The Little Witch (2018): Witchy movies to get you in the Halloween spirit

My father-in-law, “Poppy,” grew up with a rule the whole family jokes about whenever his grandkids open new toys for Christmas or birthdays. 

When Poppy was a kid, his mom would make him read the instruction manuals before he was allowed to play with his toys.

I thought about Poppy after watching “The Little Witch,” because of its lesson about reading the manual. But in this case, it’s a spellbook.

“The Little Witch” is a 2018 German-Swiss film I found while searching for free movies on Amazon Prime Video. The movie was filmed in German, but it’s dubbed in English — so you’ll notice the audio mismatch pretty quickly. 

I played it one weekend in the background, while my 7-year-old daughter and I were working on some crafty projects. We were both mesmerized by the visuals: A bubbly young witch with an extra-long nose lives with her raven sidekick in a forest carpeted with moss and mushrooms. She’s all alone in her whimsical cottage — with an amazing, round window! — right next to a pond.

All this Little Witch wants is a party invitation: She longs to dance with the older witches on Walpurgisnacht (Walpurgis Night), a German folklore tradition where witches fly to meet on Brocken Mountain every April 30. 

(And btw, April 30 is halfway to Halloween, a little milestone I try to celebrate each year.)

The movie is based on “Die Kleine Hexe,” the 1957 children’s book by Otfried Preussler, which is recommended for ages 5 to 9. Apparently this book is a staple of German childhoods. 

The New York Times Book Review said the book is “somewhere between fairy tale and Harry Potter,” which pretty much nails the vibe of this movie. The evil witch Rumpumpel reminded me of the witch in the “Hansel and Gretel” episode of “Faerie Tale Theatre” — Shelley Duvall’s series I grew up watching in the 1980s. The movie’s heavenly sound of the celeste conjured Harry Potter. 

The story revolves around the Little Witch trying to impress the older witches by learning all 7,892 spells in the gigantic book of witchcraft — a heavy book she must carry down Brocken Mountain as punishment for showing up to Walpurgis uninvited.

This will be a high-stakes test for the Little Witch — if she fails, she will be banned from Walpurgis forever.

Abraxas, her talking raven friend, advises the Little Witch to see this reading challenge not as punishment, but as an opportunity of a lifetime.

So the Little Witch spends an entire year reading the oversized book, learning spells and occasionally making magic in the nearby village. Which sounds very much like my bookwormish year of COVID.

She must memorize the manual before she gets her wish, just like Poppy, who grew up to be an engineer. 

In the end, the Little Witch triumphs over evil because she does the reading.

More importantly, we learn true magic is more than book knowledge and mastering the spells … it’s about HOW you use them. (And the Humanities professors cheer!)

Abraxas the raven, again serving as the moral messenger, encourages her to start acting like a good witch early in the film. “It’s not something you know,” he says. “It’s something you feel.”

Her empathy and instinct for helping the neighbor villagers — especially the children — is what brings true joy.