The Witches Ending Explained: The Grand High Witch’s Evil Plan and the Children’s Final Revenge (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: This article contains major spoilers for The Witches, including the complete ending.

The Witches: A Dark Fantasy Story About Children, Magic and Revenge

The Witches begins as an emotional story about a young boy struggling with the loss of his parents, but it quickly turns into a dark fantasy adventure filled with dangerous witches, magical potions and talking mice.

After losing his parents, the boy moves in with his grandmother. She is loving and protective, but he remains deeply unhappy because he still misses his family. Hoping to give him some companionship, his grandmother gives him a small pet mouse.

The mouse soon becomes his closest friend.

What the boy does not realize is that something much more dangerous is watching him.

The Strange Woman at the Store

One day, the boy and his grandmother go shopping. While he is briefly separated from her, a strange woman approaches him.

She offers him chocolate and begins speaking to him in an unsettling way. The woman appears to be trying to lure him closer, but his grandmother arrives before anything can happen.

When the boy tells his grandmother about the woman, she immediately becomes concerned.

According to her, the mysterious woman was not an ordinary person.

She was a witch.

His grandmother knows witches are real because she encountered them when she was young. She tells him about a childhood friend who met a mysterious woman and was later magically transformed into a chicken.

The warning is simple: never trust a strange woman offering sweets, especially if something about her seems unnatural.

Realizing that witches may now know where they live, the grandmother decides they should leave.

Unfortunately, the place they choose for safety turns out to be the worst possible destination.

The Hotel Is Filled With Witches

The grandmother takes the boy to a luxurious hotel where she believes they will be protected.

Instead, a huge group of fashionable women begins arriving at the same hotel.

They claim that they are there for a meeting, but they are actually witches gathering for an important conference.

Their leader is the terrifying Grand High Witch.

The boy's grandmother explains some of the signs that can reveal a witch. They hide their unusual hands with gloves, cover their heads with wigs and use stylish clothing to disguise their true appearance.

The next morning, the boy takes his pet mouse to an apparently empty hall.

Then the witches arrive.

Unable to escape without being noticed, he hides and listens to their meeting.

What he hears is horrifying.

The Grand High Witch’s Plan to Transform Children Into Mice

The Grand High Witch reveals a magical potion capable of transforming children into animals.

Her plan is enormous.

The witches will place the potion inside chocolates and sweets and give them to children. After eating the poisoned candy, the children will transform into mice.

The witches do not intend to target only certain children. They want to attack children everywhere.

To demonstrate that the potion actually works, they use another boy who has been tempted with chocolate.

Moments later, he transforms into a tiny mouse.

The witches are delighted.

The hidden boy realizes that thousands of children could eventually suffer the same fate if nobody stops them.

Unfortunately, the witches soon discover him.

They capture him and use the potion on him as well.

Within moments, he is transformed into a mouse.

Three Mice Decide to Fight Back

After escaping from the witches, the transformed boy joins the other child who has become a mouse.

They also discover that his pet mouse has a surprising secret.

She was originally a human girl who had also been transformed by a witch.

The three children may now look like mice, but they can still think, communicate and understand everything happening around them.

They return to the grandmother and explain what happened.

She is devastated to discover what the witches have done, but instead of surrendering, she decides to help the children fight back.

Their first idea is to steal the Grand High Witch's magical potion.

If the grandmother can understand the formula, perhaps she can transform the children back into humans.

The boy discovers that the Grand High Witch's room can be reached from their balcony.

Using a makeshift plan involving a sock, the grandmother lowers the tiny mouse toward the witch's room.

Despite the danger, he successfully steals the potion.

However, their celebration does not last long.

Why Can’t the Children Turn Back Into Humans?

The grandmother tries using the stolen potion on the three mice.

Nothing happens.

They finally understand the problem.

The magical formula was designed to transform humans into animals. It was never designed to reverse the transformation.

There is no easy cure.

The children may be trapped in their mouse bodies permanently.

Instead of giving up, they come up with another idea.

If the potion can transform humans into mice, why not use it against the witches themselves?

The witches are preparing to have dinner together.

That gives the grandmother and the children the perfect opportunity for revenge.

The Witches’ Own Potion Is Used Against Them

The grandmother secretly takes the magical potion toward the kitchen where the witches' food is being prepared.

Their target is the soup being served to the witches.

The potion is added to it.

There is one tense moment when the hotel manager becomes suspicious after noticing mice around the grandmother. However, she manages to avoid exposing the children and keeps the plan alive.

Soon the witches sit down for dinner.

They begin eating the soup without realizing what has been mixed into it.

Then the potion starts working.

One by one, the witches begin transforming into mice.

The same creatures they intended to create from innocent children are now exactly what they have become.

Chaos erupts throughout the hotel.

Workers see mice everywhere and begin chasing them.

For the grandmother and the children, it is the perfect revenge.

But there is still one major problem.

The Grand High Witch has not been defeated.

The Witches Ending Explained: What Happens to the Grand High Witch?

The Grand High Witch avoids the initial trap and does not transform with the others.

That means the most dangerous witch of them all is still alive.

The three mouse children therefore create another plan.

They distract and attack her, eventually getting the magical potion into her mouth.

The transformation finally begins.

The powerful Grand High Witch becomes a large mouse.

The woman who planned to turn children into helpless animals is now trapped inside the body of one herself.

The grandmother then places the transformed witch near a cat.

The implication is clear: the Grand High Witch's reign of terror is effectively over.

Her own magical creation has become the weapon that destroys her.

Why Don’t the Children Become Human Again?

One of the most surprising parts of The Witches ending is that the children do not magically return to normal.

They remain mice.

Normally, a fantasy movie might end by discovering an antidote and transforming everyone back into humans.

That is not what happens here.

Instead, the children gradually accept their new lives.

The other transformed boy's parents are terrified when they discover what has happened to him. Rather than accepting their son in his new form, they reject the idea of keeping a talking mouse with them.

He therefore stays with his new friends and the grandmother.

For him, finding people who genuinely care about him becomes more important than returning to his old home.

The Meaning of The Witches Ending

The ending is happy, but not because everything returns to the way it was before.

The children have permanently changed.

They cannot recover their original bodies, but they still have their personalities, memories and friendship.

That becomes the emotional message behind the ending.

The witches believed transforming children into mice would make them powerless. Instead, the children use their intelligence, teamwork and courage to defeat the witches.

The grandmother also proves that family is defined by love rather than appearance. She continues treating the transformed children with the same affection and protection she gave them when they were human.

The three mice eventually become comfortable with their unusual lives.

They eat together, play together and enjoy being with their grandmother.

Instead of spending their lives mourning what they have lost, they appreciate what they still have.

Final Thoughts

The Witches turns its frightening premise into a satisfying revenge story.

The Grand High Witch creates a potion because she believes children are helpless and easy to manipulate. In the end, that same potion destroys her entire plan.

The children may lose their human bodies, but the witches fail to take away their courage, intelligence or ability to love.

That is why the final transformation is not really a defeat.

The three mice have found friendship, a family and a safe home with the grandmother.

And with the Grand High Witch defeated, they can finally live without constantly fearing the witches who once hunted them.

It is an unusual happy ending, but an effective one: the heroes do not get their old lives back, yet they still manage to create a new life worth enjoying.