Ike - Film Reviews

Escape from Witch Mountain & Return from Witch Mountain is based from characters created by Alexander Key.

The stories were created for the motion picture by Walt Disney, screenplay by Malcolm Marmorstein.

A paperback book produced by 'Scholastic' in association with Pan books called 'Return from Witch Mountain' was produced in 1979 and was first published in the United Kingdom.

The Witch mountain films is probably Ike Eisenmann's most recognised Role.
His character portrayed a young boy called Tony, brother to Tia (Kim Richards). Both are extra terrestrial (aliens!) however are portrayed as innocent humans.

What sets them apart from normal humans is that they have powers of extra sensory perception, levitation and telepathy.

Initially Tia has the stronger powers, but as Tony progresses through the film he becomes the dominant character.

Escape from Witch Mountain:

Tony and Tia are separated at childhood through accident however, both have the feeling of 'another' present. Tony has a troubled school life and eventually meets Tia who is at the same school. Both recognise each other and learn from each other's skills.
Tony's powers are noticed by a millionaire Aristotle Bolt (Ray Milland) who is searching for clairvoyants to help expand his resources. Aristotle uses forged documents to remove the children from the school. But imprisoned at Bolt's luxurious estate, Tia and Tony refuse to put their powers at his disposal..

Return From Witch Mountain:

Tony an Tia return. This time Tony is kidnapped by Letha (Bette Davis).
Letha with the aid of an equally evil Dr Victor Gannon (Christopher Lee) fit electronic implants to Tony giving Letha total control over Tony via a handheld intercom device.

Their plan is to use Tony's powers to break into a bank and steal gold bullion.

However their plans are thwarted when Tia comes to the rescue with the aid of the 'Golden Goons' - a gang of four boys. The Goons create diversions while Tia tries unsuccessfully to telepathically break through Letha's electronic implants. It is only when Letha's remote control device is broken that Tia is able to rescue Tony.

Fantastic Journey

The Fantastic Journey was based on present day and first aired around April 1977.
Edited by Dorothy C. Fontana; one of the popular Star Trek production crew, the series ran for one season but was cancelled due to poor ratings. Since then The Fantastic Journey has become one of the cult series of the 70's regularly repeated on cable and satellite television.

The Fantastic Journey is based around a group of scientist's were conducting scientific studies around the Caribbean islands (Bermuda Triangle) for the Summer, on a little boat called "The Yonder". One of the members (Paul Jordan) spotted a green mist which seemed to approach them, as they entered this mist they could hear bells and screaming, like all the ghosts of other victims from the past, meanwhile, the Captain's mate Carl was trying to control the boat and was tossed over board and drowned.

Later, after finding an unmapped island, they come across a Varian, a 23rd century telepath who explained that the island has a weird "time and space warp" which allowed the culminating of past, present, and future.

Through their search the came across other people including Scott Jordan (Ike Eisenmann) with psychic powers, Liana, from an ancient Atlantis; and Dr. Jonathan Willaway, an eccentric scientists from the 1960s

It could be said that this series was loosely based on 'Lost in Space' of ten years earlier as the crew; as in Lost in Space try to find their way home - encountering different times and people as they go.

Click Here for a review of of Ike's latest production 'Single Family Dwelling'