Hocus Pocus (film): Difference between revisions

 

The scene shifts to 1993. The Dennisons are a California family who has just moved to Salem, bringing along teenaged son Max (Omri Katz) and 8-year-old daughter Dani ([[Thora Birch]]). Max is a virgin. Halloween night, Max takes his sister trick-or-treating and gets to hang with new [[Love Interest]] Allison (Vinessa Shaw). Allison tells him of the legend of the Sanderson sisters and of a supposed way to revive them; Max laughs and tries it out, bringing the Sandersons back to life. Now the three kids and the immortal cat Binx have to face the witches throughout the night, with the lives of every kid in Salem at risk.

 

[[I Thought It Meant|While a 1994 side-scrolling platformer]] [[Similarly Named Works|by the same name]] [[I Thought It Meant|also exists, they don't have any connection to each other]]. Also unrelated is [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s 1991 novel of the same name.

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* [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]]: Max, Dani and Allison have to flee the witches and zombie Billy Butcherson by following Thackery into the sewers, which are filled with spiders and rats, [[Reduced to Ratburgers|which is what Thackery eats as a cat]]! Very [[Squick|squicky]] to the trio.

* [[Adults Are Useless]]: The children tried to get help from their parents and the rest of the partygoers at the party.

** Max and Dani's parents are useless long before anything supernatural happens. When Max comes home in his stocking feet after his shoes are stolen by bullies, they assume it's somehow a form of protest against them.

** And at the party, when Billy (the zombie) pushes between the parents and chases the children:

* [[All Hallow's Eve]]

* [[All Part of the Show]]: What the adult partygoers think of the Sandersons taking over the stage and singing a song to them, to the point they actually indulge in audience participation and sing too, thus ''[[Refuge in Audacity|unknowingly enchanting themselves]]''. May well count as a [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Moment of Awesome]], particularly for Winifred figuring out that the witches could do this.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Max, whose virginity is repeatedly invoked and commented on.

* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Winnie Sanderson at one point says to her sisters "We are witches, we are evil!"

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Sarah.

* [[Convenient Slow Dance]]: Parodied: While the Sanderson Sisters are in "[[Satan|the Master's]]" house, Sarah goes to "the Master" and says, "Master, wouldst thou dance with me?" She then makes a tender slow dance with him... until his wife shows up and sees them both dancing, which triggers her [[Berserk Button]].

* [[Credits Pushback]]: Because of this, the [[Disney Channel]] no longer airs [[The Stinger]] for the movie.

* [[Disney Death]]: Binx revives after being crushed by the bus.

* [[The Ditz]]: Sarah.

* [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good]]: Winnie apparently can't understand self-sacrifice, especially for a family member.

* [[Evil Is Hammy]]: Let's face it, the witches are about the biggest hams you've ever seen.

* [[Faux Affably Evil]]: Winnie is this when she's not busy to kill children or whatever.

* [[Fiery Redhead]]: Winifred.

* [[Five-Man Band]]:

** [[The Chick]] - Allison

* [[Flying Broomstick]]: Used straight and then parodied when their brooms are stolen, forcing [[Funny Moments (Sugar Wiki)|Sarah to fly on a mop and Mary on a vacuum cleaner]].

** Max wears street clothes when he takes Dani trick-or-treating. His father thinks he's supposed to be a hip-hop deejay, while Dani insists he's a Little Leaguer.

*** Of course, it could just be a form of protest (For Halloween, I Am Not Going As Anything), since Max had no intention of taking Dani trick or treating at all [[Bratty Half-Pint|until Dani started shrieking at the top of her lungs]].

* [[Functional Magic]]

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: See above.

'''Bus Driver:''' Hey, it may take me a couple of tries, but I don't think there will be a problem. }}

* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: Invoked in setting up the [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]] [[Overly Long Gag]].

* [[Holy Burns Evil]]: When Winifred sneezes, a passing little girl (in costume as an Angel) says "Bless you!", prompting all three sisters to react with horror.

** As per the spell that only resurrected them for one night, the Sanderson Sisters will be turned to dust when the sun rises. Witches can't set foot on [[Holy Burns Evil|hallowed ground]] either, and when Winifred tries to quickly kill Max in the graveyard before sunrise, she's [[Taken for Granite|turned into a stone statue]] for standing in a holy place. As if that weren't enough, when the sunlight hits the statue, it explodes.

* [[I Take Offense to That Last One]]:

'''Winifred:''' "''Chicks?''" }}

** Contrast with Winifred's offense at Dani calling her "Ugly."

*** It's probable that Winifred is confused as to her and her sisters being referred to as "chicks." When they're from, chicks are baby chickens.

* [[Intellectual Animal]]: Binx to some extent, but especially when compared to those around him...

* [[Ironic Echo]]: At one point, Winifred swoops in on the kids, taunting them with Max's earlier line "It's just a bunch of Hocus Pocus!" [[Fridge Logic]] kicks in when you realize Winifred wasn't [[Back From the Dead]] yet when Max said it, and couldn't have heard it.

* [[The Man Behind the Man]]: The devil is implied to be behind the Sandersons (see "Satan" below)

* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: The audience is reminded every five minutes that [[Overly Long Gag|Max is one]]. Rather jarring considering the target audience and that Max is young enough to still be commuting by bicycle. Seriously, Disney?

** Insinuating that Max is not a real man.

* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: In one scene Max introduces himself to the two bullies, Jay and "Ice", and says he's from L.A. Since they realize where he's from, they start calling Max "Hollywood" from then on.

* [[The Nineties]]: Max's ''hair'' alone dates this movie.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: What kicks the whole plot off in the modern time when Max lights the enchanted candle, of course he didn't know the legend was real at the time but still. Binx even nearly title drops the trope name when he reveals to Max he can talk.

* [[No Ontological Inertia]]: The party-goers are cursed to dance until they die. The curse ends when the witches die.

** Also, Binx and Billy are allowed to die.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Billy reacts in this way ''twice'', each time just before he (literally) loses his head.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Those skull-faced jazzers/rockers at the Halloween party were pretty cool.

** It may take a second viewing to realize that these performers segued from "Witchcraft" into "I Put a Spell on You" shortly before Winifred took over the show.

* [[Painful Transformation]]: Thackery Binx, intentionally invoked by the Sanderson Sisters.

* [[Perky Goth]]: Sarah, a rare villainous one.

* [[Psychopathic Manchild|Psychopathic Womanchild]]: Sarah. She's so childlike, it's very easy to forget she's homicidal and very dangerous, and her idea of "play" likely involves death and, at one point, possibly torture. Sarah Jessica Parker's delivery makes her lines less creepy, until you think about them.

** One line sums her up instantly.

* [[Really Gets Around]]: Sarah. It's honestly shocking for a Disney film that she flirts with every single male she comes across--from Thackery to Max to Billy to a random bus driver to Max's bullies to a random costumed man at the party...the list goes on and on. Although her idea of [[Cold-Blooded Torture|fun]] probably isn't what most men anticipate.

'''Winifred:''' ''Believe me'', thou wouldst. }}

* [[Redhead in Green]]: Winifred.

* [[Schmuck Bait]]: The candle.

* [[See You in Hell]]:

'''Winifred:''' Oh! [[Insult Backfire|I've been there, thank you. I found it quite lovely]]. }}

* [[Shadow Archetype]]: Max begins the film extremely self-centered, over-dramatic, short-tempered and showing an enormous amount of disdain for his annoying but loving little sister. Obvious and weak comparisons are drawn with Max and Binx, but the stronger parallels are with Max and Winifred, an extremely self-centered, over-dramatic and short-tempered witch who despises her incompetent, yet devoted, younger sisters. Sarah and Mary follow Winifred into what will clearly be their own demise and die after a clumsy attempt to save her from Max, a gesture Winifred would hardly return.

* [[Shock and Awe]]: Winnie can do this on [[Star Wars|Emperor Palpatine's]] levels.

* [[Shout-Out]]: During the "I Put a Spell on You" number, Winnie calls out, "Hello, Salem, my name is Winifred! What's yours?" This is a nod to Mama Rose in ''[[Gypsy]]'', who said, "Hello, world, my name is Rose! What's yours?" (which was spoken by Louise earlier) Doubles as an [[Actor Allusion]] when Bette Midler played Mama Rose in the TV version on the same year that ''Hocus Pocus'' was released.

** Also, the "I Put a Spell on You" number is an [[Homage]] to Screamin' Jay Hawkins, who wrote the song, [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|although the original actually started with "I put a spell on you]], ''[[Beam Me Up, Scotty|because]]'' [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|you're mine."]]

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]: Binx snarling [[Totally Radical|"Nice going, Max!"]] in his standard 17th-century Colonial accent.

* [[Spell Book]]: Bound in human skin, and emblazoned with a living human eye, no less.

'''Sarah:''' Just lucky, I guess. }}

** Binx as well. Max, Dani and Allison are about as sharp as bowling balls.

** "Come Little Children" also opened the movie in Salem 300 years earlier.

* [[Virgin Power]]:

'''Dani:''' A ''virgin'' ''(referring to Max)'' lit the candle. }}

** Well, you can hear a *whoosh* sound after they run off-camera.

** Assuming the brooms had been around since the sisters were alive back in 1693 and if some kids tried to fly on the brooms but failed in the past, then with the sister's resurrection the magic has returned to them and stays. But what if the girls were flying at sunrise when the magic could leave...

* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]: Happens to Binx in the beginning. Not that he wanted it in the first place.

** [[Living Forever Is Awesome]]: You might think the Sanderson sisters are [[Vain Sorceress|Vain Sorceresses]] but eternal youth is only half of what they want.

* [[Wicked Witch]]: Three of them.

* [[Would Hurt a Child]]: The Sanderson Sisters drain Emily's life.

* [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe]]: The Sanderson Sisters, and Thackery and Emily Binx, and the rest of the Salem townsfolk in 1693.

** Played with on the bus:

'''Bus Driver:''' No I wouldn'st! }}

* [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]]: For a little while, it seems that {{spoiler|the witches have been cooked in the school oven. They were, but it didn't stick}}.

[[Category:Fantasy Films]]

[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]

[[Category:Film]]

[[Category:Matte World Digital]]

[[Category:Disney]]