
Some of my favorite jokes involved face masks, Snapchat filters, and Roombas. While keeping this relatively spoiler free, the world’s changed enough between 19 that there’s still plenty for the Sandersons to discover. It’s no surprise, then, that the humor dominates in Hocus Pocus 2. One of the best parts of Hocus Pocus is seeing the interaction between, as Max puts it, “three ancient hags against the 20 th century.” Watching the Sanderson Sisters learn about buses, paved roads, sprinkler systems, and high school has all the novelty of a great science-fiction story-aliens or time travelers interacting with a new environment. It’s something the sequel does really well, and it’s vital to the success of the film.
WHEN DID HOCUS FOCUS FIRST AIR MOVIE
That means that the movie can focus all its exposition on establishing the new characters and getting us invested before the real mayhem starts. We already know what they’ve been doing for the last 29 years: being dead-or undead, in Billy’s case. The only characters that return in Hocus Pocus 2 are the Sanderson Sisters and Billy Butcherson.


It’s great to reconnect with characters, but it takes up a chunk of time. Even in the most recent Halloween trilogy, we need to know which movies are considered canon, which aren’t, and where are new starting point is. Or in Top Gun: Maverick, we need to backfill the relationship between Maverick and Rooster to understand their dynamic. In Jurassic World: Dominion, we need to know what Alan and Ellie have been up to since their last adventure.
WHEN DID HOCUS FOCUS FIRST AIR SERIES
Whenever a series is revived after a considerable amount of time, there’s a certain amount of film dedicated to filling in the gaps. Sure, it’s a bummer that we don’t get any peeks into Max, Allison, and Dani’s lives, but it was also a really smart move for the film. The girls need to lean on each other, their childhood friend Cassie, and their knowledge of the occult to make it to sunrise. (Something that gave me drastically distorted expectations for high school when I was a kid.) When one of their birthday traditions goes wrong, the Sanderson Sisters are summoned back to Salem for a second chance at immortality. It’s a far cry from the applause Allison gets for explaining All Hallows’ Eve in the first film. The two have a reputation at school for being into “weird” stuff like witchcraft. The new film follows two best friends, Becca and Izzy, as they celebrate Halloween-which also happens to be Becca’s sixteenth birthday. Honestly, the easiest way to describe the plot is: Hocus Pocus meets The Craft. Hocus Pocus 2 tells a new story completely apart from our original heroes. If you happen to be one of the few people who read Hocus Pocus: The Sequel, you can go ahead and put the book back on the shelf. How do you follow up a beloved classic after nearly three decades? How much do you balance references to the original while also establishing a new cast of characters? Is it even possible to meet the extraordinarily high standards of the fandom?įrankly, I was terrified to start the sequel the last thing I wanted was a cash-grab that sullied the sanctity of my favorite childhood movie. (That’s lucky, because it would’ve been a deal-breaker for me.)īut even with the original cast, a sequel is a daunting prospect. Even Doug Jones returned to reprise his role as Billy Butcherson. After all, you can’t have Hocus Pocus without Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy. One of the reasons the film wasso delayed is because Disney was adamant about all the stars returning. Yesterday, the long-anticipated sequel to the original premiered on Disney Plus.


For a movie that came out 29 years ago, it still has a thriving cult following.Īnd that following is growing. You can’t make it through the Halloween season without seeing the Sanderson Sisters somewhere. Hocus Pocus has been a hit since it came out in 1993. The words that started it all-a Disney Channel Original, a Halloween classic, a cultural cornerstone for a generation. “Come little children, I’ll take thee away into a land of enchantment…”
