R Hello to all of you beautiful nerds and welcome back from traveling the vast nerd universe. I am here for a new review and it’s a movie!

Hocus Pocus 2

Ever since I heard that they were making a sequel to the original after how many years, I was surprised since they could have done it a year after the original but Disney had to wait. Let’s get to the chase!

Disclaimer

This review is based on thoughts and opinions from the lead writer of this blog. Please respect her opinions unless you want to be turned into a cat for the next couple of centuries!

What Is It About?

Becca is a teen that has been into witchcraft and has been collecting many objects related to the craft even has known of the legend of the Sanderson Sisters ever since she has been living in Salem. On her sixteenth birthday on the faithful holiday of Halloween, she is given what was supposed to be a replica of the black flame candle that brought the three back twenty-nine years ago by the magic shop owner who changed the old house into his shop. With her friend Izzy, they go into the woods to do their yearly ritual and light the candle to find that it was not a replica but a real one and the magical three, Winnie, Sarah, and Mary, are brought back and this time not only looking for the book that was given to them as children but to use a powerful spell that could cost Winie’s true treasure after promising that she won’t cast the spell. Now Becca, Izzie, and their estranged friend, Cassie, must stop the Sandersons from casting the spell.

Thoughts

With most Disney sequels, they don’t keep up with the original as in they tend to stray from it and become a different movie on their own. Some examples include the Lion King: Simba’s Pride, or not as great as the original like The Little Mermaid 2 as another example. This one did fit with the original for the most part since we did get to have some back story on the sisters since we hadn’t in the original. In the original we got to see how the Binks siblings got involved where Emily lost her life with the Light Spell and how Thaqary turned into a cat. In this one we got to see how they got the book in the first place, which I watched again to see if it was also audio described like this and then found it interesting how the sequel made it different. In the original, it said the devil gave Winnie the spell book you see but it was an elder witch that gave them the book when they ran into the forbidden woods outside of Salem. They also changed the bit about Billy Butcherson since they decided to point out historical inaccuracy, which does happen from time to time, and it was a running gag like with the virgin bits in the original.

I did find it interesting how they set this movie in more of the modern times where we have smartphones and other technology instead of keeping one in the mid-90s. Even though it would have worked back then, giving the story more of a modern twist where it passes the torch down to newer characters makes it easier to play around. Even though we didn’t get to see any kids from Max, Dani, and ALison which I would love to see if Max and Alison did stay together after the original or if Dani had kids of her own and try to look into the legend themselves but having new characters getting into in witchcraft themselves and having powers fits a bit more. It did play with the idea of the three witches being more powerful than just having one and having them as friends rather than blood. Yes, Winnie, Sarah, and Mary were great as who they were since Winnie did rely on them to help with extending her power and it went the same with Becca with Izzie and Cassieb when they helped Winnie in the end. I guess they are having the message of keep the ones close the closest that you may lose them one day, which was the message in the first one between Dani and Max since Binks did say the same thing to Max,

One thing I did have to mention that they did keep was the singing and oh man, I know Disney loves their musicals and they did call back to the original with the stage bit. First, they did have the three sing a song about them returning which was also in the trailer. You also hear it in the start of the credits as well and later you do hear them do “One Way or Another” by Blondie. RJ did make a point, he was watching this with me by the way, the song about them being back makes sense but how did they know the Blondie song? I did notice throughout this movie that they were blending in with the era than the first. With the fist movie they were out of touch due to being from the 1600s and don’t know about what had changed since then such as the roads, candy, and even Halloween costumes. In this one, they just blended in such as being in Walgreens with Becca and Izzie looking at the skin care items and meeting their fans and having a selfie with them. I guess Disney decided that “One Way Or Another ” would fit with the idea of this movie since I did have the Sabrina the Teenage Witch soundtrack for a little while before selling it in a garage sale and I did remember Melissa Joan Hart did sing that song there. I guess I am just overlooking that but Bett Midler did do well singing it after not being in this movie for many years. She was a singer a while back after all.

Rating: 4 Star Paw Prints Out of 5

Even though I did like this movie, I did have to knock it off by one point for the musical parts. I think this movie could have done just one and stick to it like the original when they did “I Put a Spell On You.” But they did keep a lot of the original bits that they called back to which included the candle of course, the salt which trapped them this time, and did better with the Halloween bits by having festivals instead of Trick or Treating. To me, which I have been noticing, that has been a bit of a dying tradition since we didn’t have anyone come by last Halloween but people around work did appreciate my candy donation. Anyways, they did do a bit of a sequel bait and I am hoping if they are going for a third movie then they should not wait too long because Bett Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Catherine Nujinny are getting up there in age and we already lost some awesome actors and actresses along the way during some projects. I mean, Kingdom Hearts 3 is a big example since Leonard Neemoy did die years after they started working on it after Nimura decided to go and work on Final Fantasy XV which was a bad idea to do so which caused them to get a replacement once they decided to finish the game. I would say is that they either do it next year which would be the thirtieth anniversary or in 2024 or just leave it as is.

That is it for this review! I will be doing more reviews since I don’t have many subscriptions to cover each month. I am currently waiting on my Glam Bag to arrive and hoping that the USPS doesn’t lose it.  Not sure what is next but will think of something!