Just wanted to leave a super quick review of one of my favourite films of all time, a Witch film, that just ticks so many boxes for me it's unreal. I know this was 1993, and it's probably lost a great deal of it's momentum, but I'm here to state that in my mind it is one of the finest children's spooky witch film that takes everything to a whole new level & still hits the spot to entertain Kids and Adults.
( *SOME POTENTIAL MILD SPOILERS BELOW*) 1st off, It's a Disney film. now we all know Disney is a lot more liberal these days on what they can and can't show and say. Disney films are riddled with dark humour especially new ones like Despicable Me etc, but back when Hocus Pocus was about, there really wasn't many films alike at that time, which is why it stands out to me, it really went heavy on the content & still hit the PG rating. within the first 10-15 minutes you see a girl get the life sucked out of her, directly after that you see Witches getting hanged, by the time the witches return from the dead, words like Virgin are being thrown around, "And he's a Virgin" "Are you a Virgin?" surely at some point some kid is going to ask his parents what a virgin is! A spell book with an eyeball in it, given to Winnie by the devil himself, in "Satan's" house, the wife calls Sarah "Tart Face" and the whole tone of the film is really extreme for a family friendly Halloween film. I'm not complaining about these things, they are what made it for me, to this day they still stand out and i don't know how Disney got away with it. Think that Kenny Ortega is doing High School Musical etc now, it's totally different to what Hocus Pocus was like, most people don't actually believe hocus Pocus is Disney when i bring it up in conversation.
(Continued Review) The casting was brilliant, Sarah Jessica Parker looks out of this world then compared to now, they look so different, she was beautiful in this, Bette Middler just nailed the character of Winnie so well, all of them were buck mad, eccentric and over the top and zany! I don't know how they were able to get into that crazy mode and speak the way they did, it's certainly not an American Accent I heard off them, it was just undesirable! It's fun for Adults, and it's fun for kids, it really isn't scary, however everything from the movie soundtrack, to the script and set pieces and not to mention incredible special effects all go perfectly. They touch a wee bit on the whole Macbeth 3 witches thing, the big bubbling cauldron, zombies, magic, talking cats, it's just brilliant. You see movies like Harry Potter today and see him whizzing round the Quidditch Match on like a manual broom with a green screen on it, or even completely computer generated at some points and compare it to these witches flying, on wires the proper way, you can see they are flying for real there, no trickery, that's why it's perfect for me, they tried to do as many things as real as possible.
The movie is just so much fun, I seriously believe it's underrated, and I think that some other movies tried to take little bits out of Hocus Pocus, like look at Rohl Daul's The Witches, first off, the very opening scene? it has a camera high in the air flying over white snowy mountains as the credits role, i'm sorry but that had nothing to do witches because none of the witches flew in that movie, in Hocus Pocus however, there is a camera high in the air flying over Salem, with a witches silhouette, it just seemed too similar as if they were nudging towards Hocus Pocus, oh and as for Casper Meets Wendy? three witches round a big dry ice filled cauldron, one witch peering out the window, the other one making jokes to the more aggressive leader witch, and then she says things like "Ugh, What did i do to deserve sisters like this?" ... Hocus Pocus Winnie - "Why, Why Why was I cursed with such idiot sisters?!!" ...
If you ask me.. Hocus Pocus is the ULTIMATE WITCH FILM AND ALWAYS WILL BE!!!!!
( *SOME POTENTIAL MILD SPOILERS BELOW*) 1st off, It's a Disney film. now we all know Disney is a lot more liberal these days on what they can and can't show and say. Disney films are riddled with dark humour especially new ones like Despicable Me etc, but back when Hocus Pocus was about, there really wasn't many films alike at that time, which is why it stands out to me, it really went heavy on the content & still hit the PG rating. within the first 10-15 minutes you see a girl get the life sucked out of her, directly after that you see Witches getting hanged, by the time the witches return from the dead, words like Virgin are being thrown around, "And he's a Virgin" "Are you a Virgin?" surely at some point some kid is going to ask his parents what a virgin is! A spell book with an eyeball in it, given to Winnie by the devil himself, in "Satan's" house, the wife calls Sarah "Tart Face" and the whole tone of the film is really extreme for a family friendly Halloween film. I'm not complaining about these things, they are what made it for me, to this day they still stand out and i don't know how Disney got away with it. Think that Kenny Ortega is doing High School Musical etc now, it's totally different to what Hocus Pocus was like, most people don't actually believe hocus Pocus is Disney when i bring it up in conversation.
(Continued Review) The casting was brilliant, Sarah Jessica Parker looks out of this world then compared to now, they look so different, she was beautiful in this, Bette Middler just nailed the character of Winnie so well, all of them were buck mad, eccentric and over the top and zany! I don't know how they were able to get into that crazy mode and speak the way they did, it's certainly not an American Accent I heard off them, it was just undesirable! It's fun for Adults, and it's fun for kids, it really isn't scary, however everything from the movie soundtrack, to the script and set pieces and not to mention incredible special effects all go perfectly. They touch a wee bit on the whole Macbeth 3 witches thing, the big bubbling cauldron, zombies, magic, talking cats, it's just brilliant. You see movies like Harry Potter today and see him whizzing round the Quidditch Match on like a manual broom with a green screen on it, or even completely computer generated at some points and compare it to these witches flying, on wires the proper way, you can see they are flying for real there, no trickery, that's why it's perfect for me, they tried to do as many things as real as possible.
The movie is just so much fun, I seriously believe it's underrated, and I think that some other movies tried to take little bits out of Hocus Pocus, like look at Rohl Daul's The Witches, first off, the very opening scene? it has a camera high in the air flying over white snowy mountains as the credits role, i'm sorry but that had nothing to do witches because none of the witches flew in that movie, in Hocus Pocus however, there is a camera high in the air flying over Salem, with a witches silhouette, it just seemed too similar as if they were nudging towards Hocus Pocus, oh and as for Casper Meets Wendy? three witches round a big dry ice filled cauldron, one witch peering out the window, the other one making jokes to the more aggressive leader witch, and then she says things like "Ugh, What did i do to deserve sisters like this?" ... Hocus Pocus Winnie - "Why, Why Why was I cursed with such idiot sisters?!!" ...
If you ask me.. Hocus Pocus is the ULTIMATE WITCH FILM AND ALWAYS WILL BE!!!!!
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