Hocus Pocus 2

Silly movie? No, silly me. I thought, it’s been 30 years, there’s new blood, things have been learned, etc. etc. etc. Surely this sequel will be better than the underachieving original. Turns out, what do I know? What stands out here is what was not learned. The script is wildly scattershot, both in terms of plot and in its attention to detail. For instance, the characters of the Sanderson witches are ill-defined in time and place; that is, the writing is stupidly inconsistent in what the sisters know and understand about the present vs. what baffles them. Motivations for most of the characters are confused and nonsensical. Much of the attempts at comedy are tinny, lame, and fall flat. Originality is nowhere on the agenda; the course of the plot largely follows the same line as in the first film, even down to the staged musical performance in the movie’s middle. And finally, as befits any product created by a Disney division these days, the film wallows in relentless agenda service—it’s practically a gigantic bumper sticker of modern identitarian sloganeering. This movie may in fact be one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the devolution of this society’s creative powers. If you couldn’t polish up and improve upon that original, what exactly can you do anymore? Burn these witches with extreme prejudice.

Hocus Pocus

Boy, when they say "Disney version of witches," they ain’t kidding. It’s remarkable to think, in retrospect, that this live action film was being produced roughly contemporaneously as the same company’s animation unit was creating Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. Clearly, the live-action side of the lot did not catch up to its fellow filmmakers for several years (and arguably, based on some recent efforts, it never did). Indeed, while this effort tells a cute story and has some enjoyable elements, it is also true that there is little in this work that is inventive, especially clever, or particularly artful. The quality here is about on a par with your average Disney-produced TV movie. I’d expect a similar quality effort today to premiere on Freeform (the erstwhile ABC Family Channel), or perhaps direct-to-streaming on the Mouse's own platform (as did this one’s long-germinating sequel). Yet this got a major theatrical release when it opened! I guess enough people liked it to make a sequel desirable—or, alternately, the streaming service is that desperate for content. Probably the latter. I’m not saying anyone involved here needs to avoid being seen in public; I’m merely suggesting that this movie may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. Watchable, yes—but hardly spellbinding.