Escape to Witch Mountain

Escape to Witch Mountain is a 1975 American fantasy science-fiction film, based on Alexander H. Key's 1968 novel of the same name and directed by John Hough. It was released on March 21, 1975 by Walt Disney Productions and Buena Vista Distribution Company. It is the first film of the Witch Mountain series. Plot The film centers upon the siblings Tony and Tia, whose surname they initially know only as that of their deceased adoptive parents, Malone. The children are placed in an orphanage, where they face difficulties stemming from their strange psychic/psionic abilities: Tony can psychokinetically move and control inanimate objects with the aid of his harmonica, while Tia can communicate telepathically to Tony, commune empathically with animals, and experience premonitions. Tia also possesses minor telekinetic abilities. She carries a "star case" with her at all times, which eventually reveals 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, who they believe drowned during their rescue. During a field trip, Tia experiences a premonition and warns wealthy attorney Lucas Deranian against a potentially dangerous accident. Deranian informs his employer, millionaire Aristotle Bolt, of the children's unique abilities. 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 unusual powers. The night of this revelation, Tia and Tony make an escape, using their abilities to psionically control a wild mustang, guard dogs, and the security fence, as well as using Winkie, Tia's cat, to make the allergic security guard let them pass. Bolt sends Deranian and a thug, Ubermann, after the children. Tia and Tony hide out in a green-and-white Winnebago motor home owned by a crotchety widower named Jason O'Day. Initially negative toward 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.