Happy Halloween to Tim Curry only

October 31, 2021 12:43 PM

Tim Curry explains why Halloween is great in “The Halloween Song” from the 1986 film adaptation of The Worst Witch.
posted by Going To Maine (16 comments total)

Fun with Chromakey!

The Worst Witch sounds like proto-Potter.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 12:59 PM on October 31, 2021

So, The Worst Witch definitely has Pottery elements! In fact a big part of my initial resistance to HP was my feeling that they'd taken the extremely relatable Mildred, who was not particularly blessed with academic or sporting gifts, but had a good soul and muddled through with the help of her friends, and slapped a Chosen Special Best Boy With All The Gifts narrative in its place. The Worst Witch was kind of like if Harry Potter centred Neville as the protagonist, which perhaps isn't as dramatically interesting, but is something we need more of.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 1:15 PM on October 31, 2021 [17 favorites]

If stories about not-the-special-chosen-one protagonists are your jam, and I hope this isn't too much of a tangent, then I highly recommend checking out China Mieville's Un Lun Dun if you haven't already.
posted by solotoro at 1:23 PM on October 31, 2021 [4 favorites]

I love this movie SO DAMN MUCH that I wore out the VHS as a kid and rented Rocky Horror Picture Show as a junior high student purely because Tim Curry was in it.

(Why my mother allowed me to rent it is a very different question.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:27 PM on October 31, 2021 [5 favorites]

*Has* anybody seen my tambourine?
posted by Scattercat at 1:36 PM on October 31, 2021 [5 favorites]

I have a soft spot for Justin McElroy's cover of this, not least because he is singing it extempore over his brothers' increasing protests.

I have a memory of seeing this in fourth grade. Halloween was one of those holidays you didn't get off but you did get to watch a movie in the afternoon. I wasn't a huge fan of the movie, but I watched this part openmouthed. I was a little embarrassed -- for some reason, watching musical numbers around other people embarrassed me as a kid -- but I could not take my eyes off Tim Curry, then or now.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:36 PM on October 31, 2021 [3 favorites]

I love this song and this "Worst Witch" so much. Agreed about on the Potter thing. The thing about boarding school stories is that they are so much better, more realistic and relatable when they are about the clutzy, disastrous tryhards who never quite fit in and can't quite square why they're there. Nobody wants to know about the kid who turns out to be obscenely rich and popular and great at everything from Day One. I don't care whether the school is teaching literal magic or the just the ordinary, sort of unsavory alchemy that is convincing obscenely rich 17 year old legacy students that you aren't a narc just because you're there on financial aid (not that I, uh, know anything about that).

Anyway, I love Mildred. She has been a personal heroine to me and kindred spirit since forever.

Also, TOTAL CRUSH ON TIM CURRY HERE.
posted by thivaia at 2:02 PM on October 31, 2021 [5 favorites]

Just wanted to drop in here and say a long long long time ago I had a Palm Treo and one of my friends made a ringtone of Tim Curry asking “has anyone seen my tambourine?!” and it’s still probably one of the best ringtones ever.
posted by sara is disenchanted at 2:56 PM on October 31, 2021 [4 favorites]

This is like a mashup of bad mid-80s cocaine Bowie with Lair of the White Worm Ken Russell. I love it!
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:04 PM on October 31, 2021 [3 favorites]

You know, considering the song and the getup, this is a surprisingly subdued Tim Curry.
posted by deludingmyself at 3:48 PM on October 31, 2021 [7 favorites]

This Geriatric Millennial is getting a kick out of reading the reactions of people who are seeing this gem for the first time. Welcome to the academy, frens!

Fun with headcanon: Mildred Hubble goes off to study with Grand Wizard, moves (back?) to the United States, starts making everyone call her “Nancy” at the new school, and manages to become an even worse witch!
posted by armeowda at 4:51 PM on October 31, 2021 [2 favorites]

Just utter perfection.
posted by Kitteh at 5:07 PM on October 31, 2021

I have a sense that someday people will say that "Tim Curry was not appreciated in his time", to which there will be a great hue and cry that WE DID IN FACT APPRECIATE TIM CURRY IN HIS TIME, to which these aforementioned people will reply "but you did not appreciate him quite as much as perhaps you should have", which is going to be difficult to disagree with.

I don't idolize Tim Curry, but... as far as I can tell everything he's been involved with - even stuff that was not, speaking frankly, good - was better than it would have or could have or should have been without him. And that's something worth aspiring to.
posted by mhoye at 6:52 PM on October 31, 2021 [8 favorites]

" manages to become an even worse witch!"

OH MY GOD, when The Craft came out in theaters, I was like, "WAIT THERE'S FAIRUZA BALK????? I'M IN." Anything Mildred Hubble does is going to be amazeballs.

Was not disappointed.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:54 PM on October 31, 2021 [2 favorites]

According to Wikipedia, that song is by the guy who wrote the music for Bye Bye Birdie and lyrics by the guy who wrote "Born Free".
posted by hippybear at 8:12 PM on October 31, 2021 [1 favorite]

(FYI, Jill Murphy, who wrote the Worst Witch books, died recently. She was also known for her picture book series about the Large family, of elephants. I thought it was quite interesting that someone could find two quite distinct strands of success with very different strands of books in the same market. 2017 interview.)
posted by Grangousier at 6:27 AM on November 2, 2021