I'm not ashamed to admit I was a casual viewer of Sabrina the Animated Series back in the day. As I said in an earlier review, I love this character because believes magic is the solution to all her problems, but in her case, it always makes them worse. However, today's episode isn't really about that, it focuses more on the subject of bullying and getting revenge on those who wronged you, or rather, taking it out on their ascendants. It all started when Aunt Zelda woke up in a cold sweat, having a nightmare about some diminutive boogeyman chasing her. When she and Hilda are overly jumpy at breakfast, Sabrina asks what's wrong, and rather than just tell her, they concoct some weird "flashback spell" that shows her the story of a young man named Tim, a half-witch who was picked on by witches and warlocks at school. He warns them that they'll be sorry, but they're not concerned and simply laugh at him. Don't worry about it, Tim, just tell the high council they're all witches and then you can stand back and laugh as they burn at the stake. Yeah, I know the Salem Witch Trials were no laughing matter, but if it happened to these people, I wouldn't feel sorry for them. So, Tim and his pet aardvark run away from home and he becomes an apprentice to Leonardo DiVinci, only to later use his inventions for revenge. He concocts the greatest scientific gadgets that 1502 technology had to offer. What are these aunts smoking anyway? So, after that, Tim made it his mission to hunt down and destroy those were charmed. I guess he also has the power of immortality, as he's lived 500 years? They never say. Yeah, Hilda, Zelda, and even Salem are scared of this guy, but Sabrina isn't too worried. Oh, I forgot to mention, Tim's full title is Witch Smeller. He knows how to sniff out those who are charmed. So, I guess, he's like a Ghostbuster, but instead of busting ghosts, he busts witches, because busting makes him feel good. So after that, Sabrina and Harvey go through the Spellmans' old things for no reason, and Harvey finds a very cool looking MacGuffin, er, I mean a medallion. He tries it on, but then can't take it off. Oh well, I'm sure that won't get him into trouble later on. No, it does right away. As Tim drives by in his, Ecto-2, I guess, he "sniffs out" Harvey and takes him to be a warlock and kidnaps him, just as Sabrina comes to return his backpack. Once she reports to the family that Tim is near, her selfish aunts put the house on lockdown. Sabrina wants to rescue her friend, but they forbid it. Yeah, let Harvey die, save your own cowardly, witchy hides. It's weird they never told Sabrina about this dangerous witch-hunter. That would be like if Anne Frank's parents never told her about the Nazis until right before they were captured. However, this plucky young witch is determined to save her friend one way or another. After Salem agrees to help, they launch themselves out the chimney, as that was the one nook her aunts' fortification overlooked. Here she comes to save the day... God help us all.
Using a stolen tracking spell, Sabrina and Salem make it to Tim's Castle of Evil. Once inside, they discover a room with mounted heads all over the wall... and they talk! Yeah, I'm not sure if Tim decapitated them, or if the rest of their bodies are standing on crates behind the walls. It's then that Sabrina is confronted by Tim. Ooh, time for a showdown of epic proportions. Sabrina tries to zap him, and I'm not sure what she was going to do, but Tim uses his Proton-pack to scramble her feeble spell. He then traps her in a giant bubble and says that although he discovered Harvey wasn't a warlock, he'll still keep him for his slave. Gee, Tim, I didn't know you rolled that way. So, he COULD just kill Sabrina and Salem right there, but he's your typical Saturday morning cartoon villain, so he'll just stand there, laugh and mock her until she uses reverse psychology and calls him washed-up, which he quickly takes offense to. He falls for it hook, line and sinker, challenging Sabrina to elude him until nightfall. A good, old fashioned human hunt. Geez, if you take 'half-witch' and remove the c and h, you'll get what Tim really is: a half-wit. Yes, I know we have a paper-thin plot and we need to pad it out, but... no, actually, we don't. They go through the sewers and come out in a one-way alley, where Tim traps the preteen idiot, and her little cat too. Hey, Sabrina, you might want to try a little harder to evade the man who wants to mount your head on his wall. Why didn't she go to the dump and roll around in filth like her aunts were doing? You're making your bimbo aunts look mature, kid. Hilda and Zelda show up to save the day, but fail to subdue their predator. The four of them run like hell. Where should they go now? Where else would teenagers go? The mall. Now is not the time for shopping, you... they book it for the mall, while Uncle Quigley wanders around town, calling for Sabrina, just missing her by a few feet. Ha, ha, oh Quigley, don't ever change. Tim chases his prey through the mall, failing to destroy them. For being such a competent hunter, he really sucks at this, doesn't he? Also, there have been several instances where he falls on his clumsy ass. Why don't the girls just tie him up and call the police? Because they're idiots. They clear out the mall's shoppers simply by making them disappear. Well, that's horrifying. Where did you send them? I don't know who to root for anymore, the dumb witches or the equally dumb hunter. They literally give him the slip by making him trip on gumballs... okay, why were you girls even afraid of this guy? Hilda and Zelda woke up in a cold sweat having a nightmare about him like he were Freddy Kruger. This is the most harmless villain since the Wet Bandits. So finally, Tim has them cornered, and just as he's about to do what he should have done ages go and obliterate them, he's caught by Uncle Quigley's fishing pole. As Tim is dangling like a wet trout, he bemoans how all witches are bad because a group bullied him long ago, and it's here that the episode shoehorns in a message about discrimination and treating people as equals. These types of ham-fisted messages were mandatory in cartoons back in the day. So, Tim seems to relent and he asks the Spellmans' forgiveness. Sure, they can forgive the squat psychopath who tried to kill them. No problem. But wait, he's the villain! He reneges on his apology and opens his Ghost Trap, in case it wasn't already obvious that they were ripping off Ghostbusters, and like the incompetent spider that he is, he becomes entangled in his own web, giving out the stereotypical villain warning, "you haven't heard the last of me," to which Hilda replies, "I wasn't listening to the first of you." Thanks for that, Groucho. So, with the hunter down, they release all the evil witches from Tim's castle of horrors and give them their bodies back, then Sabrina takes away Harvey's medallion and the little nimrod had no idea what had really happened, so good, all was well again. But what of Tim the Witch Smeller? Let the punishment fit the crime, as now they've mounted his and his aardvark's heads on the wall, and they're sentient. How macabre. Why not just destroy his weapons and have him sent to jail? As his stupid pet tries in vain to scratch his nose, Tim vows vengeance. Yeah, you should've quit while you were 'a-head'. Ha ha ha.
This episode always stuck out to me among the rest, as its message seems to be all over the place. Like I said, it's meant to teach a lesson on the dangers of bullying and discrimination, but it all gets lost in the fold. They end up breeding a supervillain, they make no effort to reach out and try to reason with him, and he seems like he was inherently evil from the word go. This was the first episode of Sabrina the Animated Series to air, and if this is the first show you saw, would you really tune in next week? I mean, I'd like to see Tim come back as a regular villain, and he made two more appearances on the show, but for the most part, this series focuses on being a half-witch in a mortal word, struggling with school, homework, dating, coveting, and the challenges of youth...and how magic will aid you in none of them. Gotta say, I didn't sympathize with anybody in this episode and it seems like NOBODY learned any kind of lesson. Hilda and Zelda were complete idiots, Tim was about as harmless as a dandelion, and Sabrina, well, I don't blame her for being clueless because nobody ever told her about this non-threat until it was too late. At least Salem had his head on straight, and Quigley proved to be a hero in his own right. So, do I recommend Most Dangerous Witch? I don't know. I mean, it's not horrible, but it isn't good either. This series had far better episodes. I do recommend this show as well as Sabrina's Secret Life, though if you're a fan of the franchise, you probably stick to the live action Melissa Joan Hart one. Either way, give them a watch, and be careful who you push around, because one day they might become a rip-off Ghostbuster and turn you into a hunting trophy. As if.
Using a stolen tracking spell, Sabrina and Salem make it to Tim's Castle of Evil. Once inside, they discover a room with mounted heads all over the wall... and they talk! Yeah, I'm not sure if Tim decapitated them, or if the rest of their bodies are standing on crates behind the walls. It's then that Sabrina is confronted by Tim. Ooh, time for a showdown of epic proportions. Sabrina tries to zap him, and I'm not sure what she was going to do, but Tim uses his Proton-pack to scramble her feeble spell. He then traps her in a giant bubble and says that although he discovered Harvey wasn't a warlock, he'll still keep him for his slave. Gee, Tim, I didn't know you rolled that way. So, he COULD just kill Sabrina and Salem right there, but he's your typical Saturday morning cartoon villain, so he'll just stand there, laugh and mock her until she uses reverse psychology and calls him washed-up, which he quickly takes offense to. He falls for it hook, line and sinker, challenging Sabrina to elude him until nightfall. A good, old fashioned human hunt. Geez, if you take 'half-witch' and remove the c and h, you'll get what Tim really is: a half-wit. Yes, I know we have a paper-thin plot and we need to pad it out, but... no, actually, we don't. They go through the sewers and come out in a one-way alley, where Tim traps the preteen idiot, and her little cat too. Hey, Sabrina, you might want to try a little harder to evade the man who wants to mount your head on his wall. Why didn't she go to the dump and roll around in filth like her aunts were doing? You're making your bimbo aunts look mature, kid. Hilda and Zelda show up to save the day, but fail to subdue their predator. The four of them run like hell. Where should they go now? Where else would teenagers go? The mall. Now is not the time for shopping, you... they book it for the mall, while Uncle Quigley wanders around town, calling for Sabrina, just missing her by a few feet. Ha, ha, oh Quigley, don't ever change. Tim chases his prey through the mall, failing to destroy them. For being such a competent hunter, he really sucks at this, doesn't he? Also, there have been several instances where he falls on his clumsy ass. Why don't the girls just tie him up and call the police? Because they're idiots. They clear out the mall's shoppers simply by making them disappear. Well, that's horrifying. Where did you send them? I don't know who to root for anymore, the dumb witches or the equally dumb hunter. They literally give him the slip by making him trip on gumballs... okay, why were you girls even afraid of this guy? Hilda and Zelda woke up in a cold sweat having a nightmare about him like he were Freddy Kruger. This is the most harmless villain since the Wet Bandits. So finally, Tim has them cornered, and just as he's about to do what he should have done ages go and obliterate them, he's caught by Uncle Quigley's fishing pole. As Tim is dangling like a wet trout, he bemoans how all witches are bad because a group bullied him long ago, and it's here that the episode shoehorns in a message about discrimination and treating people as equals. These types of ham-fisted messages were mandatory in cartoons back in the day. So, Tim seems to relent and he asks the Spellmans' forgiveness. Sure, they can forgive the squat psychopath who tried to kill them. No problem. But wait, he's the villain! He reneges on his apology and opens his Ghost Trap, in case it wasn't already obvious that they were ripping off Ghostbusters, and like the incompetent spider that he is, he becomes entangled in his own web, giving out the stereotypical villain warning, "you haven't heard the last of me," to which Hilda replies, "I wasn't listening to the first of you." Thanks for that, Groucho. So, with the hunter down, they release all the evil witches from Tim's castle of horrors and give them their bodies back, then Sabrina takes away Harvey's medallion and the little nimrod had no idea what had really happened, so good, all was well again. But what of Tim the Witch Smeller? Let the punishment fit the crime, as now they've mounted his and his aardvark's heads on the wall, and they're sentient. How macabre. Why not just destroy his weapons and have him sent to jail? As his stupid pet tries in vain to scratch his nose, Tim vows vengeance. Yeah, you should've quit while you were 'a-head'. Ha ha ha.
This episode always stuck out to me among the rest, as its message seems to be all over the place. Like I said, it's meant to teach a lesson on the dangers of bullying and discrimination, but it all gets lost in the fold. They end up breeding a supervillain, they make no effort to reach out and try to reason with him, and he seems like he was inherently evil from the word go. This was the first episode of Sabrina the Animated Series to air, and if this is the first show you saw, would you really tune in next week? I mean, I'd like to see Tim come back as a regular villain, and he made two more appearances on the show, but for the most part, this series focuses on being a half-witch in a mortal word, struggling with school, homework, dating, coveting, and the challenges of youth...and how magic will aid you in none of them. Gotta say, I didn't sympathize with anybody in this episode and it seems like NOBODY learned any kind of lesson. Hilda and Zelda were complete idiots, Tim was about as harmless as a dandelion, and Sabrina, well, I don't blame her for being clueless because nobody ever told her about this non-threat until it was too late. At least Salem had his head on straight, and Quigley proved to be a hero in his own right. So, do I recommend Most Dangerous Witch? I don't know. I mean, it's not horrible, but it isn't good either. This series had far better episodes. I do recommend this show as well as Sabrina's Secret Life, though if you're a fan of the franchise, you probably stick to the live action Melissa Joan Hart one. Either way, give them a watch, and be careful who you push around, because one day they might become a rip-off Ghostbuster and turn you into a hunting trophy. As if.
