User reviews

Disney's sequel to 1975's "Escape From Witch Mountain" scuttles all interest in its teen characters, Tony and Tia (the returning Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards), for the sake of jazzier special effects. The kids return to Earth from outer space, where Tony is kidnapped by villains Bette Davis and Christopher Lee (and their henchman, Anthony James, who earlier played a chauffeur in "Burnt Offerings"). Terrific cast, well-enough made, but the movie loses sight of what was so special about the first film: a kids' flick with the emphasis on character, not outlandish effects. Davis is alert and anxious, but she's practically smothered under her gaudy make-up job; Christopher Lee unceremoniously blends into the background without much of a character to play (it's easy to forget he's even in the picture). The plotting gets too heavy, what with Los Angeles about to be decimated and delinquent children running amok, but the worst decision was to separate the siblings for much of the movie. Jack Soo does nice work in a supporting bit, and there's also a goat who nearly saves the day. *1/2 from ****

Has there ever been a film studio with a more varied output than Disney? They are responsible for some of filmdom's absolute classics and also some really mediocre stuff. This movie is one of the latter. Silly plot devices, average acting, awful special effects and dopey dialogue are hallmarks of this movie. Despite that, the pre-teens will find this a lot of fun and, for the adults, it's always fun to see Christopher Lee and Bette Davis at work, although this movie is definitely not their finest work. In fact, I suspect that this movie doesn't feature prominently on the resumes of any of the adults involved. Still, it's nice to have something you can let the kids sit and watch with no worries that they are going to see anything even slightly offensive or objectionable.

"Escape" was better for the way it dealt with serious issues like prejudice and family tragedy. Tia is taken in by a fun-loving street gang and Tony is taken in by a typical Disney-type group of villains including Bette Davis and Christopher Lee. As an adolescent, I fell in love with Kim Richards after watching this movie, but that may be its only redeeming quality.

The telekinetic space age kids (Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards) return to 'civilisation' and visit LA, where the boy, Tony is kidnapped by a group of evil plotters (Christopher Lee and Bette Davis) who use his power to carry out evil deeds.

Sequel to ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN (1975) provides much of the same, except in an urban setting and on the whole is good fun, even if the spfx have not improved much and are still pretty dreadful. The LA settings are interesting and worth a look at. Followed by a sequel over 30 years later with RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN (2009).

The intergalactic kids who charmed "Escape from Witch Mountain" (1975) - telekinetic Ike Eisenmann (as Tony Malone) and telepathic Kim Richards (as Tia Malone) - return to Earth for a vacation. They land their flying saucer at a deserted Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Elsewhere in Los Angeles, mad scientist Christopher Lee (as Victor Gannon) demonstrates his mind-controlling invention for greedy partner Bette Davis (as Letha Wedge) by commanding her vertigo-suffering nephew Anthony James (as Sickle) to scale a skyscraper. An accident causes Mr. James' to fall, but young Eisenmann has sensed trouble, and saves him from certain death.

Impressed by the teenager's powers, Ms. Davis and Mr. Lee kidnap Eisenmann, drug him, strap him to a lab table, probe his chest, and take control of his mind with an ear contraption. Among other things, they want Eisenmann to levitate some gold from an exhibition. Left behind, young sister Richards tries to rescue her brother, with help from a truant gang of boys. They are pursued by educator Jack Soo, in his last film role. Mr. Soo wants kids to stay in school.

If you haven't figured it out by now, this is an obvious production-line sequel to the unexpectedly imaginative and successful original. Writer Malcolm Marmorstein, who stirred up trouble in "Dark Shadows" and "Peyton Place", didn't get many opportunities to add a goat named "Alfred" his story lines. Everyone here deserved better.

**** Return from Witch Mountain (3/10/78) John Hough ~ Bette Davis, Christopher Lee, Anthony James, Ike Eisenmann

When Disney made "Escape to Witch Mountain", they were at the height of their creativity. It had a well thought out plot in stages within the realm of imaginary probability. We could relate to the two characters of Tia and Tony as they searched for their true home. All the characters evil or good had depth and we could relate to them.

Instead of expanding on this well-designed base, all we get from this movie is twaddle. The characters are unbelievably exaggerated not funny not memorable and far from reality. All we get is one situation after another where ridiculous kids from an improbable environment do immemorable things to and for each other. In the end, we gained nothing and wasted precious time it is better spent elsewhere.

This presentation does contain some great actors have done marvelous things in their time but now it looks like it was just a vehicle for out of work actors.

Not even Blu-Ray or voice-over commentaries can save this claptrap.