Return from Witch Mountain (Special Edition) 1978 Buena Vista Home Entertainment   Buy It Now

Return from Witch Mountain, the sequel to the hit film Escape to Witch Mountain, follows Tony and Tia as they embark on what is supposed to be a few days of fun in the big city.  Things quickly go awry, however, when Tony, sensing impending danger, sets off to save a man’s life.  In doing so, he reveals his powers to a couple with bad intentions.  Victor and Letha capture Tony, and using a mind control device of Victor’s creation, set about using Tony and his otherworldly abilities in an attempt to take over the world.  Helpless, Tony is pitted against his sister, as she tracks him down and attempts to free him, with the help of a group of young misfits.

Having been pleasantly surprised by the first film, I was looking forward to more with Return from Witch Mountain.  While I did like the film, I felt there were some subtle changes to the tone of the film, making it a little darker and not quite as much fun, which detracted from my enjoyment.  Some of the bad guys were a little too bad, dare I say, they acted the roles a bit too well for this type of film, while the others they were playing off of were more as expected, making the interactions a bit odd. There was also one not so subtle change that I found downright disappointing- the two main characters, Tony and Tia, were separated for most of the film.  A good deal of what made the first film work for me was the chemistry between Kim Richards (Tia) and Ike Eisenmann (Tony).  They were together constantly in the first film, and while I get the fact that they had to be separated for the storyline in the “Return”, I am surprised that someone didn’t consider that perhaps the storyline itself was wrong for this film.  I would have rather seen a story in which the two got to interact more.  Still, the psionic battle between the two near the end of the film was a good bit of fun, as were the less direct confrontations between the two throughout the film.  Though I had these few problems with the film, I still liked it a lot, and definitely recommend it as a worthy follow up to the first film.

There were far more special effects in this film than in the first, but you don’t really notice them that much.  That is credit to the strength of the story, characters, and special effects crew, considering the very low tech state of special effects used in making the film.  The kids spend a good deal of time fling items here and there in an effort to kill one or stop from being killed, and there are a good many things blowing up and crashing about in the process.  One of the best scenes involves a gold heist.  Tony is using his powers to float gold bricks from a museum to a henchman waiting outside with the getaway car.  His handler is urging him to send the gold bricks faster, so that is what he does- destroying the getaway car and sending the henchman scurrying in the process.  Amidst all the other chaos he is causing at the time, watching him bash the car to junk was fun and got a good laugh out of me.  All together, it was a complicated scene, and extremely well put together.

As with the first film, the DVD transfer of the film looks great, and the 5.1 sound still seems lacking.  Commentary and pop up fact tracks are included.  “Making the Return Trip” is your standard making of featurette, while “Disney Kids with Powers” is a montage of clips from- you guessed it- Disney films featuring kids with powers.  The 1945 cartoon “The Eyes Have It” is included on this volume.  This one stars Donald Duck being his usual ornery self, terrorizing poor Pluto with his new hypnotism gadget.  Thinking about it, I sort of see how it fits the general theme of the film- mind control.  The “1978 Disney Studio Album” is another montage, same as with the first film, this time of milestone events for Disney during the year 1978.  “Lost Treasure: Christopher Lee: The Lost Interview” was originally done for a Mexican agency, and so is entirely in Spanish, with English Subtitles.  It is interesting for the fact that it features Christopher Lee speaking fluent Spanish, with no hint of an English accent.  Finally, “The Gang’s Back in Town” is a get together of three of the “Earthquakes”, the rag tag wannabe gang that helped Tin recover Tony in the film.  Again, as with the first film, the features included are just the right content and just the right length.

This film, and its prequel, Escape to Witch Mountain have been reissued in this special edition packaging to coincide with the release of the new Witch Mountain film.  These are solid releases, and at only $15 each (on DVD), they are priced right, too.

For anyone who has not seen these films and wants to feel young again, for adults who fondly remember these films from their childhood and want to recapture the magic, or for the kids who will be experiencing them for the first time, these special edition Witch Mountain DVD’s are a can’t miss purchase.

-Ed-