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| Tickle tickle tickle! |
I vividly remember the commercials for this film, running alongside my favorite Disney Afternoon and Fox Kids programming blocks (the sight of a corseted Sarah Jessica Parker hopping up and down shouting “Amok amok amok!” tends to stick with a boy.) Like most of Disney’s live action fare, however, I never bothered to catch the film until many years later, when my future wife tasked me with locating a copy on DVD for a Halloween get-together. This belated initial viewing left me shrugging, wondering what my significant other (who’d regaled me with stories of she and her brothers enjoying the film in their youth) thought was so great about this middle-of-the-road family fluff? However, as happens when a film becomes part of an annual “holiday tradition,” repeated viewings over the past decade (or so) have slowly won me over. You can now count me among those annoying Disney fans who’ll gladly drop their PSL’s and join in a chorus of the Bette Midler-fied “I Put A Spell On You” when the leaves turn orange each year.
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| PSL's are so last fall. This year's all about the zombie Frappuccino. |
I’m obviously not alone. Much like another Disney Halloween film from 1993 (the Tim Burton produced Nightmare Before Christmas) Hocus Pocus has gotten itself firmly lodged in the minds of a growing number of fans. At first a critical and financial flop, repeated showings on The Disney Channel and eventually Disney-owned ABC Family (which is now called Freeform, apparently) helped cement the film’s status as a holiday-viewing favorite. Disney, for it's part, has sat up and taken notice of their 24 year-old comedies' phoenix-like rise from the ashes in recent years. They've wasted no time in leaping at the opportunity to grab a few nostalgia-driven dollars, further raising awareness of Hocus Pocus and it's charms to the general, non-fan public in the process. For proof just witness the recent “Villain Spectacular” shows at the Magic Kingdom’s annual Halloween parties, which are now “hosted” by a trio of actresses portraying the Sanderson sisters; as well as the bonanza of related merchandise that fills the shops up and down Main Street.
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| Shut up and take my money! |
The indifference which met the film upon it’s original release is understandable. For one thing, the film was originally released in July, Disney most likely hoping to have the film on home video in time for October. Unfortunately, audiences didn’t exactly line up to see a Halloween-set family film in the middle of summer. As for the critics, the lukewarm response to a middling family film is typical, and not entirely unwarranted. Taking Neil Cuthbert and Mick Garris’ script at face value, there’s nothing especially memorable or clever to be found. Whether a fault of the screenplay or of editing, the film does drag throughout the middle, the pace sometimes stalling out when it feels like it should be getting going. Director Kenny Ortega, a music video director and choreographer (having been responsible for the moves seen in 1980’s Xanadu, as well as Billy Squier's infamous “Rock Me Tonight” video,) brings little in the way of style or depth to the film. That’s not to say his direction is bad - simply that there’s nothing especially cinematic about Ortega’s unshowy directorial style, which would go on to serve him better in the following decades helming television shows and made-for-TV movies (including Disney’s successful High School Musical and Descendants franchises.)
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| Winifred throws some shade... |
The number of critics who took issue with the performances of the three leads, however, is frankly baffling. Many bemoaned the fact that “Divine Miss M” Bette Midler would slum it in a supernatural kiddie flick. Midler has since stated that filming Hocus Pocus was the most fun she’d had up to that point, and it certainly comes across in the finished film. By turns malicious and mirthful, her BOOOOOOOK-loving Winifred is a go-for-broke, thoroughly entertaining villain who livens up every scene she’s in. Midler’s performance is one of those where the line between actor and character begins to blur, so natural her own larger-than-life persona fits with the impressively-coiffed witch. By the time Winifred is bewitching an entire hall of Halloween revelers with a full-on concert performance, it seems like the most logical course of action for the blustering crone.
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| Sarah dear, chew with your mouth closed, please... |
Equal credit should be given to Midler’s co-stars, comedic actress Kathy Najimy (as Mary) and a pre-Sex and The City Sarah Jessica Parker (as Sarah.) Najimy’s often thankless role as “the big clumsy one” finds her barking like a dog as she sniffs out children to snatch, her mouth in a permanent "derp" smirk (which couldn’t have been very comfortable to hold.) Najimy, however, rises above the necessities of the role, bringing a modicum of warmth and a number of very funny personality quirks into her performance. Her startled little “Ooohm!” as she thrusts a flying vacuum cleaner between her legs before the film’s climax always gets a laugh. Sarah Jessica Parker, meanwhile, brings an energetic physicality to her namesake character - leaping about like an excited toddler one moment and gracefully twirling like Stevie Nicks the next. The Sarah character dances a few fine lines (sometimes literally) between enthusiastic child, coy flirt, ditzy airhead and sinister siren, and Parker manages to pull all these aspects off without it coming off as disjointed.
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| Wait, we've got to do it over - Dani's eyes were closed... |
While the Sanderson sisters (and the amazing on-screen rapport the actresses share) are the central delight of the film, much of the story naturally focuses on a gaggle of young protagonists. The central character, the virgin Max Dennison, is played with “California, laid-back, tie-dyed” attitude by Omri Katz. Handy with a Zippo lighter, Max is a lot more fun at the start of the film than he becomes over the course of his adventure. His dismissive excuse for lacking a Halloween costume (“I’m a rap singer”) and pouting bedroom-drum-kit playing is much funnier than his later heroic sacrificing. His little sister, Dani, is played with believable moxie by a pre-American Beauty Thora Birch. While a dedicated trick-or-treater, Dani leaves much to be desired as Max’s wingman, letting his crush know that “Max likes your yabbos. In fact, he loves ‘em” - a tidbit that is left awkwardly uncommented on. Said crush, Salem native Allison, is portrayed by Vinessa Shaw - who may be the best of the young actors in the film; she was apparently talented enough for Stanley Kubrick to cast her in a small but crucial role in his final film, Eyes Wide Shut, just a few years later. After repeated viewings, I’m almost convinced that Allison is the real hero of the film, since she seems to make most of the good decisions (not wanting to light the Black Flame candle, doing a little salt-dance to form a protective circle,) and is referred to as a “clever little white witch” by Winifred.
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| I desire to partake of chicken! I desire to partake of liver! I beseech Meow Mix to deliver! |
Despite the majority of screentime being dedicated to the witches and their young enemies, it seems that the film is actually supposed to focus on the tragic tale of Thackery Binx (played by Sean Murray as a human, and voiced by Jason Marsden - aka Goofy’s son Max in A Goofy Movie.) After all, the entire first section of the film - in which we meet both Thackery and the Sanderson sisters - is a local legend being shared with Max’s class by their teacher (Kathleen Freeman.) This apparently well-known legend is as much about Thackery, his guilt over failing to save his sister, and the resulting curse as it is about the witches (hence Allison's realization, "You're Thackery Binx, aren't you!?") After our teenage protagonist returns the Sanderson sisters to life in a clumsy show of machismo (“Nice going, Max!!”), Binx catches up to the 1993-set storyline and becomes our main source of exposition. It’s through the talking black Cat that we learn about his unfortunate fate as a near-immortal stray, and all about Winifred’s dead lover, Billy Butcherson (played by Guillermo del Toro’s contortionist of choice, Doug Jones) - conveniently right before he rises from the grave as an unwilling zombie foot-soldier. Now there’s a phrase I didn’t think I'd ever use on this blog. While the film’s climax centers around the kids’ battle with the vengeful sisters, the denouement is focused squarely on Binx’s release from his curse. As the heroic music swells, Thackery and Emily are reunited as transparent spirits, and walk off together toward the rising sun and, presumably, some kind of heavenly afterlife.
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| "LICE" wouldn't fit... |
An overlooked factor adding to this film’s status as an increasingly beloved favorite is the eccentric supporting cast. Many of Salem’s witchcraft-obsessed residents make the most of small snippets of screentime, and help create an atmosphere of quiet lunacy in which the Sanderson’s reappearance can realistically go unnoticed. Most everyone’s favorites are the hapless pair of bullies, Jay and
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| Get out of my dreams, and into my bus... |
My favorite Salem oddball is the world’s most romance-starved bus driver, played with clumsy charm by Don Yesso. His cheesy pick-up lines (“Bubble, bubble - I’m in trouble!”) are delivered with such conviction that one wishes Hocus Pocus had it’s own “cinematic universe,” just so we can see the “mortal bus boy” in his own spin-off romantic comedy.
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| Kissie face! |
The film’s big cameos come in the form of Gary Marshall, playing a random guy in a devil costume, and sister Penny Marshall as his miserable wife (both uncredited.) The extended scene, in which our trio of witches mistakes the red pajama-clad suburbanite for their “master” (and his “little woman” for Medusa, thanks to her hair-curlers,) honestly slows the film down to a crawl; it’s so damn funny, though, that nobody cares. Gary Marshall’s enthusiasm at meeting what he assumes are a trio of dedicated cosplayers (“I know you! It’s the Sanda-sen sistas!”) is strangely endearing, as are his attempts to warm his chain-smoking wife to the Halloween festivities, referring to her as “pudding face” (I’m not sure that’s gonna be an effective pet-name, Mr. Devil.) Penny Marshall, meanwhile, gets some of the film’s best lines, including the one that made it into all the film’s trailers, “Aren’t you broads a little old to be trick-or-treating?” In her defense, if my spouse had just let three (very) strange women into my home I’d be a little touchy, too. I like to think that perhaps there's a story here, like “the master” was trying to throw a Halloween party that no one had shown up for.
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| Oh look sisters ... we're being re-cast! |
Since Hocus Pocus has dragged itself up from obscurity, rumors have floated about that a sequel or some form of follow-up may be in the works. Despite the fact that the Sanderson sisters explode into dust at the film’s conclusion (SPOILERS, YA OINKER!), Midler, Najimy and Parker have all expressed interest in resurrecting the witchy sisters for another misadventure. In 2014 the internet was mildly abuzz with claims that Disney was moving forward with an “in-name-only” sequel starring Tina Fey. Such speculation was swiftly quashed by Disney, which stated that the paranormal-themed project was unrelated to Hocus Pocus. Recent signs are pointing toward a TV-movie reboot rather than a sequel. Que sera, sera; a similar 2016 Disney Channel remake of Adventures In Babysitting hasn’t damaged the 1987 original’s reputation, so more power to them. At any rate, while most audiences outside of those who grew up in the early ‘90s may not give a dead man’s chungs about the film, it remains a delightful Halloween treat for those of us who’ve fallen under it’s spell.
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| Big finish! |
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