Once upon a time witches were acutely schizophrenic old hags who lived alone in the woods, fiddled around with poisoned apples and magic mirrors, and spooked lost little girls from Kansas. Wizards wore pointed hats, looked like a mouse, conjured up armies of brooms, and had major plumbing problems.
I don't count myself a big fan of this widely praised film. It was directed by Steven Spielberg during his "good aliens" period—a period that included the far superior <I>ET: The Extraterrestrial.</I>