Review: Hocus Pocus 2 (spoilers)

The original Hocus Pocus was released in 1993, and the Sanderson Sisters made another appearance at the end of September. Disney bragged that Hocus Pocus 2 had the biggest opening weekend of any Disney+ feature film, but I found this movie incredibly underwhelming. 

Multiple jokes were reused. Some examples include the witches bewitching the town of Salem by singing a song, Winifred confusing a person dressing up for what they were dressing up as, or the witches using other broom-like items, in this case, a Swiffer and two Roombas, to fly with. And even some of the jokes that were original still were bad! An entire storyline is based around a dorky mayor trying to get a caramel apple. 

There were many plot holes in the movie that were more like plot ditches: Winifred’s spellbook is said to only be able to be understood by other witches, but at the start of the movie, we learn that a character, Gilbert, used the book to create a Black Flame Candle. At the end of the movie, two of the Sanderson Sisters, Mary and Sarah, suddenly were able to cast spells, which they had never been able to do before, and it is never explained as to why they are able to now. 

Finally, at the end of the movie, after Winifred made a mistake that she was well aware of, Disney tries to make the audience sympathize with the witch that spent her life killing children. 

There were, however, some good aspects to the movie. Some of the original jokes were decently funny. For example, the witches are trapped in a circle of salt that they are unable to cross, but the two Roombas which were being used to fly with started vacuuming the salt, allowing the witches out. 

Hocus Pocus 2 was trying to be a sequel to a movie that didn’t need one. If you’ve seen the first movie then you’ve seen the second (but better).

2/5 Anchors