John Hough directed this sequel that sees both Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards return as psychic siblings Tony & Tia Malone, who try to take a vacation in L.A.(with help from Uncle Bene, once again played by Denver Pyle) but are immediately targeted by evil adult siblings Victor & Letha(played by Christopher Lee & Bette Davis) who want to use their powers for world conquest, and after Tony is captured & brainwashed, Tia must enlist the help of a gang of kids to rescue Tony, and stop the criminals. Silly and contrived film has a good cast working with inferior material. Has little of the charm of the first, though kids may like it.

It seems like the makers of this movie took a look at everything that made "Escape" so great and decided to forget it. Obviously they couldn't re-use the mystery about the two children (where do they come from? Why do they have these powers?). Still, they lost a lot of charme on other points.The special effects seem hopelessly dated. This is easy to say in 2013 but they already seem hopelessly dated in comparison to "Escape" - which was made three years before. It doesn't help that "Return" shifts more focus onto these special effects - and puts less effort into it."Escape" had those two cute kids which worked great together. The first thing "Return" does is dividing them and letting Tony be a mindless zombie for (most of) the rest of the movie. Tia doesn't do much better. Her part of the movie mostly gets lost and divided between the four members of the Earthquake gang. At parts the movie feels like it wanted to showcase an epic "Tony vs Tia"-battle (with one having to be mind-controlled for that to happen) and maybe some viewers like their confrontations but at some points it is plain boring - showing both of them concentrating and a heat gauge going up and down. Keep in mind that during "Escape" the children had slightly different abilities (playing into their different characters). This is dropped in "Return"; they are interchangeable.Mr. Yokomoto doesn't feel like an adult ally but more of a tool, somewhat pushing a "school is important"-morale down the viewers' throat. I believe he is meant to be similar to Jason O'Day who helped the children in "Escape", yet he lacks the backstory, character and sympathy that Jason had.The name seems cheated, too. There is no "Witch Mountain" in this movie. It gets mentioned only very briefly and "Two psychic kids have a week of adventure in LA" seems more suited. This is even more obvious in the beginning when Uncle Bene drops those kids off, telling them to have fun. No adult supervision, no safeguards, the dangers of the "Escape" are completely forgotten. Just like the conflict between Tony and Tia is forced and Tia meeting the Earthquakes is forced (and seems random) plus Tony meeting Dr. Dracula is forced, even the beginning of everything seems forced and plotted."Return" drops the fun. This is even more obvious once you remember the puppet scene from "Escape" or the cat Winky or the haunting at the sheriff's office. Those were scenes with the kids having fun and laughing and smiling. Don't expect that stuff in "Return" - the fun is gone.

Return from Witch Mountain (1978) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Aliens Tia (Kim Richards) and Tony (Ike Eisenmann) return to Earth for a vacation but soon Tony finds himself kidnapped by an evil scientist (Christopher Lee) and the woman (Bette Davis) who funds his experiments. The evil duo plan on using Tony's powers to take over the world so it's up to Tia to try and stop them. This sequel to Disney's ESCAPE FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN isn't nearly as good but fans will at least get some entertainment out of the supporting players. I think, for the most part, this is just a rehash of the original movie and the imagination level isn't nearly as high nor is the adventure as good. What we basically get are a lot of mildly amusing scenes where the kids are forced to use their power against one another and this does lead to a few good scenes. One of the highlights of the film happens when Tony is forced into a museum where Davis tries to get him to steal three-million in gold. This includes bringing the museum to life and this long sequence turns out to be the most memorable. The ending is also quite fun as Lee plans on blowing up the world and Tia must try to fight off Tony's powers. Unlike the first film, this one here actually contains some rather dark moments as the kids are constantly in danger and this gives the film a tone that isn't nearly as enjoyable. The special effects are just as impressive as the first one and they really get to shine during a car chase where certain objects magically move to try and ruin the chase. Both Richards and Eisenmann are very good in their parts and add a lot of charm even though their characters aren't written as well as previously. The main reason to check this out will be for fans of Lee and Davis who appear to be having a great time together. You can tell that both actors are enjoying these lesser roles that certainly didn't require them to do anything other than have fun. I found the two of them worked very well together and made for a great duo. Lee gets to be a good villain while Davis gets to show off some of her comic timing. In the end the film isn't nearly as good as the original but the cast and special effects make it worth while.

What was mildly entertaining in Escape to Witch Mountain turns into patently stupid and mind-numbingly ridiculous in its sequel, Return from Witch Mountain. The principle characters, two kids with an earnest lack of skill, named Ike Eisenmann and Kim Richards return to dazzle us with their ability to read lines and stand where directed, but the real excitement is how many wheezy Disney-fied clichés--cute critters, stereotypical cab drivers, harried cops, and megalomaniacal mad scientists--can feed into this dull, under-plotted kiddie flick.Christopher Lee, the mad scientist and his compatriot, Bette Davis, are involved in some sort of mind-controlling, plutonium-stealing plot to make Lee famous and Davis rich. They kidnap one of the kids and the other kid uses telepathy to find the first kid and . . . why am I writing this? I don't care. Christopher Lee is still making movies and being cool. Davis is as dead as the careers of the two kids who are now, respectively, 44 and 42.By the end of the movie, the good guys have won (ohmigosh, now there's a headline!), the baddies are suspended in on a scaffold (highly comical, eh?), and a truant officer, played by Jack Soo, gets to transport the heroic mini-gang of kiddies--who helped Eisenmann and Richards--back to school in his bright and shiny Ford Econoline van.If none of this makes sense, don't worry your head about it.Neither does the movie.