Disney Witches revisited

Eta Beta eega at supereva.it
Fri Aug 29 10:46:19 CEST 2003


Hiya Rich!

>I'm taking inventory of Disney's witches and hopefully some of you
>can clarify a few points for me.
[...]
>Anything to add, correct or share about these characters or others 
>would be welcome! :-) [this is right up your ally Eta! :-)]

Ah, well, this reminds me that I have a witches web page halfway
through updating, too... it's been halfway for several months,
actually... :-)

However, as you know, I'm not following modern Disney stuff, so
I can only help with a couple of clarifications...


>2) Mad Madam Mim
[...]
>Currently Mim lives in an old house in the forest.  She occassionally
>teams up with the Beagle Boys, but more often encounters the forest
>characters like Big Bad Wolf and Brer Bear.

I don't know whether Mim is used at all, these days... all the
above, afaik, refers to just a bunch of Tony Strobl's stories
from the mid sixties, not enough, maybe, to become part of
the character's "lore"... dunno...

However, you forgot to mention Mim had a terrible crush for
Capt. Hook once, and she fell for the Phantom Blot as well, the
wicked old gal... :-)

>3) Witch Hazel or Hazel Witch
>Her residence is unknown, but is presumably also somewhere in
>the forest.

Not sure about that, especially if you mean "Forest" as one of
the estabilished environments (that's where the wolves live,
and some include also Bre'r Rabbit & co. in there, although I
think the latter really live in the suburbia-like Swamp, with
Bre'r Bear and Bre'r Fox sorta commuting).

In most italian stories, out of memory, Hazel lives either in
a cottage-like house, similar to Magica's, or in some unspecified
cave. Location is unknown, and I'm under the impression she
actually lives in another dimension and drops in "here" every
now and then to visit.

>4) Witch-Queen from Snow White
>Another witch typically encountered in Forest-related stories.
>Always evil.  Not much used these days. 

And I'm convinced this has to be yet another Forest, possibly
in yet another dimension... or we have to deal with a time-warp
here, if we want to place the 7 dwarfs and the Wolves in the same
environment...

>6) Minima de Spell
>Minima appears to often visit Magica along with her grandmother.

Can't say I know much of her, either... I've only read her debut
story, kindly sent to me by Michael Gilbert, and the one italian
story with her, where she appears along with *Magica's* granny,
not hers... but this ought to be checked.

>7) Granny de Spell
>A portrait of Whistler's Mother aptly describes her appearance.
>She seems to be just an old sage who tends to annoy Magica.

>11) Nonna Caraldina?
>Another granny of Magica's?  Or is she the same as Granny de Spell,
>but somehow revamped into a much more vibrant character???

Well, in my page I've purported Magica as having THREE grandmas,
because witches ARE different, after all... ;-)

The third would be the brazilian version, which appears to be
slightly different, character and appearance-wise, to the other
two...

But what I really think is this is the SAME character, although
tackled very differently by different authors.

>8) Witch-Child

You may want to add that she's the daughter of the Witch Of The
West. (Yes, I guess she's meant to be THAT Witch Of The West of
Oz fame)

>9) Warlock
>Witch-Child's brother.  I know very little about him.

Not much to know, only two stories.

>10) Matilda de Spell
>Another neice of Magica's.

Nope. She's a cousin.

>I am not sure whether she and Minima are sisters

Definitely not.

>I'm not aware of her motivations (good? evil?)

Plain boredom, as far as I can tell... :-)

>or her standing with Magica

Sent at Magica's for apprenticing.

>14) Samson Hex
>A young owl-boy who served as apprentice to Magica and Mim for 
>a while. Has not been seen lately?

Not that I know of. He only appears in a bunch of s-coded
story at all, I guess, don't think he's ever been used outside
what I call the "coven" environment (Magica & Mim)

>15) Rosalio
>A large goose-like character who has a certain fascination for
>Magica.  I'm not sure if he is related to Magica or not or what
>his motivations are.

He's Magica's suitor, blindingly in love with her, much to her
annoyance.

sp: ROSOLIO

>16) Master Sorcerer
>A large owl-like character who appears to be the head of all
>the witches.  I would like to know more about him...

Never seen, but...

>... and if he and Samson are related.

don't think so.

>17) Paddy the Leprechaun
>A leprechaun who has been in a few stories with the witches.
>I know very little about him.

Thanks to David's research, we've finally found out his real,
original name to be DANNY O'DOOM.

Very little to add about him, he generally fusses about his pot
of gold. And he, too, belongs to a very short span of s-coded
witch stories, we could call them the "Schmitz Series" as
opposed to the earlier "Fletcher Series" where Samson appeared.

>19) Merlin the Magician
>The Sorcerer from SWORD IN THE STONE, also not used very often,
>but his familiar, Archimedes the Owl, has been seen more often,
>even apparently living with Mim?

I don't think this is correct. Archimedes is not a "familiar"
in the technical sense of the term, like Ratface, he's more
like a... uhm... acculturated pet, I'd say... :-)

And I'm nearly certain Mim's owl (which I must admit I don't
remember right now) is not the same... after all, Mim and
Merlin used to be fierce enemies, I can't see any half-decent
owl changing sides like that... ;-)

And, btw, I guess you're really using this term just for
convenience of "grouping" characters, but Spitfire is not much
of a "familiar" either... he's just plain pet, to me...


Cheers!

Eta Beta


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