Villain Overview Gallery

The Witch is the main antagonist of the 1991 Norwegian fantasy adventure film, The Polar Bear King.

She was portrayed by Anna-Lotta Larsson.

Personality[]

The Witch is shown to be a cruel, mean, selfish, vain, sadistic, careless, vindictive, ruthless, and temperamental woman with a lust for power and conquest and a desire to marry King Valemon by any means necessary even if she has to curse him as a polar bear for 7 years to make sure no other woman may love him but herself after facing rejection. The Witch will also go to great length to try kidnapping both King Valemon and his bride, the Princess's children to raise as her own even though that plan fails due to the intervention of King Valemon's mother, the Queen. Unlike in King Valemon's case, she despises everyone else and takes great pleasure in abusing her prisoners as well.

Biography[]

Having learned that the young Prince Valemon has been crowned the new King of the Summerland after the death of his father, the Witch appears before him and his Queen mother and wishes to marry him and conquer the world at his side with their possible future children to follow in their steps eventually. However, King Valemon refuses to marry her, which suddenly angers the Witch, and so as punishment, she transforms him into a huge, wild polar bear for the next 7 years; thinking that no other woman would ever love such an animal. Nevertheless, King Valemon can only turn back into a human every night at midnight on condition that nobody, not even his own possible future bride, should ever see his face at all for if anyone ever does, King Valemon will have no choice but to marry and belong to the Witch forever.

Eventually, the Witch, disguised as a peasant, is further displeased when she witnesses King Valemon having returned with his new bride, the Princess of the Winterland. A year later, after the Princess has given birth to a baby girl, the vengeful Witch appears on the night of her birth and tries to kidnap and raise her as her own while expressing her animosity of the Princess, only to find the child mysteriously vanished, unaware that the latter has actually been taken away to safety by King Valemon's own mother, who has some mastery of magic as well, just before the former's arrival. Though disappointed, the Witch vows to the Princess that King Valemon will eventually be hers forever one way or another before disappearing.

As the years pass, the Witch watches with great amusement as King Valemon continues to suffer much more even after the Princess has given birth to twin girls this time; knowing he can never be with his own family until the spell is finally broken. Once again, the Witch tries to seize the twins, but they have also been thankfully rescued by their own grandmother just in time. Finally, only three months before the spell can be broken, the Witch's desire to marry and own King Valemon forever comes true one night when the curious Princess uses a candle offered to her by her two older sisters as a gift during her visit at her family's homeland in order to finally see what her husband really looks like despite her promise not to accept any gift at first. Once King Valemon reluctantly leaves and arrives at the Witch's castle somewhere in the mountain, the Witch has him locked up in a room in the tower until the wedding the following day.

In the meantime, in the tower, the Witch performs some witchcraft to pass the time until her master, the Devil himself in human form, one of whom she has invited to her wedding to be the Master of Ceremonies, decides to visit her. After welcoming her master in her own fashionable way, the Devil wonders what the Witch is up to and she states that she's simply concocting a potion: "a drop of evil to put the guests in the right mood", but the Devil warns her to be careful as he clearly states that "too much evil destroys evil". When the Devil prefers an ordinary, elaborate dinner with some wine, the Witch heeds to his demand before the latter disappears.

Wanting to look more elegant and beautiful than King Valemon, the Witch suddenly hears some whistling nearby, only to find a boy using a pair of magic scissors that can create all kinds of clothes out of thin air with just a few snips to create a beautiful white robe. Enchanted by this magic ability, the Witch doesn't hesitate to come down and demand the scissors from the boy, but the latter claims they'll only work for him, so, the Witch decides to have the boy make a wedding dress for her and some clothes for King Valemon instead. Then, the Witch takes the boy to King Valemon to measure the size of his clothes. However, it doesn't take the Witch long enough to discover that the "boy" is actually the Princess herself in disguise, having come to rescue her husband with a little help from her mother-in-law and her own children having provided her with the scissors and a pair of magic shoes she used earlier to climb up to the Witch's castle before losing them in the first place, when she notices her long hair. Rather than kill her or anything else, the Witch chooses to make her another prisoner just like everyone else from the Summerland whom she has imprisoned and enslaved over the years while still allowing her to work on the clothes instead as she laughs wickedly in supposed triumph.

Before the Princess can be permitted to see and measure King Valemon, the Witch enters King Valemon's room and gives him a potion to put him to sleep after casting a prisoner out (the same one who's been helping the Princess out the whole time as well). After leaving the room, the Witch returns to her tower to create a potion that will turn King Valemon evil forever as she still intends to rule the world at his side, unaware that the Princess is watching her at work and has overheard what her master had previously told her about "too much evil destroying evil". Then, the Witch returns to give King Valemon the potion, but the latter, having been warned earlier by the same prisoner (now with surprisingly white hair), distracts her long enough to empty the vial behind her back and begins pretending to having turned evil even towards the Princess, whom the Witch casts out afterwards.

Later, while thinking of what menu to prepare for her wedding banquet tomorrow, the Witch suddenly watches the Princess (with a bottle of wine in her hand) using a magic tablecloth that makes food magically appear with just a few claps in front of all the other prisoners in the hall. Like with the scissors, the Witch now demands both the wine bottle and tablecloth as well, but because the Princess also claims that she is the only one who knows how to use the tablecloth, the Witch allows her to prepare everything for the banquet in that case. Curious to know why the Princess is suddenly more than willing to help though, the Witch asks her out of suspicion and the latter replies that she thinks that maybe both the former and King Valemon would much rather have ordinary food than spiders and snakes, which is enough to convince the Witch otherwise if it means pleasing her master as well, unaware that the "wine" is actually a potion the Princess herself had concocted earlier in the tower using so much evil to guarantee both the Witch and her guests' upcoming demises.

The next day, after all the vile, disgusting creatures besides other witches whom the Witch had known from every foul corner and wretched pit on the face of the Earth arrive as her guests whom she had invited to her wedding at her castle, both the Witch and King Valemon enter the hall in their wedding outfits to join in with their guests. As the guests are gluttonously enjoying all the food created by the magic tablecloth and are all being served the "wine" minus King Valemon being served water instead, the Witch then demands everyone wait for the master's arrival. Once the Devil suddenly appears in human form again to conduct the ceremony, everyone begins drinking the "wine" after making a toast until suddenly, almost everyone including the Witch are destroyed by the potion once and for all whereas the Devil simply disappears.

With the Witch dead, the prisoners are free and both King Valemon and the Princess are happily reunited once again before they set out with the Queen mother and their children to visit the Princess's family including her own father, the King in the Winterland.

Quotes[]