RETURN FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN

You can't just use your powers in front of any old body—that's how the trouble started in the last movie!

After watching Escape to Witch Mountain, I was pretty psyched to move right along to . I only remembered it vaguely, but with Bette Davis and Christopher Lee along for the ride, I was pretty sure it would be just as much fun as the original. Yeah, not so much.

This time around, Tia (Kim Richards) and Tony (Ike Eisenmann) are simply visiting planet earth for pleasure. They've got their jaunty little travel outfits on, and it seems as though their Uncle Bene (Denver Pyle) has called them a cab. By now the kids are just slightly too old to be cute, but at first there's no reason not to give them the benefit of the doubt. As they cruise around Los Angeles, it's actually kind of fun checking out the scenery, "Oh hey! I totally just saw the La Brea Tar Pits!"

As you can imagine, it's not long before Tia and Tony find trouble. The evil Letha (Bette Davis) and her sidekick Victor (Christopher Lee) have just hypnotized a man and instructed him to walk off the roof of a building when Tony intercedes. He saves the man's life, but how long will it be before he gets wise? You can't just use your powers in front of any old body—that's how the trouble started in the last movie!

Unsurprisingly, Tony is kidnapped by Letha and Victor who immediately begin experimenting on him and trying to figure out how best to utilize his powers in their evil schemes. You would think Bette Davis and Christopher Lee would make a pretty sinister pair, but apart from the rather amusing height difference between them, they're a lot less interesting than you would imagine.

Meanwhile, Tia enlists the help of the Earthquake Gang, a rag-tag bunch of kids who aren't half as tough as they'd like to believe. In fact, it's Tia who first rescues them from a rival gang. Using the powers of her mind, she stares hard at some garbage cans and causes the refuse to bombard the enemy children. It's enough to make younger audience members laugh, but more sophisticated viewers will note that it's not even proper garbage that flies out of the cans. It's just a bunch of old lettuce.

The remainder of the film is about as compelling as old lettuce. While Letha and Victor use Tony to steal the gold from a Gold Rush exhibit, Tia and her new friends race to rescue him. Tia wrestles with hard questions like, "Where the heck is Tony?" and "Has he really gone to the dark side?" All the while we know that pretty soon they'll reunite and head on home to Uncle Bene. It looks for all the world as though the kids had a great time making the movie—it's just a shame that kids watching at home won't have quite as much fun.

DVD NOTES

DVD extras include a making-of featurette, cast interviews (including a reunion of the Earthquake Gang), and a featurette on Disney kids with powers. A "lost" Christopher Lee interview (conducted entirely in Spanish) is also included, along with a 1978 Disney studio album. Audio commentary and pop-up fun facts are also available.