Hocus Pocus 2 Review: Sanderson Witches Can’t Break the Disney Sequel Curse

Of course it’s unfair on some level to be comparing a new, perfectly innocuous family movie on streaming so intensely with the original, and yet the problem with nostalgia sequels is they retrace their predecessors’ footprints so studiously that it’s impossible to separate them. Not that Hocus Pocus 2’s target audience of 12 and under will necessarily care. And as a family entertainment, the sequel is not without its charms, cursed or otherwise.

Set almost exactly 30 years after the ‘93 film, Hocus Pocus 2 primarily follows three adolescent girls who once were their own makeshift coven of  wiccans: Becca (Whitney Peak), Izzy (Belissa Escobedo), and Cassie (Lilia Buckingham). The trio used to celebrate Becca’s Oct. 31 birthday every year by going into the woods and practicing spells. But after entering high school, Cassie has drifted away, favoring the company of her boyfriend and the cool kids.

So Becca and Izzy are down to a dyad when they go into the woods on Halloween night and light a Black Flame Candle, gifted to them by their goofy magic store owner Gilbert (Sam Richardson). Unfortunately, the candle works a little too well, when it summons the Sanderson Sisters of Winifred (Midler), Sarah (Parker), and Mary (Najimy) back from the dead. The trio immediately break into a song, and are then breaking bad… especially after they realize the estranged Cassie and her nerdy father (Tony Hale) are descended from the Puritan reverend who banished them from Salem more than 300 years ago!

Hocus Pocus 2 works well enough whenever its three leading witches are onscreen. Three decades may have passed since these three actresses last committed to running amok, amok, amok, but each is visibly elated to be back with the other two, doing the same shenanigans again. They sing, they cackle, and they pratfall with a relish that’s infectious.

Granted, most of the witchery they get up to is just repackaged bits from the 1993 movie, but there’s a passion among the stars that’s undeniable. Whereas so many belated Disney sequels and remakes—from this month’s soulless Pinocchio to last year’s dire Home Alone retread—seem to come from a place of fiduciary obligation, the affection director Anne Fletcher and these actresses have for those performances is undeniable.

Yet the movie really only is a showcase to revisit those performances and bask in their campiness; it’s a reunion special masquerading as a movie. While it’s nice to finally have a Disney movie about kids going on an adventure again, unlike the brother-sister dynamic between Omri Katz and Thora Birch in the original movie, or even the tragedy of the animatronic black cat they called Thackery Binx, there’s no emotional investment by the screenplay or the direction in Becca’s storyline. It’s perfunctory, like most of the plot machinations throughout the movie.

You May Also Like

Extraordinary: Disney+ Super-Power Comedy is Definitely Not For Kids

The writing by newcomer Emma Moran is sharp, pacey, with an admirably…

More DC Shows Just Got Cut From HBO Max Schedule by WB

To anyone not paying attention to industry news, it sure seems like…

Link Tank: Discover the Complex World of Crime Behind Pez in this Exclusive Clip

Check out an exclusive clip from the upcoming documentary The Pez Outlaw,…

The Last of Us Episode 7 Review: Will Ellie Leave Joel Behind?

Before delving into how beautifully Ellie and Riley’s last night together plays…