This week, our family watched the classic Disney movies Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and Return from Witch Mountain (1978) in preparation for a viewing of the Rockfest Race to Witch Mountain which is in theaters now.

The original film, Escape to Witch Mountain, held up pretty well despite the 30+ year time lag since the movie’s release.  Laughable special effects notwithstanding, Tia and Tony are super cute kids with super cool powers and you can’t help but root for them in their escape from the evil Aristotle Bolt (played by Ray Milland) and his henchman Deranian (played by Donald Pleasance).  The children eventually join forces with a crotchety old man played by Eddie Albert, who helps them elude their pursuers and drives them to safety in his Winnebago.

In Return from Witch Mountain, Tia and Tony are adolescents who visit the big city of L.A. for a week.  The kids are separated and Tony is abducted by a pair of villains (played by Christopher Lee and Bette Davis).  Fortunately for Tia, she is befriended by a group of kids who help her find and rescue Tony.  Unfortunately for us, the kids are super annoying - they are in a “gang” called the Earthquakes and are vying for street cred with the other gangs of older kids.  With names like “Rocky”, “Crusher,” “Muscles,” and the unfortunate moniker “Dazzler,” the “gang” of kids had us rolling on the floor with laughter.  Definitely the worst movie of the three.

Race to Witch Mountain is supposed to be a re-imagining of the original film, although the plot bears hardly any resemblance to the first movie.  Gone are the cheesy one-dimensional villains and laughable special effects.  In this movie, our government plays the part of the villain and the special effects have been updated for the 21st century.  Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson takes up most of the screen time, but he manages to be both touching and funny and doesn’t take himself too seriously.  The movie included the occasional throwback to the original film, such as a few scenes in a Winnebago and cameos by the original Tony (Ike Eisenmann) and Tia (Kim Richards), but for the most part the movie was a completely different film.  We enjoyed the movie, however, not a bad way to spend a few hours at a Sunday matinee.