Is Harry Potter a rip-off of Jill Murphy’s Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches? Is the Netflix series even remotely similar to the 1974 kidlit classic? In this article, we’ll discuss the similarities and differences between the two books, and the relationship between Rowling’s Harry Potter and Murphy’s Buffy Summers. Plus, you’ll learn which characters are the closest to Buffy’s Xander Harris.
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Jill Murphy’s series of books about Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches
It’s no surprise that Jill Murphy’s series of books about the infamous Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witche and Wizardry is a ripoff of Harry Potter. The series features a witchy school with a kindly old headmaster and a wicked potions master. But what sets these books apart from the Harry Potter books is the characters. Clare Higgins, who plays Ada Cackle, and Raquel Cassidy, who plays Hecate Hardbroom, are superb in their portrayals.
Mildred Hubble has always been the worst witch at Miss Cackle’s Academy, but this term she’s determined to change. She’s already done her best holiday project, and she’s confident that her form teacher, Miss Hardbroom, will be impressed. And she’s becoming friends with her arch-enemy, Ethel Hallow.
Jill Murphy’s 1974 kidlit classic The Worst Witch
If you’re not familiar with Jill Murphy, you may have missed out on one of her best-known books. It was published in 1974 and inspired a TV movie and four TV series, not to mention a play. It sold over 5,000 copies in just two months and has continued to be published until the early 2000s. It was written before Harry Potter and has been adapted for movies and television. It was even made into a movie, which premiered in 1986 and ran for a couple years, after which a television series was created based on the series. It was renamed The New Worst Witch, and followed up with a movie in 1998 and a television series from 1998 to 2001.
Initially, the book was intended to be a fairy tale. The story began when Mildred enrolled in a witch school, hid her wings from the instructors, and flew to a fairy school when she discovered that she loved wings. She traded her witch dress for a pink fairy dress to attend the school. When the book was first rejected by a publisher, Murphy had to change it into a novel. After several rejections, Murphy re-wrote it a few years later and got it published.
Rowling’s Harry Potter
Whether J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter is a ripoff of Jill Murphy’s The Worst Witch is debatable, but the similarities between the two novels are too great to ignore. Both stories are about a young girl who discovers she has a magical legacy, take up magical adventures in remote castles, and feature interesting names.
The first series of the series, Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches, introduced young children to magical boarding schools. In the 1998 TV series, the school was a stone castle set in a pine forest. Some non-magic people believed the school to be Overblow Castle. Eventually, Meibh left the school to take care of her mental health.
A number of fans pointed out that J.K. Rowling never acknowledges the influence of Murphy’s work. The Worst Witch, published in 1974, was based on Murphy’s creation. As the author of The Worst Witch, Rowling sold the film rights to Warner Bros for PS1 million. The movie’s logo is also in the Deathly Hallows Part II, as well.
Bella Ramsey’s performance of “Anything Can Happen on Halloween”
In “Anything Can Happen on Halloween,” Bella Ramsey plays Mildred, a young witch who doesn’t fit in with the “real world” because she has grown up without context. She seems out of place in such a show, but she does a great job. Her performance is surprisingly confident, even for a show for kids. But there are other aspects of her performance that make it stand out as well.
