Most people who grew up with me have seen this movie and/or video clip. (So have most people who spent any time with me at college. But those were two very different types of viewing parties.) It’s from a eye-poppingly wonderful film called The Worst Witch, and it features a young Fairuza Balk. Yeah, that’s right, she of The Craft fame. (Typecast?)
And yes, the movie has elements of Harry Potter (kids away at a boarding school for witches) without any of those details that make us crazy for Harry Potter (i.e. a gripping story line, fully fleshed out characters, classes that last longer than three and a half minutes).
But what keeps The Worst Witch in the upper echelon of filmmaking is this one sequence. It features Tim Curry. He is the Grand Wizard. And he gets a song. Go on, I’ll wait.
Did you watch it? Are you crying jubilant tears of awesome?
If not, did you see (and I mean really see) his cape change colors? Were you unmoved by the green screen effects unrivaled by Pixar (or your friend’s basement studio)? Did you not see the dog turn into the cat?
Most importantly, Tim Curry has NO IDEA where his tambourine is. Are you made of stone?
They, quite literally, do not make them like this anymore. I don’t even think we have the technology to make something quite so low-budget these days. Even the average camera phone has better capture than this synthed-up wonder.
But the point is- it doesn’t matter. It will remain my favorite Halloween movie of all time. I will watch this clip multiple times between August and November 1st for all of eternity. (And so will my confused children and tolerant husband.)
Because it brings me back to a time when I was thoroughly blown away by these graphics. I so badly wanted the Grand Wizard to see how hard the witches had worked on the Broomstick Display. And this movie- this movie my whole family adored- could only be watched once a year when it aired. There was no YouTube. No internet to speak of. It was a lot like the radio request hour- it came on when it damn well felt like coming on, and sure, eventually you managed to tape it on VHS, but even then you missed the opening sequence because your VCR meshed it up with a cat food commercial.
AND WE LIKED IT THAT WAY. (Of course we didn’t, but it’s fun to be a martyr about times past.)
And my kids will never ever know the feeling of not having every single bit of media at their [hologrammed, flying car] fingertips. I envy them.
But then, when I watch an earnest clip like that and remember how special and new that technology was, I think that maybe they should envy me a little, too.
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