The Worst Witch is a British television series that first aired in 1986. It is based on the children's books written by Jill Murphy. The series follows the adventures of a young witch named Mildred Hubble, who attends Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches. Mildred Hubble is often referred to as the "worst witch" because she is clumsy and gets into trouble more often than not. Throughout the series, Mildred and her friends face various challenges and obstacles while trying to navigate their magical education. From spells gone wrong to mischievous classmates, Mildred always finds herself in the middle of it all.

The Worst Witch

Mildred is one of the young girls at a prestigious witch academy. She can't seem to do anything right and is picked on by classmates and teachers. The headmistress of the school, Miss Cackle, has an evil twin sister who plans to destroy the school. Can Mildred foil the plan before the Grand Wizard comes to the Academy for a Halloween celebration you'll never forget.

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Casting Casting

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Cinematography Cinematography

Production Design Production Design

Art Direction Art Direction

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Costume Design Costume Design

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Alternative Titles

המכשפה הכי גרועה, A boszorkányiskola szégyene

Genres

Releases by Date

TV

31 Oct 1986

01 Nov 1986

Releases by Country

UK

01 Nov 1986

USA

31 Oct 1986

From spells gone wrong to mischievous classmates, Mildred always finds herself in the middle of it all. Despite her mistakes, Mildred has a good heart and a strong sense of determination. She never gives up, even when things seem impossible.

Popular reviews

where is the official soundtrack cause i like need tim curry's random ass song about halloween on repeat rn

I am against institutionalization of Magick and the regulation of Witchcraft and am dirty and smelly if not altogether evil. This may have something to do with my own less-than-successful efforts at accreditation but also any learning environment which tells Fairuza Balk that she is a terrible witch is obviously setting her up for later difficulties in Public School! Poor Fairuza! I think U R great at being a witch! U R not the Worst Witch as I am pretty sure that is me! :( Also the primary mean girl in this movie is so mean that she bullies a kitten! We can all see that this is unacceptable, no? But what of the rampant culture of bullying that Schools…

I genuinely enjoyed this film more than any Harry Potter film. The music was so absurd and over the top, and Tim Curry is doing a Bowie impersonation in this. The plot is sweet and silly and childish, which is fine by me. The effects and the acting are miserable, but who really cares. There were so many kittens in this. So many. On broomsticks. And a completely tacked on plot that barely intersected with the character stuff. Happy Halloween, everyone. October count: 45/31
Kathleen's VHS Collection 2017: 69/100

"It's not that I want to be the best, I'm just so tired of being the worst" -
Mildred, I feel that Mildred. I feel that every day. The "Anything Can Happen on Halloween" performance by Tim Curry is either something you have seen, meaning you get what true happiness is, or is something you haven't seen, in which case you are a not really a full human being yet and I feel bad for you. And don't just look at only that part on YouTube or something, that's cheating, because you need to see it in context. It's like all of a sudden you are in the middle of a movie and God stops the movie, says "I love…

Girl-school Harry Potter meets redneck Hocus Pocus in a Halloween tale where an entire school bullies one girl for no reason, and Tim Curry wears the most fabulous suit of all time. His acid-trip musical number alone would be enough to make this a 4.5 star movie.

"Has anybody seen my tambourine?" - The Grand Wizard, Harry Potter stole all of this. Witches are adorable. I'm very attached to this because I watched it A LOT as a child but even with that in mind I still think this holds up beautifully. The songs are fun, the characters are fun, and the part with Tim Curry is one of the absolute best in the history of cinema. not an exaggeration. Need a 4K of this like now. P.S. Support SAG-AFTRA

"You must be the worst witch in the entire school" - Headmistress, Tim Curry is the only man in this and that's the only man I'll ever need. BTW I'm doing my part I've made two people watch this in October. spread the word! P.S. Support SAG-AFTRA

Stuffy, prestigious witch academy to radicalized witch in the public school system pipeline. Fairuza Balk against institutionalized or forbidden magic! Tear it all down! Legalize it all! Sure, the musical numbers are atrocious (besides Tim Curry's number which is great only because it's him), the production is high school theater worthy, the acting can be bad even by tv movie standards, and the special effects are non-existent. However, Fairuza Balk is in a witch academy, kittens and broomsticks abound, and Tim Curry is the grand wizard. This is Halloween magic.

The Worst Witch (1986, dir. Robert Young)

Pretty sure everybody who grew up in the 90s and 00s remembers watching Worst Witch/forgetting to turn the channel over whilst an episode was on. Heck, I even ended up at uni with one of the girls from the reboot (sadly not Rogue One star Felicity Jones though- shame). What you may not be so familiar with is the 80s feature length film about the hapless hex-caster.

Except you DO know this film because it gave us THIS:

This masterpiece has everything you could want:

• The best special effects the 80s had to offer
• Shout-out to the VHS for being a piece of modern technology
• The prop heart they shoved at Tim Curry
• That fancy cape work
• Tim Curry’s face appearing in a cat’s eye
• The line “has anyone seen my tambourine”
• Everything about the video bloody hell I love it

The question that follows is of course: is the rest of the film at all worth watching after this beauty has come and gone?

I think in our hearts we know it peaks here

In short, not really. I mean, it’s completely baffling that they’ve roped in both Tim Curry (who to be fair is treated with the utmost reverence as a Halloween king) *and* Diana Rigg? Not to mention Mildred’s cat, whose human mewing dub make him a standout performer.

It’s all fairly run of the mill high school adaptation until we stumble across the sideplot: Miss Cackle’s sister (who’s American for some reason) wants to take over the school with her coven. If you like the incredibly niche movie subgenre of “Colonel Sanders and an overenthusiastic teaching assistant bob around on a hill” then it’s one for you. For me, it could not be more cringeworthy. And then she started singing.

We’re also treated to an atrocious belter of a Matilda rip-off about how school is tricky. It includes the infuriatingly non-sequitur of a line, “20 seems so far away”. Is that what 12 year olds aspire to, being 20? You’re a witch, Mildred, way to dream big.

Spoopy Rating: 2/3 but 4/3 for Tim Curry because ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN ON HALLOWEEN, YOUR TONGUE COULD TURN RED AND YOUR HAIR TURN GREEN YOUR TEACHER COULD BECOME A SARDINE YOUR DENTIST COULD BECOME A QUEEN

Worst witch 1986

I gotta be real – for the most part in this Halloween TV Party, I intended on covering primarily animated specials. These are the stuff I grew up watching and what I most dearly connect with the holiday all the way into adulthood. I do plan on mixing it up a bit by throwing in a couple of live-action TV specials here and there (as I’m doing right now), but I just want to make this fact a bit more concrete moving forward. Okay, now that we’ve got that settled, here’s what I watched recently!

The Worst Witch is a British made-for-TV film that is based off a successful series of children’s books by Jill Murphy. It aired first on HBO and then on the Disney Channel during the Halloween season, up until around 1996 – which explains how I never saw it as a kid, since I was too young to have discovered TV! As the title alludes, this film is about a young witch-in-training named Mildred (played by Fairuza Balk in only her second role since Return to Oz) who has been deemed the “worst witch” by both her peers and instructors, in a sort of proto-Harry Potter institution. The bulk of the narrative in the first half shows a number of instances wherein she struggles to keep up with other witches – mixing potions, casting spells, flying on her broomstick. To add insult to injury, even her assigned cat is a gray and white tabby instead of a black cat like the rest of her classmates, since her headmaster claims to have run out of black kittens.

Immediately, the cheapness of this film’s aesthetic is clear. While the costumes are just the right amount of garish to be more endearing than anything else, the set design is a tad more painful to look at. The flying scenes are accomplished by a tremendously gaudy green screen effect; in many of the shots, the clipping is so distractingly poor. Even more ridiculous is the decision to add voice-acting for the cats, with numerous scenes given this annoying, “meow, meow, meow” backing noise that doesn’t really work. Still, there is something pretty charming about the cheapness of this production. This is pretty much sealed sometime in the first act of the program where we see a troupe of witches cackling and plotting the downfall of the school, while singing a fun musical number dancing around a bubbling cauldron. It’s this kind of campy goodness that makes the Halloween season so great.

But let’s clear the air by mentioning what has got to be the very best thing about this special – Tim Curry as the Grand Wizard (don’t read too much into that title, please). His character is introduced as a special guest for the school’s annual Halloween fest. He isn’t in the movie for very long, but he does bring the second of the movie’s two musical numbers through what I could only describe as a 70s psychedelia music video. It’s an ungodly amount of green screen and just as cheap-looking as the previous instances of green screen – but even better. Really, this scene just has to be seen to be believed. I’m sure that if I had watched this movie at all as a youngster, I would have eaten up these visuals and the accompanying song as well!

As for the non-campy parts of this special… well, there aren’t too many. But it’s comforting to see that Fairuza Balk demonstrates an impressive amount of vulnerability and range at such a young age. It soon becomes clear that much of Mildred’s failures are actually a result of senseless bullying by fellow classmate Ethel, and the special becomes more of a tale of how Mildred can rise above this while also finding her place in the world. It’s quite a pleasant, wholesome adolescent tale, while having enough of the spooky Halloween aesthetic to keep things interesting. It’s one I’d surely recommend to any young witch who hasn’t yet uncovered this magical treat. Bonus points as well for Charlotte Rae playing two entirely different (twin) witches with unique looks and personalities – and playing them both super convincingly!

And now for the second special of the day, 1979’s The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t. I see this one often on lists of the greatest classic Halloween specials, though I never watched this one myself until last year. Like The Worst Witch, this aired seasonly on the Disney Channel until 1996; on the year of its first airing, it even won an Emmy! It concerns the infamous Count Dracula being jarred by rumors of Halloween potentially coming to an end, after which he bands together a group of the world’s most famous monsters and spooky figures to settle the matter. It soon becomes clear that the Witch had initially sparked the rumor, sick of how demeaned she feels each year, and writes up a list of demands Dracula must follow in order for her to comply and Halloween to continue to exist.

I gotta be honest: although I know this special is beloved by many, it’s really hard for me to get into. First of all, these costumes and sets are hilariously cheap – yes, even cheaper than The Worst Witch! Although seeing that this is a comedy and there are few things funnier than grown adults acting completely earnestly in garish Halloween costumes… I guess it succeeds there. Secondly, though, the humor of this special relies primarily on flimsy one-liners and slapstick gags – including the ol’ Scooby-Doo doors effect. I think there’s something to be made of the fact that these monsters feel that the new generation no longer fears them and the ridiculous humor sort of plays upon this… but I just don’t find much of it very funny. And I’m sure that this itself is the way time has aged such humor, but on its own it tends to move at a snail’s pace.

Overall, not a whole lot happens in this special. Just a bunch of shenanigans, with a final, heartwarming resolution that conveniently ties everything up. I will admit that I enjoyed this special more with this second viewing than I did with the first last year, so maybe that means I’ll come around to it with subsequent viewings? Bah, who knows. Oh, by the way, this particular Halloween special ends with a totally random disco party over the end credits, which is the most 1979 thing about it! That alone makes it well worth your time, I think.

Throughout the series, she learns valuable lessons about friendship, loyalty, and believing in herself. The Worst Witch is a beloved series that has captivated audiences for decades. Its mix of magic, humor, and relatable characters has made it a favorite among children and adults alike. The show has been praised for its positive messages and its celebration of individuality. It has also spawned several spin-offs and adaptations over the years. Overall, the Worst Witch series from 1986 is a charming and entertaining showcase of magic and mishaps. It continues to be a beloved favorite among fans of all ages..

Reviews for "The Worst Witch 1986: A Gateway to the World of Fantasy Literature"

1. Claire - 2 stars - I was really disappointed with "Worst Witch 1986". The acting was subpar, especially from the lead actress. The storyline felt disjointed and lacked depth. The special effects were laughable, even for the time it was made. Overall, this film failed to capture the magic and charm of the original books. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone looking for a magical and engaging experience.

2. James - 1 star - "Worst Witch 1986" was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The plot was weak and predictable, with no surprises or interesting twists. The dialogue felt forced and unnatural, making it difficult to connect with any of the characters. The production quality was also very low, with shoddy set designs and unconvincing special effects. I would advise anyone considering watching this film to save their time and seek out better magical movies.

3. Sarah - 2 stars - I had high hopes for "Worst Witch 1986", but unfortunately, it fell flat. The acting was mediocre, with some performances feeling forced and lacking authenticity. The story was unoriginal and failed to captivate my interest. Additionally, the visual effects were outdated and failed to create a believable magical world. Overall, this movie failed to live up to its potential and left me feeling disappointed. I would recommend skipping this one and trying out other witch-themed films instead.

4. Michael - 2 stars - I found "Worst Witch 1986" to be underwhelming. The pacing of the film was off, with long stretches that felt slow and dull. The characters were also poorly developed, making it difficult to care about their journey. The comedic moments also fell flat, lacking the punch and wit needed to make them funny. Unfortunately, this film was a miss for me and I would not recommend it to others seeking a quality witch-based movie experience.

The Worst Witch 1986 and the Evolution of Witchcraft in Pop Culture