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There are certain live-action Disney films that I guess instill some sense of nostalgia among adults today because they can remember seeing them as a child and the movie immediately evokes that simpler, magical time. We all have them. For me, it was probably Freaky Friday or Bedknobs and Broomsticks, followed closely behind by The Apple Dumpling Gang — although I’m sure the latter was due to constant television replays over the years. For director Andy Fickman (The Game Plan) it was obviously 1975’s Escape to Witch Mountain and its 1978 sequel, Return From Witch Mountain — two movies I have only vague memories of and mostly because they starred budding Disney actress Kim Richards (who infamously was shot and killed onscreen in John Carpenter’s 1976 classic Assault on Precinct 13). On paper, the plot of both movies seems a bit simplistic and far-fetched: two strange little kids appear one day with some amazing, supernatural powers. A kind-hearted man takes them under his care and agrees to help get them back “home” … only he doesn’t realize home is on another planet far, far away. The “kids” are actually aliens in human form. Enough said. These being ‘70s Disney films, neither aspires to be anything more than a simple story of different cultures (humans vs. aliens) learning to bond and work together. Both are essentially character-driven dramas with a little Disney magic and emotion thrown in for good measure.

Of course the whole profile of what has become known as a “Disney film” in 2009 is a lot different from the studio’s 1970s output. It’s more about flashy special effects, big bold car chases, and bankable marquee names. So Fickman’s well-intentioned remake, Race to Witch Mountain, attempts to graft all those new elements onto what was essentially a small, intimate story with rudimentary effects. As such, the results are decidedly mixed. There isn’t anything particularly bad or misguided in the new reboot, but it doesn’t really wow you with its new, updated premise either. It’s a harmless and entertaining diversion that is soon forgotten once the end credits roll. Maybe the problem is the plot is now so familiar and clichéd that nothing in it seems particularly fresh or original. Aliens come to Earth in human form and attempt to “fit in,” bonding with one or two earthlings who are sympathetic to their plight. While Fickman may claim to bow at the altar of the original Disney films, Race to Witch Mountain seems to owe more to Starman — directed by John Carpenter, ironically enough — with its whole cross-country chase structure, an alien taking on human form, and a band of government agents in hot pursuit. Even the opening “crash landing” sequence and the final shot of the protagonists looking up as the alien ship flies off are direct rip-offs from Starman. The one original element Race to Witch Mountain does have going for it, though, is the star power of Dwayne (no longer “The Rock”) Johnson. Johnson has consistently proven he’s not above making himself look silly to entertain and he has a natural charm and charisma that make him a joy to watch.

Johnson stars as Jack Bruno, an aspiring race car driver who fell in with some bad elements and is now working as a cab driver in Las Vegas. Bruno is busy transporting people to the big UFO convention at Vegas’ Planet Hollywood when he first meets Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino), a legitimate scientist scheduled to speak at the convention on her theories. Bruno is obviously a “non-believer” and although he’s attracted to Dr. Friedman, he doesn’t pursue her. The next day Bruno is accosted by a couple of thugs working for his former boss and barely gets away clean when a couple of kids — Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig) — mysteriously appear in the backseat of his cab. They seem odd and have $15,000 in cash and request that he take them to a certain destination. He reluctantly agrees and drops them off at a rundown house in the middle of the desert. Once inside, Jack hears a loud crash and decides to go help them. He finds them running from a strange creature firing some type of laser gun. Confused, Bruno nevertheless helps them escape and learns that the creature is something called a “Siphon” — an alien creature built to hunt down and kill specific targets — and that they are both, in fact, aliens in human form. Although he doesn’t initially believe them, Bruno feels the young kids need help and escorts them back into town. They further explain that the reason they’ve come to Earth is to retrieve an experiment their parents set up — a small electronic device they found in the remote house — that will save their home planet. Otherwise, their race is intent on coming to Earth and taking it over since its environment is conducive to sustaining their life.

Of course, the U.S. government is well aware of their presence — they tracked their spaceship as it crash-landed at the opening of the film — and a group of agents led by a humorless man named Major Henry Burke (Ciaran Hinds) is hot on their trail, intent on taking them into custody since they are “illegal aliens” on U.S. soil. With both the Siphon and government in pursuit, Sara and Seth find they need someone as resourceful as Bruno to get them back to their spaceship (which the U.S. government has stashed away at a secret military location known as Witch Mountain) and back home to their planet. Soon Bruno learns to accept and believe what Sara and Seth are telling him through their display of various supernatural powers — Sara can move objects with her mind and read others’ thoughts while Seth can change his molecular structure and establish an impenetrable force field around himself — and he decides he needs someone with a little more expertise to assist. He takes both Sara and Seth to meet Dr. Friedman back at the Vegas UFO convention. Thinking he’s either making fun of her or desperately attempting to woo her, Dr. Friedman dismisses Bruno’s wild story … until Sara and Seth give her a private demonstration of their powers. Thunderstruck, Dr. Friedman agrees to assist and takes them to see Dr. Donald Harlan (Garry Marshall), one of the foremost UFO experts and guru of alien lore, for information on how to penetrate the fortress that is Witch Mountain. But just as they get the information they need, both Major Burke and the alien Siphon converge on the convention, wreaking havoc and forcing the foursome to make a hasty getaway.

Bruno and Dr. Friedman finally get Sara and Seth to the forbidding Witch Mountain location, but Major Burke anticipates their arrival, taking the two alien teens hostage and agreeing to not have Bruno and Dr. Friedman arrested if they just go away peacefully. Having promised to help Sara and Seth get back home, neither can let them be subjected to military experiments, so they manage to overpower the guards and gain access to the underground facility. Once inside, the alien Siphon arrives just in time to create a major diversion, allowing Bruno and Dr. Friedman to release Sara and Seth and help them track down their impounded spacecraft. The foursome find the stashed ship just as Major Burke arrives with a full complement of soldiers who open fire on the group. But Seth creates a force field around them to deflect the bullets — begging the question as to why he didn’t use the same force field the whole time they were being chased and shot at earlier in the film. Using an electronic key device to activate the ship, all four escape from the confines of Witch Mountain … only to find the Siphon has hitched a ride with them. Bruno dukes it out with the Predator-looking Siphon and sends him hurling out through the ship’s air lock, a-la Alien. Sara and Seth drop off Bruno and Dr. Friedman and have a forced and tearful goodbye before heading back to their planet. The latter two become a couple and write a successful book about their adventures — appropriately titled Race to Witch Mountain — which they debut at the next UFO convention in Vegas.

Although director Andy Fickman obviously has a soft spot for this material, he treats this 2009 remake so reverently that it lacks the humor and spontaneity of something like his previous collaboration with Johnson, The Game Plan. While that movie bordered on being schmaltzy, it still allowed Johnson to have fun with the role and be spontaneous. With the exception of a couple of quick quips, Race to Witch Mountain is almost too serious for its own good. And when you have a couple of robotic kids playing “fish out of water” alien beings, you need someone to be the brunt of the jokes just to keep things moving. What’s more frustrating is that after watching some of the deleted scenes included on this BD, Fickman apparently made a conscious effort to remove some of the film’s lighter moments as a means of getting to the “big chase” sequences. That was a serious miscalculation, because as stated earlier Dwayne Johnson is this film’s wild card and to downplay what makes him so appealing — his easy rapport and self-effacing sense of humor — reduces Race to Witch Mountain to just another aliens-on-the-run film with car chases and explosions. Even the well-placed nods and homages to the earlier Witch Mountain films — including cameos by original child stars Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann — ultimately get lost in a barrage of sound and fury signifying nothing.

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