Witch and the Baby, The — Evgenia Golubeva, 2020
A nasty witch has some issues with the way she looks. She decides to give herself a make-over to feel young and beautiful by creating a wonderful spell. Unfortunately, the witch is short of one of the core ingredients… a human baby. In a bid to get a child, the witch makes a beeline for the local palace, disguising herself as a prospective babysitter. The royal couple secure her in the post and are immediately off in their royal jet to enjoy a peaceful holiday leaving the witch in sole charge of the youngster. As soon as it is clear to do so, the witch whisks the child away to her cottage deep in the wood to add her to her spell. As you can imagine, not all goes to plan, and the baby is soon creating chaos inside the cottage. Will the witch achieve her desire to become young and beautiful, or will she discover that beauty is more than skin deep?
Classroom Activities
Print All- Critical
- Cultural
- Creative
- Clip Details
Critical
- What do you remember? Who were the main characters? What did the baby get up to?
- Why did the magazine make the witch sad? What did she do about it? Should she have tried to change herself? Why?
- Do you think the parents have left the baby with the witch? Why? What could/should they have done differently? How did the baby feel about it? What evidence do you have?
- Do you think the witch had looked after a baby before? How can you tell? Do you think she was a good babysitter? How can you tell?
- How does the witch feel about the baby at the beginning of the story? How does this change? Why does this change? How does the director show this change?
- Why did the director choose to make the witch green? What does green make you think? How do the colours differ between the witch’s house at the start and the colours we see in the palace. Why has the director done this? What is she implying?
Cultural
- All the people applying for the job of babysitter are female. The advert shows a female babysitter also. Are there jobs that you think are more likely to be for women? Is this true? Why do you think this is? Are there jobs that females can and can’t do?
- The witch was bad because she was lonely. How does it feel to be lonely? How could you help someone who is lonely?
- What other fairy tales do you know? Is this film a fairy tale? Why (not)?
- What stories do you know that have a witch as a main character? What do you know about witches?
- Are there any stories where the witch tries to get a baby/children? What other stories do you know where a child or baby causes chaos?
- What does it take to look after a baby? What do they need? What do they want? What would making looking after a baby difficult? How would you feel looking after a baby? What should you not do?
- The witch thinks she is ugly but is kind inside. What makes a person ugly on the inside?
- When do you feel bad about yourself? When do you feel good about yourself? What do you do when you are feeling sad? Who helps to make you feel better?
Creative
WRITE
- If you could make a recipe to alter something, what would it be? What ingredients would you need? Create an illustrated recipe in the style of a cookbook.
- What qualities would you need to be a babysitter for a royal baby? Create a job application/advert for the babysitter job at the palace.
- Create/design a new character for the story. The character must fit within the scene and the current characters and feel part of the story.
DRAMA
- In pairs, act out a scenario where one person is feeling bad about themselves. The second actor should try to help the first feel better about themselves. They should accentuate the positives to counterweight the negatives.
PSHE
- Older audiences should look at how males and females are portrayed in magazines. With a range of magazines/newspapers, ask pupils to cut out images of males and females. Stick these to two separate sheets of paper: one for male pictures, one for female pictures. How do they differ?
STEM
- Design a witch’s or warlock’s house. What features should it have (internal/external)? Where would it be located? Should it be big/small? Why? List ideas, then draw an annotated picture to show all the features inside and out.
Clip Details
| Year of Production | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animation |
| Curriculum Areas | Expressive Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Modern Languages, Literacy and English, Religious and Moral Education, Social Studies |
| Director | Evgenia Golubeva |
| Country of Origin | Russia |
| Medium / Content | 2D Animation, Fiction, Colour, Sound, No Dialogue |
| Themes | Feelings, Relationships, Identity / Self, Intolerance / Misconceptions |
| Clip Length | 04:45 |
| Clip Length | 04:45 |
| Age Group | P1-P4 |
