Zemeckis' visually innovative film, a reimagining of Dahl's beloved story for a modern audience, tells the darkly humorous and heartwarming story of a young orphan boy (Bruno) , who moves in with his loving grandmother (Spencer) in the rural town of Demopolis, Alabama, in late 1967. When the boy and his grandmother encounter some deceptively glamorous but thoroughly diabolical witches, she wisely sends our young hero off to a lavish seaside resort. Unfortunately, they arrive at exactly the same time that the world's Grand High Witch (Hathaway) has gathered her fellow witches from all corners of the globe—under false identities—to carry out her nefarious plans.