Hocus Pocus 2 movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Hocus Pocus 2

This fantasy comedy is timed perfectly for the Halloween season and is available exclusively on Disney+.

RATING: PG

LENGTH: 1 hour 43 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: C

IN A NUTSHELL:

Three young women accidentally bring back the Sanderson Sisters to modern-day Salem and must figure out how to stop the child-hungry witches from wreaking havoc on the world. The world may have been free of Winifred, Mary, and Sarah and the fear they invoked in us all, but what happens when you mess with magic? It messes back.

The movie was directed by Anne Fletcher. The screenplay and writing were done by Jen D’Angelo, David Kirschner, and Blake Harris.

Reviews seem to be running at extremes between hate and love. It all boils down to expectations. I enjoyed it, but I wasn’t expecting much…

THINGS I LIKED:

No one ever said the original 1993 Hocus Pocus was perfect, but it’s definitely recognized as one of the few, true Halloween classics that many have grown up watching. Fans should get a kick out of it.
It was fun to see Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy together again as the spooky, funny Sanderson sister. All three of them seem to be having a lot of fun on set. When Bette Midler saw how popular the original movie was progressively becoming each year, she kept pestering the studio to make a sequel. With all the money being made in merchandising, the studio finally agreed.
Fun fact #1: Sarah Jessica Parker discovered in her genealogy that she actually had an ancestor who was arrested for committing “sundry acts of witchcraft.”
The young actresses who play the famous witches are adorable. They are Taylor Henderson (she stole every scene she was in), Juju Journey Brener, and Nina Kitchen (who was able to maintain Mary’s crooked smile).
The teen actresses who starred in the movie did a good job too. They include Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, and Lilia Buckingham.
Tony Hale is guaranteed to play a goofball in every movie he’s in. Add the awesome Sam Richardson and you have an amusing cast.
The village of Salem looks great. Some of the filming took place in the cities of Providence, Lincoln, and Newport in Rhode Island, as well as Astoria, New York, and inside Kaufman Studios in Queens, New York. The original movie was shot mostly in Salem, Massachusetts.
You’ll notice immediately that the Disney castle in the introduction doesn’t show fireworks or Tinker Bell’s fairy dust. Instead, the castle is surrounded by the woods of Salem and looks like a witch’s cottage. This is also the last Disney movie to feature the 2006 logo, as all future Disney films will display the image that celebrates 100 years of Disney.
Fun fact #2: The wig that Billy Butcherson wears in this movie is the same one he wore in the original movie.
A few clips from the original movie are shown to remind us of certain events. We can also see clips of the movie playing on a TV in some people’s house in one of the street scenes.
We get two musical numbers, starring the Divine Ms. M. They’re completely random but still fun. More Bette Midler in anything, please!
The icky spiders in Salem are, apparently, harmless to humans. Hard to believe, right?
The cast has already expressed interest in a trilogy. Are you up for that? Comment down below!
There’s a cute, little musical moment at the beginning of the end credits, and keep watching to the end of the rolling credits for another short scene! I love it when movies give audiences a little bonus.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

There is a LOT of overacting. Of course, we saw that in the original movie too.
Almost all of the humor is slapstick goofiness.
Did anyone notice that Mary talks out of the wrong side of her mouth from how she did in the original movie?
I’m so tired of female empowerment movies that make all of the male characters look like buffoons.
Disney is more interested in stuffing the cast with diversity and exploring the “evil” patriarchy than it is in creating a truly good sequel.
The Sanderson sisters usually talk on top of one another so that we can’t hear what any of them are saying.
Bette Midler had a LOT more to do than the other two Sanderson sisters did.
The plot involves saving the community, rather than one person in particular. That leaves the story feeling less intimate than the original.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

A kid asks an adult what the definition of a virgin is. Later there are more references to virginity.
Some scary Halloween images.
Talk of witches eating children.
A witch drinks perfume and other items in the makeup department of a store.