Disney’s “Hocus Pocus” is one of the company’s few true cult classics. After an initial negative reception in 1993, the Halloween-themed comedy starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker as a trio of campy witch sisters became a seasonal VHS rental and ABC and gained a fan base through repeated airings on Disney. channel. And its new sequel, “Hocus Pocus 2,” will be released on the streaming platform Disney+ (where the movie debuts), creatively updating the humor while still managing to capture the same hokey magic as the original.
In “Hocus Pocus 2,” a slight revamp of the first film’s plot, two present-day Salem teenagers, Becca and Izzy (Whitney Peake and Belissa Escobedo), are shown during their annual Halloween night performance. , accidentally brings the wizard Sanderson sisters back to life. Ritual. (Teenage interest in witchcraft and the occult is a mild one, a detail that may not have come across in the same way 30 years ago, exactly in 2022.) Girls, witches (Tony Hale) and their former friend, the mayor’s daughter, Cathy (Tony Hale), while casting an immortality spell that makes them omnipotent. Lillia Buckingham) makes up.
Anne Fletcher (“Step Up,” “The Proposal”) directs this sequel, but it follows the same goofy comedic approach as Kenny Ortega’s first film. Even a few meta-jokes nod to the Sanderson sisters’ popularity in the drag world. We’re not just concentrating on three leads.
Hocus Pocus 2
Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. Watch on Disney+.