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* DefeatByTransformation: Because the protagonist has been turned into a mouse by the [[BigBad Grand High Witch]]'s Formula 86 and his only ally is his elderly grandmother, neither of them are up to defeating an entire hotel of Witches plus the Grand High Witch herself through physical force. Instead, [[spoiler: after stealing some Formula 86 from the Grand High Witch's hotel room, [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard they spike the Witches' soup with it]] at dinner that evening - resulting in a huge number of "mice" being killed by the hotel's staff, eliminating a vast swathe of England's child-killers and putting an end to the Grand Witch's plan before it even begins.]]
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* OneDoseFitsAll: The hero and his grandmother turn all the witches of England into mice, with five hundred doses of Delayed Action Mouse Maker, which they reason will give all two hundred witches a double dose at least. The hero plans to put the Mouse Maker into their food while it is being prepared in the kitchen, and worries that the wrong guests might receive it. His grandmother tells him to listen carefully to what the cooks are saying, and hand waves the problem of other guests eating the same food by telling him that for a big party, the food is prepared separately. In spite of knowing that giving more than one dose will make the delayed action unpredictable, , the witches all turn into mice at the same time.
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* OneDoseFitsAll: The hero and his grandmother turn all the witches of England into mice, with five hundred doses of Delayed Action Mouse Maker, which they reason will give all two hundred witches a double dose at least. The hero plans to put the Mouse Maker into their food while it is being prepared in the kitchen, and worries that the wrong guests might receive it. His least (His grandmother tells him to listen carefully to what the cooks are saying, and hand waves the problem of other guests eating the same food by telling him later counts only eighty-four witches, meaning that for a big party, the food is prepared separately. each witch receives approximately six doses). In spite of knowing that giving more than one dose will make the delayed action unpredictable, , the witches all turn into mice immediately and at the same time.time.
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* TauntingTheTransformed: While exploring the Grand High Witch's hotel room, the protagonist finds a trio of frogs hiding under the bed, and he remarks that they are almost certainly more [[BewitchedAmphibians transformed children]]. When the Grand High Witch returns to her room and finds them, narrowly overlooking the protagonist in the process, she cooingly addresses them as "my little froggies", taunting them with the knowledge that she's going to throw them out the window to their deaths and let the seagulls have them for breakfast.
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* RobeAndWizardHat: Averted in the very first line of the book: "In fairy tales, witches always wear silly black hats and cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks." This is before it goes on to say, "but this this is not a fairy tale: this is about REAL witches."
* ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: Thoroughly averted; the clothes are explicitly said to disappear. After all, piles of clothing might lead to questions...
* ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: Thoroughly averted; the clothes are explicitly said to disappear. After all, piles of clothing might lead to questions...
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* RobeAndWizardHat: Averted Subverted in the very first line of the book: "In fairy tales, witches always wear silly black hats and cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks." This is before it goes on to say, "but this this is not a fairy tale: this is about REAL witches."
*ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: Thoroughly averted; ShortLivedOrganism: When the clothes are explicitly said hero is turned into a mouse, he asks his grandmother how long a mouse lives. She reluctantly tells him that an ordinary mouse only lives about three years, but that, as he is a human transformed into a mouse, he will live about nine years. To his grandmother's surprise, he is delighted by this news, as he does not want to disappear. After all, piles of clothing might lead to questions...outlive her.
*
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* DramaticallyDelayedDrug:
** This is the premise of the [[BigBad Grand High Witch]]'s plan to [[WouldHurtAChild wipe out all the children of England in one stroke]]: chocolates will be spiked with her Formula 86 Delayed Action [[ForcedTransformation Mouse-Maker]], and then sold to kids who will eat it one day but won't feel the effects until nine o' clock the following morning, when they arrive at school - where they'll be killed as ordinary household pests by oblivious adults. As such, nobody will suspect that the chocolate was the cause, and no suspicion will fall on the witches running the sweet shops.
** The same applies to [[FatBastard Bruno Jenkins]], the [[AssholeVictim first victim]] of the potion: the Grand High Witch gave him chocolate spiked with Formula 86 the previous day and invites him to the meeting of the witches the following afternoon so they can witness him transform on stage. It's timed so perfectly that Bruno arrives just as the Grand High Witch explains this and barely has enough time to demand to know what's going on before the transformation kicks off.
** Subverted in the case of the protagonist; overdoses of Formula 86 result in the delay mechanism failing and the potion working immediately, as our hero discovers when he's caught eavesdropping, captured, and forced to swallow an entire bottle of the stuff, causing him to begin transforming in a matter of seconds. In the climax, [[spoiler: the witches [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard end up on the receiving end of the same treatment]] when the protagonist spikes their soup with Formula 86, causing them to transform within seconds of eating it.]]
** This is the premise of the [[BigBad Grand High Witch]]'s plan to [[WouldHurtAChild wipe out all the children of England in one stroke]]: chocolates will be spiked with her Formula 86 Delayed Action [[ForcedTransformation Mouse-Maker]], and then sold to kids who will eat it one day but won't feel the effects until nine o' clock the following morning, when they arrive at school - where they'll be killed as ordinary household pests by oblivious adults. As such, nobody will suspect that the chocolate was the cause, and no suspicion will fall on the witches running the sweet shops.
** The same applies to [[FatBastard Bruno Jenkins]], the [[AssholeVictim first victim]] of the potion: the Grand High Witch gave him chocolate spiked with Formula 86 the previous day and invites him to the meeting of the witches the following afternoon so they can witness him transform on stage. It's timed so perfectly that Bruno arrives just as the Grand High Witch explains this and barely has enough time to demand to know what's going on before the transformation kicks off.
** Subverted in the case of the protagonist; overdoses of Formula 86 result in the delay mechanism failing and the potion working immediately, as our hero discovers when he's caught eavesdropping, captured, and forced to swallow an entire bottle of the stuff, causing him to begin transforming in a matter of seconds. In the climax, [[spoiler: the witches [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard end up on the receiving end of the same treatment]] when the protagonist spikes their soup with Formula 86, causing them to transform within seconds of eating it.]]
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* HandInTheHole: This happens accidentally to the hotel maid. When the hero is turned into a mouse, he hides in a shoe when he sees the maid coming. The maid picks the shoe up, and puts her hand inside; and the hero instinctively bites her, causing the maid to scream and drop the shoe.
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* ClothespinNosePlug: At the end of their annual meeting, the Grand High Witch reminds the witches to put cotton plugs up their noses before having their dinner, because the dining room will be full of children, who smell like dogs' droppings to witches.
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* AsYouKnow: During the Grand High Witch's explanation of her plan to wipe out all the children in England, she tells her audience that "money is not a problem to us witches as you know very well" because [[CounterfeitCash she prints her own money for them]]. This is done to remind the audience that the Grand High Witch has a money-printing machine after it was initially brought up by the protagonist's Grandmama a few chapters earlier.
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* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The early chapters of the book hammer in that witches are difficult to detect because they are ''very'' good at blending in with the general population; while they do have [[RedRightHand some physical tells]], they're either easily concealed or difficult to spot unless you're close enough to them as to be in danger.
-->''REAL WITCHES dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ORDINARY JOBS.''\\
This is why they are so hard to catch.
-->''REAL WITCHES dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ORDINARY JOBS.''\\
This is why they are so hard to catch.
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* All Witches have [[RedRightHand huge cat-like claws which they hide with gloves]].
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* All Witches have [[RedRightHand huge cat-like claws claws]] [[ConspicuousGloves which they hide with gloves]].
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* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Grandmamma claims that if you're Norwegian, you don't raise a fuss when your child runs afoul of witches. You accept it's a calculated risk. There are two examples that contradict that: Solveg's father freaked out when he saw his daughter as part of a family painting, and his first instinct was to try and get her out. Obviously, he couldn't because she was canvas and paint. The second is when the boy becomes a mouse. Grandmamma goes OhCrap and freezes on seeing the two mice. She needs coaxing to close her hotel door and hide them from the maid. Then she sits in a chair and cries. The boy was her orphaned grandson. There's a difference between living with a calculated risk and actually seeing your children or grandchildren attacked, killed or transformed.
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* OnOneCondition: After the death of the hero's parents, the grandmother promises him that they will live in Norway. However, the parents' will stipulates that he must return to England and be educated there, and so they do. [[spoiler: They do, however, return to Norway when he has been transformed into a mouse.]]
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* UnsatisfiableCustomer: Bruno's father spends most of his screen time complaining about the hotel's amenities and berating the staff. It doesn't help that he's also a [[ViolentGlaswegian scary Scot]].
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* UnsatisfiableCustomer: In the 1990 film, Bruno's father spends most of his screen time complaining about the hotel's amenities and berating the staff. It doesn't help that he's also a [[ViolentGlaswegian scary Scot]].
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* YouHaveFailedMe: At every annual meeting of the witches, the Grand High Witch makes a point of subjecting one witch to "getting fried" (being incinerated with eye beams), so that the rest stay on their nonexistent toes. [[Headscratchers/TheWitches Since we're never told how more witches come about, it's amazing any are left.]] ([[LampshadeHanging The main character himself wonders this.]])
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* YouHaveFailedMe: At every annual meeting of the witches, the Grand High Witch makes a point of subjecting one witch to "getting fried" (being incinerated with eye beams), so that the rest stay on their nonexistent toes. [[Headscratchers/TheWitches Since we're never told how more witches come about, it's amazing any are left.]] ([[LampshadeHanging The main character himself wonders this.]])]]) Just before this, the Grand High Witch begins the meeting by ranting about how the beach is full of children playing, because the "vitches of Inkland" have failed to get rid of them.
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-->'''Grandma:''' You angel. You're bleeding.\\
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--->'''Grandma:''' You angel. You're bleeding.\\
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** When describing how English witches often turn children into creatures that grown-ups hate, such as slugs and fleas, so that the grown-ups will dispose of their own children, she tells of how some children have been turned into pheasants to be shot, in a reference to Dahl's earlier book ''Literature/DannyTheChampionOfTheWorld''.
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* ManipulativeBastard: Zigzagged with the grandmother. She dutifully respects the wishes of the hero's dead parents by taking him to England to be educated, and grudgingly obeys the doctor's orders not to travel to Norway, just after her treatment for pneumonia. However, she proves that she is extremely cunning and devious about saying things to people to anger them, or to get what she wants, as follows:
** When the hotel manager forbids the hero to keep pet mice in his room, the grandmother relentlessly tells the manager that she has seen rats in his hotel, and that her food tasted ratty, to persuade him to allow it.
** When the hero (in mouse form) is searching the Grand High Witch's room, the grandmother chats to the Grand High Witch on her balcony. She casually asks the Grand High Witch if she has any children, which backfires and causes her to storm furiously into the room and slam the door behind her, trapping the hero inside.
** After Mr and Mrs Jenkins have refused to believe that Bruno has been turned into a mouse, Mr Jenkins later confronts the grandmother about Bruno being missing. She calmly shows Bruno to poor Mr Jenkins, and then points out the witch who did it, to get Mr Jenkins into trouble.
** To find out the location of the Grand High Witch's secret headquarters, she calls the police chief in England, pretending to be the chief of police for the whole of Norway, saying that she can easily imitate a man's voice. It seems to be a forgone conclusion that this would work, saying the one policeman will always help another policeman, and indeed that the police chief was honoured to receive a call from the police chief in Norway.
** When the hotel manager forbids the hero to keep pet mice in his room, the grandmother relentlessly tells the manager that she has seen rats in his hotel, and that her food tasted ratty, to persuade him to allow it.
** When the hero (in mouse form) is searching the Grand High Witch's room, the grandmother chats to the Grand High Witch on her balcony. She casually asks the Grand High Witch if she has any children, which backfires and causes her to storm furiously into the room and slam the door behind her, trapping the hero inside.
** After Mr and Mrs Jenkins have refused to believe that Bruno has been turned into a mouse, Mr Jenkins later confronts the grandmother about Bruno being missing. She calmly shows Bruno to poor Mr Jenkins, and then points out the witch who did it, to get Mr Jenkins into trouble.
** To find out the location of the Grand High Witch's secret headquarters, she calls the police chief in England, pretending to be the chief of police for the whole of Norway, saying that she can easily imitate a man's voice. It seems to be a forgone conclusion that this would work, saying the one policeman will always help another policeman, and indeed that the police chief was honoured to receive a call from the police chief in Norway.
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* MistakenForInsane: Discussed. After the protagonist has [[ForcedTransformation turned into a mouse]], his grandmother says she can't take him to a dentist or the latter would consider her crazy.
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* MistakenForInsane: Discussed. After the protagonist has [[ForcedTransformation turned into a mouse]], his grandmother says she can't take him to a dentist or the latter would consider her crazy. She also says that when they are in the hotel dining room, she won't be able to talk to him, or people will think she is dotty and talking to herself.
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* ''The Witches'' (2008) A Norwegian children's opera composed by Marcus Paus.
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* ''The Witches'' (2008) (2008): A Norwegian children's opera composed by Marcus Paus.
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* ''The Witches'' (2023): A stage musical adaptation, with music and lyrics by Creator/DaveMalloy.
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* {{Blackmail}}: When the hotel manager forbids the hero from keeping mice in his room, the grandmother tells BlatantLies about having seen rats in the hotel, and reporting this to health authorities, to blackmail the manager into allowing the pet mice to stay.
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* {{Blackmail}}: When the hotel manager forbids the hero from keeping mice in his room, the grandmother tells BlatantLies about having seen rats in the hotel, and reporting threatens to report this to health authorities, to blackmail the manager into allowing the pet mice to stay.
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* {{Blackmail}}: When the hotel manager forbids the hero from keeping mice in his room, the grandmother tells BlatantLies about having seen rats in the hotel, and reporting this to health authorities, to blackmail the manager into allowing the pet mice to stay.
--> '''Grandmother:''' No wonder my breakfast toast was all nibbled round the edges this morning. No wonder it had a nasty ratty taste. Are you or are you not going to allow my grandson to keep his pet mice in his room?
--> '''Grandmother:''' No wonder my breakfast toast was all nibbled round the edges this morning. No wonder it had a nasty ratty taste. Are you or are you not going to allow my grandson to keep his pet mice in his room?
