La piccola strega

Lot's of humor (but perhaps too much slap-stick). Little Miss Magic is a great movie for kids who dream of having magical powers. You can tell that this movie did not have a high budget, but my kids really liked it.

Picture this premise:

A witch moves to a suburban area. The family patriarch is a corporate exec. Meanwhile, the nosy neighbor keeps noticing odd goings-on but her clueless husband doesn't believe any of it.

You've no doubt deduced that I was describing "Bewitched". Hell, Gladys Kravitz is the paradigm of a nosy neighbor.

Well it turns out that this premise is also Fred Olen Ray's 1998 movie "Little Miss Magic". The difference is that the witch is a teenage girl placed with a human couple, and the mom is essentially the Endora character.

Ray is best known for horror flicks with a comedy element, namely 1992's "Evil Toons" (basically "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" by way of John Carpenter). This movie has one or two funny scenes, but mostly seems like a cheap way to entertain the tykes for ninety minutes. The most recognizable cast member is Russ Tamblyn, best known as Riff in "West Side Story" (he more recently appeared in "Django Unchained" as the son of a gunfighter). Tommy Kirk (the nosy neighbor's clueless husband) was a Disney star in his teens. Michelle Bauer (the mom) has appeared in a number of Ray's movies.

All in all, this is something that you'd only put on to entertain the little ones.

My six year old son chose this at the local rental place, presumably because of the glitzy packaging. We had no preconceived notions - we had never heard of this movie, nor any of the actors.

The acting, "special effects", production quality, and the plot itself were just plain awful. I don't think I've ever seen a worse movie, ever. I should have been leery upon noticing the leading actress in this kid's movie was a B-rate soft-core porn star.

After 15 minutes, I couldn't take any more, and left the room, although I did not comment to my child so as not to influence his judgement.

After about 30 minutes, my two year old son, who was also watching, lost all interest, and joined me in watching something else in another room. My wife and six year old watched the entire show.

The eye-rolling looks from my wife during the brief time I could stomach the movie was more than ample evidence that she did not enjoy the movie either.

When questioned about his reaction to the movie, he told me he wished he'd chosen a different movie, as this one was "not very good". This is coming from a boy whose favorite movie is "Sharkboy and Lavagirl" - not exactly a movie connoisseur yet.

Don't waste your time - skip the rental. Heck, even skip the TV repeat, if it would ever be so lucky as to be shown.