What? No love for Queen Grimhilde*, the Wicked Queen/Evil Stepmother of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves 91937)? She scared the hell out of little kids in the 1930s (in the 1980s they still had signs on the Seven Dwarves Mine Ride at Disneyland warning little children about the scary witch). But to adult guys, in her Queen persona she was sexy as hell. It wasn’t until I finally saw Merian C. Cooper’s version of She (1934) that I realized that Disney ripped off his Evil Queen from Cooper’s incarnation of H. Rider Haggard’s sexy Evil Queen.
She even threatened to change the image of the Wicked Witch of the West in MGM’s Wizard of Oz. There exist stills of a “beautiful” witch in that role, done as a test clearly influenced by Disneyt’s first feature cartoon (and in sharp distinction to L. Frank Baum’s original book and its illustrations). Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed, and we got Margaret Hamilton in green makeup. If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have Wicked today.
For pure witch power, this is the answer. Just by twitching her nose she could alter time, space, reality, matter, etc., and have dinner ready for when Darren’s boss dropped by unexpectedly for dinner.
I agree with everyone’s choices; witches are fun (and sometimes hot, i.e. Samantha / Serena). Speaking of fun and hot, I don’t think anyone mentioned Gillian Holroyd.
And, though he is actually a wizard, I know there is much love for Snape (RIP Mr. Rickman; we’ll miss you )
Whether Isaac was himself a witch was something he never ever tired of arguing around the campfire…but he was, without a doubt, in the top 10 (heck, probably top 3) people most influential on modern witchcraft, so he gets an honorary broom, at least.
I approve this remark.
I have a Discworld art book where Pratchett himself described Nanny as 'Probably more powerful than Granny, but smart enough not to show it." At any rate, you can’t really separate them. I love Nanny.
Wait, two pages and nobody’s thought about the Original Big Three stirring up their eye of newt and toe of frog? Well, none of you blame me if you find yourself getting stabbed by a C-section baby.
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