Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Released to TV in spring 1996, "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" was the pilot movie for the series that ran for seven years from 1996-2003. The plot revolves around Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) having to move from Massachusetts to live with her two eccentric aunts in Rockland County, New York, where she starts attending Riverdale High, becomes besties with Marnie (Michelle Beaudoin) and contends with requisite mean girl, Katy Lemore (Lalainia Lindbjerg). After her 16th birthday, Sabrina learns she's a witch and grapples with the morality of having powers other mortals don't.

The tone of the production is decidedly pedestrian in a mid-90's TV manner, but the cast brightens things up with their energy and a decent script. (It was amusing to learn why Salem can talk and other cats can't). I've probably watched a dozen episodes of the subsequent series and the main draw was always Melissa's winsomeness. She was 19 years-old when this pilot was shot and just got more beautiful over the course of the series. For those interested, Ryan Reynolds has a significant role; he was 18-19 during filming.

The movie runs 1 hour, 31 minutes and was shot in British Columbia with some establishing shots done in Brookline, Massachusetts (or so IMDb says).

GRADE: B-

Sixteen year old Sabrina Sawyer (Melissa Joan Hart) moves in with her aunts Hilda (Sherry Miller) and Zelda (Charlene Fernetz) in Riverdale. After three months, her inner witch abilities are starting to show. Marnie Littlefield (Michelle Beaudoin) is her best friend at school. They have a crush on hot jock Seth (Ryan Reynolds). Harvey has a secret crash on Sabrina. Katy Lemore spices up her love life by breaking up with Seth. On her birthday, Sabrina is given her spell book and then their cat Salem starts talking. She tries to win Seth with witchcraft but it requires love with a pure heart from Seth or else she'll be turned into a witch's familiar.

It's fine as a teen romance. Harvey could be played by an actor with a bit more charm. The rest of the cast is fine. This is for the TV show's fans and also anybody who wants to see Ryan Reynolds in his 80s fluffy golden blonde hair. It's a low level family-friendly fun time and not anything more.

I don't know why everyone's being so hard on this movie. No it's not like the TV series, but come on, this was made BEFORE the TV series as a movie all on its own, of course it's different. Instead of endlessly comparing it to the TV show and complaining, why not try letting it stand on it's own?

I actually really like this movie, so much so that I recently bought it on DVD. I thought it was really cute. It doesn't try to be anything it's not. It's simple, but for me that worked. For me the cast meshed very well together. Back when this movie was made Melissa Joan Hart was young enough to be able to pull off playing a TEENAGE witch and she did a really good job. Melissa Joan Hart was so sweet in this film, she was cute but not too much, and her acting was just fine. I really enjoyed Michelle Beaudoin as Marnie, Sabrina's best friend. Beaudoin had great chemsitry with Hart and it was very easy to believe their friendship, which felt very natural. I also thought Lalainia Lindbjerg was super as the malicious Queen Bee character Katie and Ryan Reynolds was great as hunky Seth, while Tobias Mehler was perfect as Harvey. My only complaint is that I found Sherry Miller and Charlene Fernetz really bland and uninteresting as the aunts. They weren't so bad but I'm not that keen on them either.

The storyline was good enough...Sabrina Saywer is relatively new in River Dale. She has a crush on Seth, a senior and the hottest guy in school. But Seth is invovled with Queen Bee Katie, however when Katie breaks up with him Seth begins noticing Sabrina. When Sabrina uses her newly discovered magical powers to win a track competition, Seth asks her to the Spring Fling dance at school but by this time Sabrina's unsure if Seth really is the guy for her. All the while poor Harvey, who's liked Sabrina all along, has to wait to see if Sabrina will have a change of heart.

Sabrina, The Teenage Witch plays very much like a chick flick aimed at young teens. It clearly was made on a low budget but it still (in my opinion) looked good and it's just a cute movie that's fun if you have some time on your hands. Try and watch it with an open mind, forget about the TV show while you do, and don#t judge this little bit of fluff too harshly. You might just enjoy it.

Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, well, of course the movie is about Sabrina, a teenage girl who is sent to live with her two strange aunts. Whilst there, on her sixteenth birthday, Sabrina finds out she's a witch. At first, she doesn't know what to think, but she soon gets used to it. It's good that Melissa Joan Hart who also plays Sabrina in the TV Show, of the same name plays Sabrina here too as she really suits the role. It's a shame we don't have the likes of Jenna Leigh Green here though who played Libby Chessler for a few years on Sabrina, the TV Show, as she was really great, but fans of the show will most likely like this movie, anyway. I also think this is better then some of the other Sabrina TV movies.

I'm afraid to say that the TV-series has a much higher production value. This is basically a cheap TV movie with a very thin plot. Sabrina fights with the high school's ice queen over a boy and Sabrina uses some magic to win his heart. Maybe that's enough for an episode in the series, but not for an entire movie.