Escape to Witch Mountain

Escape to Witch Mountain is a 1975 American fantasy-children's film, adapted from the 1968 science fiction novel of the same name written by Alexander H. Key. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions, released in March 1975 by Buena Vista Distribution Company and directed by John Hough.

Plot
The movie centers upon the brother and sister pair Tony and Tia, who initially know only their deceased adoptive parents' surname, Malone. The children are placed in an orphanage, where they face difficulties stemming from their strange psychic powers. Tony can telekinetically move objects with the aid of his harmonica, and he can experience a limited form of premonition as shown in the scene where he draws Mr. Bolt's mansion on a mirror. Tia can communicate telepathically to Tony, commune with animals, experiences premonitions, and can also use minor telekinetic powers (which are much stronger in Return from Witch Mountain). She carries a "star case" with her at all times, which the children find contains a strange map.

Tia has fragmented memories of her early childhood, including an accident at sea and a man she later remembers as the children's Uncle Bené (pronounced Ben-ay), whom they believe drowned during their rescue.

During a field trip to see a movie, Tia experiences a premonition and is able to warn wealthy attorney Lucas Deranian against a potentially dangerous accident. Deranian informs his employer, millionaire Aristotle Bolt, of the children's powers. Bolt, obsessed with the paranormal, demands that Deranian retrieve the children at all costs. Deranian's detective work leads him to the orphanage, where he poses as Tia and Tony's uncle, though not under the name Bené, and takes them to Bolt's mansion.

Though initially suspicious of Bolt's motives, Tia and Tony are lured in by the wealthy trappings of Bolt's home. Bolt eventually reveals that he has been monitoring the children via a closed-circuit television system and that he and Deranian are fully aware of their powers. The night of this revelation, Tia and Tony make an escape, making use of their powers to control a wild mustang, guard dogs, and the security fence.

Bolt sends Deranian and a thug, Ubermann, after the children. Tia and Tony hide out in a Winnebago motor home owned by a crotchety widower named Jason O'Day (Eddie Albert). Initially negative towards the children, Jason gradually begins to recognize their powers and the truth of their story; Tia's vague memories of a disaster at sea intrigue him. He agrees to take the children on the route indicated by Tia's star case, which leads them to a mountain known as Witch Mountain, home to unexplainable phenomena. Avoiding Bolt, the law and an incited mob convinced the children are witches, they eventually make their way up Witch Mountain, pursued by Deranian and Ubermann as well as Bolt in a helicopter.

As their memories begin to fully return, the children realize their accident at sea did not involve a boat, but a spacecraft. Tony and Tia are actually of extraterrestrial origin; the double star emblem on the star case stands for a binary star system where their home planet was located.

Having come to Earth because their own planet was dying, survivors of the journey made their way to Witch Mountain and formed a community to await the surviving children, each pair in possession of a star case to help them find their way to their new home. Tony and Tia are the first to reach their destination. The children are reunited with their Uncle Bené and board another spacecraft. When Bolt and the others leave in defeat, Jason witnesses the ship's return as it flies over him to say a final goodbye.

Casts

 * Kim Richards as Tia Malone
 * Kyle Richards as young Tia Malone (uncredited)
 * Ike Eisenmann as Tony Malone
 * Eddie Albert as Jason O'Day
 * Ray Milland as Aristotle Bolt
 * Donald Pleasence as Lucas Deranian
 * Denver Pyle as Uncle Bené
 * Walter Barnes as Sheriff Purdey
 * Reta Shaw as Mrs. Grindley
 * Alfred Ryder as Astrologer.
 * Lawrence Montaigne as Ubermann
 * Terry Wilson as Biff Jenkins
 * George Chandler as Grocer
 * Dermott Downs as Truck
 * Don Brodie as Gasoline Attendant
 * Paul Sorenson as Sergeant Foss
 * Harry Holcombe as Captain Malone
 * Sam Edwards as Mate
 * Dan Seymour as Psychic
 * Eugene Daniels as Cort

Gallery

 * See Escape to Witch Mountain/Gallery

Trivia

 * Escape to Witch Mountain is the first film in the Witch Mountain franchise.