I watched the DVD (which is nicely loaded with extras) and was surprised by a couple of moments in the film that clearly ...we'll say INFLUENCED.. a certain Mr. Spielberg years later. One involves a menacing object being shown in a rear-view mirror (like Jurassic Park!). The 2nd is when the Winnebago eludes its chasers (I won't say exactly how!).... looking rather similar (shot for shot!) to a scene in E.T. involving a chase and bicycles. (This film is HUGELY suprior to E.T. by the way!)

But I don't want to get too bogged down in how other movies clearly ripped this great one off!

This film is amazing with it's memorable musical score, acting by Albert and the kids, mystery-unfolding storyline and warm, nicely-done conclusion. The open credit sequence is really good too. Perhaps most of all... it has something that gobs of movies today certainly DO NOT - a great story.

I plan to show it to my 5 year old neice this weekend!

Enjoy it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: two orphans with magic powers
Review: I liked how there was an adventure. And I like how the kids used their brains to help them escape. It kept my interest up all the way through.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: On the Set of Witch Mountain, Felton California
Review: I was in HS the year they shot this movie, and what excitment that was for Disney to come to the Mt. town of Felton California, in the Redwoods. All the meadow scenes and mountain road and cabin were in our small town. The city hall was used for the Jail, and you see the bowling alley and Felton drug in the backround. WOW, also The summer they shot "The Lost Boys" was also shot in Santa Cruz County, along with "Sudden Impact" The final scene was shot at the Boardwalks' Big Dipper Rollercoaster.

Randy
Movie Fan

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: On the Set of Witch Mountain, Felton California
Review: I was in HS the year they shot this movie, and what excitment that was for Disney to come to the Mt. town of Felton California, in the Redwoods. All the meadow scenes and mountain road and cabin were in our small town. The city hall was used for the Jail, and you see the bowling alley and Felton drug in the backround. WOW, also The summer they shot "The Lost Boys" was also shot in Santa Cruz County, along with "Sudden Impact" The final scene was shot at the Boardwalks' Big Dipper Rollercoaster.

Randy
Movie Fan

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: EXCELLENT!!
Review: I've watched this movie every since I was little! When everyone wanted wonderwoman's superpowers I wanted what Tia and Tony had! I love it! A great movie for kids and adults full of adventure and will definetly keep them entertained!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: witch mountain is Exsellent {Fun to watch}
Review: In the story there is Tia,Tony the main kids.My favorite part is when the car flyes. There were also a few people that helped them get to witch mountain.The guy in the store that also helped them,told them where to go.I would give it five stars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic imaginative Disney
Review: My first exposure to the siblings from Witch Mountain was years ago, in watching the sequel Return from Witch Mountain. I loved the film, and was thrilled to discover an earlier film shortly after, Escape to Witch Mountain, which introduces us to Tony and Tia as young children.
I haven't read the book on which this film is based, nor am I likely to, so my review is completely unbiased.
Tony and Tia are two young children whose foster parents have just died. The film begins with their arrival at an orphanage, and it isn't long before we're shown just how different these two children are.
A run-in with the district bully quickly earns them a reputation for 'being a couple of weirdos', but it is in saving the life of a man who would otherwise have been possibly killed in a car accident that their adventures really start.
Claimed as niece and nephew by the very man they saved, they are taken to live in the fortress home of mega-rich Aristotle Bolt, who has been told of the children's gifts and typically wants to exploit them for his own gain.
It doesn't take Tony and Tia long to figure out Bolt's agenda and, after hearing plans to have them locked away in an island tower, they run away with the help of a rogue stallion that no one else was able to tame.
From there, the children soon come across grumpy nomad Jason O'Day, who reluctantly takes them in after they beg him for help.
The rest of the film is probably fairly predictable, given your average Disney plots, but still enjoyable nonetheless. Of course there's going to be a 'happily ever after' (at least until the next movie) but the fun is in seeing how they get there. There are still a few surprises in store before the finish, including an escapee bear, a sheriff who learns the tango the hard way, and a chopper pilot who gets a flying lesson like never before.
Escape to Witch Mountain is thoroughly enjoyable, as is its sequel, and are even better for having Ike Eisemann and Kim Richards play the main characters of Tony and Tia in both films.
On another, distantly related note, Disney did produce another Witch Mountain vignette style show some time later, called Beyond Witch Mountain. The story involved Tony and Tia leaving the Witch Mountain community to find their Uncle Bene's long lost grandson. Bolt and O'Day were both along for the ride, but this was not a patch on the two proper movies, and really shouldn't have been made. Especially since it was meant to be just recently after Tony and Tia found their way to Witch Mountain in the first place, and it portrayed Uncle Bene as dying. (Anyone who has seen Return from Witch Mountain knows full well that Uncle Bene was alive and well in that film, and Tony and Tia were bordering on teenhood, by then)
At the end of this particular episode, Tony and Tia also decide to stay away from Witch Mountain, and go with O'Day to continue searching for survivors. As anyone who has watched the two movies would know, their 'holiday' in the second film was supposed to be their first trip away from the mountain community since their original rescue from the clutches of Aristotle Bolt.
I'm aware that some people have been searching for this particular installment. My advice is, don't bother. It does not fit in with the sequence of films, and does not even have the benefit of the original child actors.
Stick with the excellent and unsurpassed Escape to Witch Mountain, and Return from Witch Mountain. These are fantastic films, and worth every cent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tony and Tia have a lot to do...
Review: So what happend if you where born with supernatural powers. You could move things with your mind, you could talk to animals, and you could do all other sorts of things that are just unexplainable. Tia and Tony can do that, and they don't know why. They've spent there whole lives in an orphange and when a rich man finds out about there powers. He wants to use them for evil. So they set out on a journey with an old bitter man and his trailer to get away, and find themselves. I loved this movie when I was a child and I still love it today.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Disney Studios comes to their senses - Read all about it!
Review: Thank you Disney Studios for listening to your fans (hopefully). This movie has a handful of extra goodies and is in its Original Widescreen Aspect Ratio (1.75:1). You've got this customer back, at least for this one!


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