family fantasy movie with pools of bubbling mud ?

[hondo zapper]

whats the movie where a young girl has an adventure one sunny day,
and walks across land that has pools of mud that bubbles up.

towards the end there's a scene where the young girl is in a cave and a witch is above her on some rocks.
i think the witch has a sidekick who doesnt want to be bad but if he doesnt do what he's told to do she will make him disappear.

it finishes up where the young girl arrives safely home before her parents wake up.
i think its a late 1980's or very early 1990's movie that had a small cast.

it might of been set on christmas eve/day, but i am not completely sure and it was definitely a made for tv production.

it reminded me of the christmas-martian movie from canada so it might be a canadian film or french or even an austrailan movie perhaps? 

[nada]

The bubbling mud and kinda evil sidekick make me think Labyrinth ... but that doesn't fit everything you've mentioned.

[hondo zapper]

no its definitely not labyrinth,
the movie i am looking for was a smaller budget movie and looked like it was made for tv.
thnaks.

[Joe the Destroyer]

I know what film you're talking about, but I never did catch the name of it. 

It was made in the early 80's actually, becauase we've had it recorded off Showtime since I about 1983 or '84.  My dad didn't write the actual name down; he just put "Monster Christmas." 

If I remember correctly, it had three monsters in particular, one of which was a volcano monster, one was a wasp/spider thing, and one was a pair of rock monster twins.  She bumps into and hangs out with these monsters for a certain portion of the film, and then drawns them a picture of them.  They then eat the pictures she draws.

At the very end of the film, they defeat the witch in some way all the monsters begin singing Silent Night. 

Argh!  If I could just remember the name!

[Andrew]

Joe,

I found something that looks like it might be a remake of the film you describe:

http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Christmas-Lucy-McGrath/dp/B0001LJBUS
http://www.moviesunlimited.com/musite/product.asp?sku=D81448

[hondo zapper]

joe it does sound a bit like the movie you describe,
where there definitely mud-pools in  the movie you seen.

did the witch have some sort of weird costume on,
if you could possibly find the title of the movie that would be great.

hopefully i will somehow be able to track down the film,
so i can watch it this christmas.
thanks.

[hondo zapper]

whoah!!!!   i think the search could be over.

just like to say thanks to everybody's help on here , i think i've found the movie that i have been searching for.
it has taken me several years to track the movie's title down .

The Monster's Christmas 1981 canada.

A young girl is peacefully reading a Christmas story book on Christmas Eve. One of the friendly monsters from the book enters her livingroom and asks for help. She joins the adventure a quest which involves danger, disguise and confrontation with the wicked witch in her cave. Our heroine prevails and is able to bring the adventure to a true fairy tale ending Christmas carols and all.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Actually, yeah, that does sound like a remake.  I didn't take the time to read the full summary before, but wow... I never thought they'd remake that one.

[hondo zapper]

joe its possible that it's not a remake at all,
it might actually be the original movie itself.

i've found a dvd-cover online and its saying made in 2004,
but i think thats when the dvd was authored and not the movie.

i dont think it's a remake but it's the actual film that i am after from around 1981,
i think i will just have to purchase the dvd and see if it's the original movie.

thanks again.