‘Escape to Witch Mountain’ celebrates 45th anniversary
In 1975, Disney released what is now a sentimental favorite by many, the fantasy children’s film “Escape to Witch Mountain.”
The film, released March 21, 1975, is based on a 1968 science fiction novel by Alexander H. Key, focusing on two orphaned siblings, Tony (Ike Eisenmann) and Tia Malone (Kim Richards) with psychic powers.
Millionaire, Aristotle Bolt (Ray Milland), kidnaps the children with plans to exploit their powers for financial gain. Tony and Tia escape, and with the help of Jason O’Day (Eddie Albert), a bitter widower camping in a nearby Winnebago, they attempt to elude Bolt and begin to discover their otherworldly origins.
A remake for TV was released in 1995 and in 2009, a new version of “Race to Witch Mountain” was released.
If the name Kim Richards, who played Tia Malone, sounds familiar. Well, you might remember her for her first role as Prudence Everett in TV’s “Nanny and the Professor” when she was 6. Or, has herself on the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” from 2010-2019.
Ike Eisenmann, who played her sibling Tony, was also known as the voice of Little Green Sprout in The Green Giant commercials from 1972-1989, appeared in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982) as engineering cadet Peter Preston, Chief EngineerMontgomery Scott’s nephew, who dies, and made an appearance in the 2009 “Race to Witch Mountain” as the sheriff.
