Escape to Witch Mountain
Years ago, I met Bob Young, a retired TV writer who needed a computer tutor. Once a week I scheduled an hour and a half to go to his home above La Costa, California, but we usually took much longer than that. When we were finished going over what he wanted to learn that week, we’d speak French as best we could remember, look at old home movies, or he’d tell me about his experiences writing for television. I eventually looked him up online and found what he had left out. While he had written for quite a few television shows, he neglected to include that he had written one feature film, one that I and all the kids of my generation had seen multiple times growing up. The next time I saw him, I showed him his entry on IMDB and he was surprised to see how many shows they listed as scripted by him. I mentioned how impressed I was that he had written a film from my youth. I wish I remembered more details. I tried to contact him for an interview to go along with this review, but when I called his number, the young woman who answered claimed that this was her number and she’d had it for twenty years. Emails just bounced, but that’s not surprising since I know his old ISP went out of business. I just hope he’s okay. He is about to be 85 this year after all.

In 1975, the film based on Robert Malcolm Young’s feature screenplay debuted in cinemas, and Tony (Ike Eisenmann – Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan) and Tia (Kim Richards – Black Snake Moan) showed us that the innocence of the 1970s was far enough from the alien paranoia of the 1950s and the mutant hysteria of future decades to where vulgar public displays of supernatural abilities by schoolchildren did not result in said children being immediately whisked off to Area 51 or Level 33.1 at the time.

The first film begins with Tony and Tia being brought to their new orphanage. Tony displays his telekinetic powers in catching a long fly ball in a baseball game, and when the loudmouth bully calls him out on it, Tony flagrantly uses his TK in front of a playground full of kids to defend himself. Tia uses her telepathy to warn and then chastise Tony about this. Soon after, Tia demonstrates her other power, precognition, when she warns a man to not get into his car. Right afterward his car is smashed by an oncoming truck. He is impressed by the children’s powers and soon returns with fake papers claiming to be the children’s uncle.

Soon enough the children are on the run from those who would exploit them and they hook up with a retiree in an RV who after a movie’s worth of adventure, helps them escape to Witch Mountain for real. Once there, they meet their real Uncle Jesse Bene, played by Denver Pyle (The Dukes of Hazzard) and return to their alien civilization.

Extras:
* ALL NEW Pop-Up Fun Facts
* Making the Escape
* Conversations with John Hough
* Disney Sci-Fi
* “PLUTO’S DREAM HOUSE”
* Disney Effects – Something Special
* 1975 Disney Studio Album * Audio Commentary by John Hough, Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards

ComicsOnline gives Escape to Witch Mountain 4 out of 5 telekinetic power stunts.
 

Return From Witch Mountain
In the 1978 sequel, it’s about 3 years later and the children return to the Mundy world for a vacation. They’re dropped off by Uncle Jesse Bene in his flying saucer on the 50 yard line of the Rose Bowl, like ya do, and from there, they are picked up by a cabbie that seems to be made up of equal parts annoying braggadocio and deus ex machina. Naturally he runs out of gas, and the children wander off while he walks back a few blocks to get some gas for SIXTY-ONE CENTS A GALLON! Sadly, the gas prices might very well be the most exciting part of this film for adults.

Tony is captured by the bad guys pretty much immediately after wandering off, as he’s too much of a hero and saves the bad guy flunky from the bad guy boss pair, played by Christopher Lee (Dracula 1958, Captain America II: Death Too Soon, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith) and Bette Davis (All About Eve, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?). Okay, so maybe the villains might be even better than cheap gas.

Tia is separated from Tony, having instead taken refuge in the hideout of a “gang” comprised of what seem to be sixth grade boys playing dress-up. One of the boys calls himself “Dazzler” but unfortunately doesn’t even have shiny disco skates, much less convert sound to light. Most of the rest of the film, Tia and Tony are speparated, with Tony under the mental control of the dastardly duo and their mind control box. In the end, justice is served, and preteen gangs around the world are a little safer from evil senior citizens bent on world domination.

Extras:
* ALL NEW Pop-Up Fun Facts
* Making the Return Trip
* The Gang’s Back in Town
* Disney Kids with Powers
* “The Eyes Have It”
* Lost Treasure: Christopher Lee: The Lost Interview
* 1978 Disney Studio Album
* Audio Commentary by John Hough, Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards.

ComicsOnline gives Return from Witch Mountain 2.5 out of 5 mind control devices.