Hocus Pocus Sequel Being Developed for Disney+

[yensidtlaw1969]

It is refreshing to get an honest opinion from someone. I gotta watch it this weekend to see how good or bad it is. I'm going in with an open mind, but am expecting to be disappointed as well.

... Oh well, sequels are usually worse than the originals anyways.

To be clear, it’s not like I had no fun at all, and I was fully prepared for this one to not be as good as the original. I think mainly the issue was that it feels like it’s set in an alternate reality from the first one. The tone is just so different, outside of the Sanderson Sisters who basically deliver what you want from them - I wish they had even more to do, since their involvement feels a little stilted at times. But that’s far from the performers’ fault - they earn our time and their money on this one, despite a weird script.

That’s a pretty massive win, considering the circumstances. It’s just that the film around them seriously fails to ever ascend to their level, and that takes the whole movie down several pegs. The Witches and Billy deserve (and mostly earn) a better reunion moment than they actually got.

I can’t imagine a 3rd one would go any distance to righting the missteps of this one, it would likely only lean into them further. Which is a shame, because there clearly is potential in what this one was trying to do, I just think there were some misconceptions about the material within the creative team. This could have used a few more rewrites.

 

[AndyS2992]

To be clear, it’s not like I had no fun at all, and I was fully prepared for this one to not be as good as the original. I think mainly the issue was that it feels like it’s set in an alternate reality from the first one. The tone is just so different, outside of the Sanderson Sisters who basically deliver what you want from them - I wish they had even more to do, since their involvement feels a little stilted at times. But that’s far from the performers’ fault - they earn our time and their money on this one, despite a weird script.

That’s a pretty massive win, considering the circumstances. It’s just that the film around them seriously fails to ever ascend to their level, and that takes the whole movie down several pegs. The Witches and Billy deserve (and mostly earn) a better reunion moment than they actually got.

I can’t imagine a 3rd one would go any distance to righting the missteps of this one, it would likely only lean into them further. Which is a shame, because there clearly is potential in what this one was trying to do, I just think there were some misconceptions about the material within the creative team. This could have used a few more rewrites.

I hope the third one is prequel focusing on them when they were young and what mischief they got up to growing up with the book which led to them finally being hanged, as seen at the start of the first movie. I thought the young Sandersons were great.

Big discrepancies though from the first one. The spell book was given to Winnie by Satan himself, yet in the sequel some random witch gives it to her in the woods. Again in the first one, they became witches by selling their souls to Satan yet, in the sequel, girls just randomly become witches when they turn 16.. confusing.

 

[oogie boogie man]

Yeah, they save it for the huge budget movies like The Eternals. Again, it's not they are paid off, it's that movie critics are obnoxious.

Like I said earlier they don't need critics for something like "The Eternals". They can just Fan Bait and blame the fans for it's downfall. This way less people are talking about the movies flaws (bad director, bad writer, etc) and more people are talking about the fans and review bombing.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

This could have used a few more rewrites.

I read somewhere they changed the ending after some test screenings? Not sure what was changed.

Horror comedy is hard to pull off. Often times it's just comedy, and tries too hard at that.

John Debney's score for the original did a lot of the heavy lifting IMO when it came to establishing the tone of each scene. He worked on this one too, but you can't always use it to cover up the over acting of various actors (it did seem most of that came from the new male characters. The three main teenage girls were fine).

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I read somewhere they changed the ending after some test screenings? Not sure what was changed.

Horror comedy is hard to pull off. Often times it's just comedy, and tries too hard at that.

John Debney's score for the original did a lot of the heavy lifting IMO when it came to establishing the tone of each scene. He worked on this one too, but you can't always use it to cover up the over acting of various actors (it did seem most of that came from the new male characters. The three main teenage girls were fine).

Shockingly, John Debney’s absolutely stunning score for the original was written in two weeks after James Horner pulled out (though I believe Horner wrote Sarah’s Theme, the “Come Little Children” music). That score is fully remarkable, but even more intensely so when you realize it was Debney’s first feature and he had so little time to make it happen.

I would say this one definitely forgets the Horror in favor of Comedy, and it’s to the movie’s detriment. The original had children dying, cats getting run over, trips through the catacombs, and zombie’s fingers getting chopped off (albeit to somewhat comedic effect). This one never pushes the limits that same way. Billy has some “coming apart” moments, but it’s all as tame as or tamer than what we see in the first.

The only bits with any real bite are holdover elements from the original, which almost certainly would have been scrubbed if this movie had no original to refer to, you know?

 

[lazyboy97o]

The only bits with any real bite are holdover elements from the original, which almost certainly would have been scrubbed if this movie had no original to refer to, you know?

I was very surprised they even said “virgin” as I figured they would just completely ignore it.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Shockingly, John Debney’s absolutely stunning score for the original was written in two weeks after James Horner pulled out (though I believe Horner wrote Sarah’s Theme, the “Come Little Children” music). That score is fully remarkable, but even more intensely so when you realize it was Debney’s first feature and he had so little time to make it happen.

I would say this one definitely forgets the Horror in favor of Comedy, and it’s to the movie’s detriment. The original had children dying, cats getting run over, trips through the catacombs, and zombie’s fingers getting chopped off (albeit to somewhat comedic effect). This one never pushes the limits that same way. Billy has some “coming apart” moments, but it’s all as tame as or tamer than what we see in the first.

The only bits with any real bite are holdover elements from the original, which almost certainly would have been scrubbed if this movie had no original to refer to, you know?

No doubt the taming was intentional to make it more "Disney". Perhaps they remembered what some critics said in 1993?

Here's a bit of Leonard Maltin's review for the original: "a discredit to Disney 'family entertainment'."

Hocus Pocus may have been among the last of a certain kind of "kids movie" that gained notoriety in the 80s for having a certain edge that's not just nostalgia looking back, but was a legitimate attempt to make those movies more exciting. Of course, many of those films were not intended for family audiences, but children would watch them anyway thanks to associated toy lines.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I was very surprised they even said “virgin” as I figured they would just completely ignore it.

I was sort of surprised too - especially because one of those 2 jokes about it comes close to being more adult than any of the references in the first one. But they drop it pretty quickly and get back to making light of the whole situation. If nothing else it would have been nice to see them hint more at the stakes of the Witches’ new plan - how bad things might be in reality if it works rather than just the abstract “it would be *SO BAD*”.

 

[Ghost93]

No doubt the taming was intentional to make it more "Disney". Perhaps they remembered what some critics said in 1993?

Here's a bit of Leonard Maltin's review for the original: "a discredit to Disney 'family entertainment'."

Hocus Pocus may have been among the last of a certain kind of "kids movie" that gained notoriety in the 80s for having a certain edge that's not just nostalgia looking back, but was a legitimate attempt to make those movies more exciting. Of course, many of those films were not intended for family audiences, but children would watch them anyway thanks to associated toy lines.

I think this is a case of Disney not fully understanding the appeal of the original. I think one of the reasons kids enjoyed it so much over the past three decades is specifically because the movie felt edgy for a family movie. Kids like to be scared.

 

[Ghost93]

Having just finished the movie, I agree with the above comments that this sequel has a problem with everything being played campy instead of the camp being limited to just the sisters. I also think the movie lacks the Halloween atmosphere and feel of the original.

But the biggest problem with the sequel is that the protagonists are SO BORING!! The teenagers have no personality and hardly any character arcs. They were not given enough screen time to be adequately developed, but they were given just enough screen time to drag the whole movie down with their blandness. I don't think the actresses are at fault, I think it all lies in the scriptwriting and directing.

 

[Ripken10]

I thought it was another fun movie, and think they did a great job. You will never compare to a cult classic like an original, but it is still a movie I could re-watch and enjoy each time.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ]

This thing needed a script doctor or two. Movie had it's moments but snappier dialogue and more fleshed out B-level characters would have made this movie much better. Overall just lame characters and not enough sense of peril in the main story arc (if you can call it that)

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

I have no love for the original movie. The last time I watched it I thought it was fairly dull and found it to be middling to average at best.

Therefore I had zero expectations coming into the sequel.

It was not bad. It had a few funny moments and was fairly consistently entertaining, but never rising to the level of must watch for me.

As a straight to D+ made for TV movie it met my expectations.

 

[Phroobar]

Actually I liked the movie especially the Sisters and their musical acts. How come the cat didn't talk? The original had heart and represented Halloween better. The new one was more slapstick and all about the Witches.

 

[tcool123]

I think this movie was a fun time, passing the original and one of the better Disney+ Originals. It had plenty of enjoyable musical numbers, wasn’t afraid to just have fun with the witches, and it actually gave the Sanderson Sisters a story arc making them feel whole.

Definitely think they should do two more projects for the franchise:
- an animated series with all the misadventures and trickery of the young Sanderson Sisters
- a traditional sequel with the new trio of protagonists where the inevitably need to call upon the Sanderson Sisters

 

[tcool123]

Actually I liked the movie especially the Sisters and their musical acts. How come the cat didn't talk? The original had heart and represented Halloween better. The new one was more slapstick and all about the Witches.

The cat couldn’t talk cause it’s s regular cat the last one talked cause it was a human first

 

[BuddyThomas]

... Oh well, sequels are usually worse than the originals anyways.

Tell that to Aliens and The Godfather Part Two, among others.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Tell that to Aliens and The Godfather Part Two, among others.

There’s a few exceptions but I think we‘d all agree that sequels are usually worse than the original.

The exception to the rule may be long series, I think the Potter movies got better as they made more, same with the Marvel movies, etc… even that has exceptions though, the Jurassic series got worse the longer it kept going.

 

[Goofy Ninja]

Yeah, most sequels aren't as good as the originals. Especially with Horror films, most of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies stink.

 

[DCBaker]