Format: Streaming video from Disney Plus on Fire!
Some movies need to be seen not in the context of when they were made, but at the right moment in life. See The Breakfast Club as a senior in high school, and you’ll likely love it. See it when you’re 40, and you wonder why those kids are so whiny. That’s definitely the case with Hocus Pocus. If this had existed when I was a kid, I would have probably loved it. Had I seen it in 1993 when it came out (unlikely), my opinion would have been different. Seeing it now? I get the appeal, but the appeal is not for me.
This is a Disney movie, of course, so it’s not going to be terribly threatening for the audience, although it goes darker in places than I would have guessed going in. It’s also clearly played for a great deal of comedy, which I did expect. My issues with it are neither of those aspects of it, but because it very much feels dated in its characters. There is a particular type if Disney movie kid that existed in this era, and Hocus Pocus might well be the apotheosis of this persona. I promise that we’ll get there.
