The Grand High Witch of All the World is the main antagonist of The Witches and its 1990 and 2020 film adaptations.
History[]
1990 adaptation[]
As one of the most influential and powerful sorceresses on Earth, she leads a secret society of like-minded witches in their never-ending quest to wipe out children once and for all.
During each and every single meeting she ever attended, she would murder one of her own followers simply to keep the other witches focused. This was considered to be her ultimate punishment, and the other witches were terrified of her.
The Grand High Witch especially had a plan that would climax in turning all the children of England into mice, to be disposed of either by the witches themselves, or by their Afraid parents. She demonstrates her formula by inviting a boy called Bruno, who had been previously given a chocolate with the formula, as he slowly turns into a mouse. However, the meeting was being eavesdropped by Luke, a boy who was in the hotel with his grandmother Helga, who warned him about witches and is implied to have faced the Grand High Witch before.
One of the witches catches the scent of Luke, so the Grand High Witch tracks him down and force-feeds him her formula, turning him into a mouse as well. He manages to escape and meet with Bruno, the two going after Helga's room, where they plan to stop the witches plan. Luke manages to steal the formula and slip it on the witches soup. In the end, the Grand High Witch suffered a somewhat fitting demise when her own magic was used against her and she (along with all of her followers, except Susan Irvine whom she banned in the celebration) is transformed into a mouse. While the mice-transformed witches run rampant around the hotel and are killed by the staff, the Grand High Witch is killed by the hotel manager, who uses a cleaver to slice her in half.
2020 adaptation[]
Then Grand High Witch leads her coven of witches to a local hotel under the guise of a "Children's Protection Society". In reality, the Grand High Witch reveals the existence of a new formula, which she aptly names "Mouse Maker". She demonstrates the formula on Bruno Jenkins, explaining that one drop of the serum will turn the drinker into a mouse within an hour; increments of the dose work faster. During the meeting, she destroyed one witch with her lightning bolts for interrupting her. She is the one responsible for turning Agatha’s friend, Alice Blue into a chicken.
The Grand High Witch, however, does not anticipate that Charlie Hansen, and his grandmother, Agatha Hansen, are willing to fight back. When the Grand High Witch threatens Agatha after she finds out that Agatha is stealing her serum, Charlie, Daisy and Bruno are forced to fight back, and Charlie forces the serum down the witches throat, turning her into a rather large rat immediately. Moments later, she is attacked by her pet cat, Hades, and is presumed eaten.
Personality[]
The Grand High Witch is extremely disturbing for a villain appearing in a book for children, and is scarier than most villains appearing in stories for adults. Bluntly put, she is a child-murderer and a genocidal psychopath.
One of her favorite ways to depose of children was to turn them into animals their parents hated, and have the parents kill their own children, thinking they where pests. Her contempt also expands to any witch who dares question her, and all other witches live in total fear and submission of her. Her meetings usually involve her killing any disobedient witch, and she possibly deliberately kills a witch yearly, to keep the others on their toes. She also cares little for human adults, and doesn't mind if she accidentally kills them. Being a witch, she is a separate species to humans, and is motivated to hate kids as her well-developed nose makes them smell like dog feces to her.
Appearance[]
In the film, as seen in the article image. She is bald with thinning hair, a long hooked nose and long fingernails. She is very ugly looking, a fitting look for an evil witch. However, in the book her face is eaten away by maggots and rotten with no nose or eyelids.
In the 2020 reboot, her true appearance is that she is bald and can open her mouth much wider than a normal woman can. This is also shown with other witches, although the Grand High Witch also appears more vampiric than the other witches. Her voice can become raspy as well. She also has only three digits on each hand like her sisters, a pinky finger, forefinger, and a thumb. What sets her apart is her toeless feet only had one long toe in the middle. She also has the ability to to levitate, shapeshift, which she uses to hide her real, rotten face, and stretch her arms to incredible lengths.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- According to the grandmother, the Grand High Witch is "the most evil woman in creation". While the other witches can live with killing one child a week, the Grand High Witch says that is too slow and demanded all the children of England be eliminated in one fell swoop.
- It should be noted that while in the book, the Grand High Witch is the first witch to transform into a mouse. However in the 1990 movie, she is the last (unless you count Susan Irvine, who didn't transform at all).
- The Grand High Witch has the ability to fry witches by shooting laser beams from her eyes, which the others seem to lack. Along with her different appearance when unmasked, it could be implied that when a witch is selected to be Grand High Witch, she undergoes a transformation which makes her even uglier and gives her the power of heat vision.
- In the 2020 adaptation, the Grand High Witch is able to emit lightning bolts from her fingers and her eyes turn blue in the process. She does this to a disobedient witch who interrupted her with a question. It is unknown if all witches have this ability.
- Unlike the other witches, who at least show a little concern for adults, she has no results for collateral damage in her schemes. This is shown when a witch asks what would happen if an adult consumed their formula, and the Grand High Witch replies, "Then that's just too bad for the grownup".
- In the book, the Grand High Witch doesn't take off her gloves, wig or shoes which implies she has more to hide, while she does do so in the film.
- In the book, it is revealed that the Grand High Witch is Norwegian, and she is also a famous baroness (or has falsely established herself as one) in Norway.
- In a Google Hangout, Lucy Dahl revealed that the Grand High Witch was in part based on her stepmother. Lucy stated it wasn't her stepmother's personality, but the look and social status that was the inspiring factor.
- Lucy also seriously stated she wasn't entirely convinced witches were fiction, citing a neighbor who, "If Witches are real, she's one of them."
- The Grand High Witch has countless subordinates, including The Woman in Black and Lois Leffour.
- Roald Dahl hated the 1990 film due to the changed ending, but he loved Anjelica Huston's performance.
- Anne Hathaway later apologized for how her hands were shown in the movie, failing to realize that clawed fingers are a real-world medical condition, albeit extremely rare.
- In the 1990 film the Grand High Witch planned for the childrens' parents to kill them. In the book her plan had been more methodical in that the Formula 86 would take effect right at the moment of the start of the school day after the child ate the poisoned candy bar. As such, the children would transform into mice upon beginning their first class and the teachers were meant to kill all the mice.