Official Synopsis
When three 17th century Salem witches are accidentally summoned by modern-day pranksters, the 300-year-old trio sets out to cast a spell on the town and reclaim their youth, but first they must outwit three kids and a talking cat.
This is the very definition of movies that made Halloween a good time in the early 90s. While it isn’t as good as a Charlie Brown special or even Halloween Town (yes, you read that right), it still brings a much darker story than what typically comes out of the Disney camp.
For starters, you get three nasty, methodical sister witches with Winifred Sanderson (Bette Midler), Sarah Sanderson (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mary Sanderson (Kathy Najimy). They bring an unforgiving, uncaring nature about them and actually convince the audience that they’re sisters of dark magic. In the first scene of the film they steal the soul of a young girl (killing her), turn the girl’s brother into an immortal cat (who is living with the guilt of not saving his sis) and end up getting caught and hanged. THEY GET HANGED, in a Disney film. When is the last time that Disney actually hanged characters? That’s brutal for a Disney film, but accurate for Salem. The first ten minutes of the film establish the evil of the sisters and instantly brand them the antagonists.
That’s pretty heavy stuff for a Walt Disney movie, but definitely a worthwhile chance to make a very memorable Halloween film that every family could watch, not that every family likes to see witches hang (you don’t actually see their necks break or anything like that, but the implication is there).
The movie fast-forwards to the early 90s, where a new kid named Max (Omri Katz) arrives from Los Angeles into unfamiliar territory. He is having issues finding a comfortable spot in town with the locales. On top of that, he’s also having issues with girls, bullies and being assigned to go ‘Trick or Treating’ with his sister Dani (Thora Birch). Along the way, he goes on a spooky trip to the Sanderson sisters’ old homestead and accidentally lights a black flame candle, which brings the trio back to life. The sisters, who need children to survive, race against their short life stay to retrieve a stolen book from Max in attempt to extend their lives and cause mass terror.
The story is pretty typical when it comes to scary family films. It’s certainly nothing new, structure-wise, and there are plenty of moments in it where comedy ensues (just so it can keep it on the family level). What I really liked about this film, as I stated above, is how dark it became for a Disney movie. I’m impressed by this, as it constantly reminds the viewer that while it is a family film there are still nasty witches in it. I respect that a lot about Hocus Pocus (and the fact that Sarah Jessica Parker looks super hot as a blonde).
The story has hiccups, though. For example, the lead actor, Omri Katz, reads his lines like he is auditioning for the first time. He had seven productions prior to Hocus Pocus, which allowed for him to work through into smoother acting. He didn’t, and the end result is that his sister and girlfriend, in the film, out perform him. He doesn’t convince the audience that he’s capable of saving the day, which is also another problem.
Another issue is the repetitive jokes on the witches’ account. Max fakes rain on the three witches, which causes them to retreat in mid-fight. He later fakes sunlight, which makes them retreat as well. While I can’t speak for witches and how they would feel about these two things, the faked elements were easy ways to push the story along, and not at all convincing; rather they were cheap gimmicks. Other family films have had better humor at their antagonist expense. You could probably get away with this stupidity once in a film, but not twice (and maybe more).
In the end, Hocus Pocus is a good family Halloween film. It’s one of the better, dark Disney films out there for Halloween, but there are better films in general. Give me The Nightmare Before Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and the Shrek Halloween special before Hocus Pocus. It’s still good, though.
As for the reason you’re reading this review, the Blu-ray is darn good. There are moments of graininess (mostly during the darker scenes that have shades of red in them), but you don’t have many. You get a very strong transfer for Hocus Pocus that features some very good blues, greens, reds and yellows. There is no color banding present in the picture and the film comes in clean and crisp (for the most part). I am impressed with what Disney did to this Halloween film, especially since it’s not one of its premiere titles. It’s certainly worth the price of $17.99 (Amazon’s).
The audio comes in 5.1 DTS-HD and an aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
The downer of the release is the lack of features. You get zippo, zero, none.
