Almost thirty years ago the Disney classic, Hocus Pocus hit the box offices. This movie became a staple piece in Halloween “culture” as a popular movie to watch around the holidays. The movie creatively bends into the world of witches and curses, as the town in the movie, Salem, Massachusetts, undergoes the everlasting reminisce of the Salem Witch Curse brought upon by “the Sanderson Sisters.” All until California missfit Max Dennison and his family move into Salem, where he and his sister venture into a blocked off house, to then light a candle that ignites the life of the Sanderson Sisters back into their outdated ‘Earth forms’. This movie proves to be a classic in a multitude of different ways
Yet, during the annual ‘Disney expo’ (where Disney releases their plans for the coming year) the company announced that Hocus Pocus 2 will be coming to Disney Plus and theaters September 30, 2022. Some fans are enthralled, but they should not be. Disney is notorious for creating extensions of franchises that should not be extended. Hocus Pocus’s ending was perfect. It was the ending of a one movie series, not to be continued, to be watched and enjoyed for the rest of time.
Of course Disney would release the sequel to a movie that came out thirty years ago, preying on nostalgic Disney adults with the false hope of reminiscing a replication of the 1990’s film and hopefully repopularize the franchise. There should be concern raised through the way in which Disney executes this project. In the past, Disney has attempted to make non franchisable movies into sequels and proved that they cannot successfully do this. A great example of this is Teen Beach 2. Teen Beach (2013) was one of my favorite movies as a child and to this day the soundtrack encapsulates my mind in a world of summer. Dolefully, a mere two years later, in 2015, Disney released the second movie of the ‘franchize’. The movie had a rushed plot line, set up a plot line, and quickly destroyed it all by the end of the 110 minute movie. A valid fear created among the release of Hocus Pocus 2 is that it will be rushed, or confusing, or end poorly. It is a tragedy that such a classic movie is going to be followed by such a terrible sequel that will leech off of the original and make it into a terrible franchise that fans will be selective to go back to.