The Little Witch

I haven't read any of the books on which this is based but the film by itself is wonderful, inoffensive fun. I wish there were more films like this one. Although there are no in-jokes or sly winks to adults, we can enjoy this one too. Just forget your jaded skepticism for a while and go for the ride. The cinematography, set design, costumes, in fact all of the art design in this film is exemplary. It really conjures up the old german folk & fairy stories that I for one remember reading as a child. This little gem deserves a wide audience & if it's internet presence is anything to go by, it doesn't have one yet. I can only offer the strongest encouragement to the makers of this non hollywood fare & hope they are able to keep making movies of this caliber. The english dubbing on the version I enjoyed was a better than usual job as well..

I saw it with russian subtitles. I know this story because i saw malenkaya koldunya (1991) a lot. And despite the difference in the runtime they are very similar, and probably follow the original text closely. This movie is an adaptation of a fairy tale. The acting is quite good and most of the music is outright outstanding. They've used vocalization to echo the notes of the strings. It creates an eerie sound and it's something reminding me of Coraline. The film is quirky and whimsical and it's some kind of great.

I wanted to give this film a low star rating but that hardly seems fair. The film itself is beautifully made. Effects, costumes, locations etc are all truly wonderful. The acting is great and the lead role is played beautifully. What lets the film down for a non-German speaking English person is the God awful American dubbing. The actors doing this are DIRE. The American accent doesn't lend itself to this kind of thing at the best of times, but this is gob-smackingly appalling. Watch the film in German with English subtitles. It's magic (pun intended).