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I thought I would be an actorrrr. I thought I'd be Ethel Barrymore. I didn't know who she was, but she was my idea of an actorrrr. It seemed it would be more fun to be someone else rather than myself.
Bette Midler
During a February 10, 2008 interview on the BBC show "Breakfast", Bette Midler stated that out of all of her films, Hocus Pocus was her favorite.
Hocus Pocus
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July 16, 1993
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Hocus Pocus is a children's 1993 Halloween-themed fantasy film released by Disney, and directed by Kenny Ortega. The film tells the story of a Halloween-hating teenager named Max Dennison, who frees three witches, The Sanderson Sisters (who have put a teenage boy named Thackery Binx from colonial Salem, Massachusetts under a spell to live forever as a black cat), from their temporary death and must risk his life to defeat the witches and break the spell so Binx may reunite with his family in the heavens.
The movie begins on October 31, 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts. Three witch sisters — Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary Sanderson (Kathy Najimy) - transform a boy, Thackery Binx (Sean Murray), into an immortal black cat as punishment for trying to prevent them from absorbing the life force of his younger sister, Emily. Shortly after, the onset of the Salem witch trials leads the sisters to be hanged by locals after being accused of witchcraft. However, due to a curse created upon a candle by Winnie, they vow to return when a virgin lights the Black Flame candle on a Halloween night when the moon is full.
Three hundred years later on October 31, 1993, Max Dennison (Omri Katz), a skeptical teenager from Los Angeles, finds a love interest in a girl at his new school; Allison who rejects him primarily due to his lack of enthusiasm for the Halloween spirit, he has his shoes stolen by two bullies dim witted blond Jay (Tobias Jelinek) and Ice (Larry Bagby), and he is pestered by his little sister Dani (Thora Birch) who tells him he has to take her Trick or Treating, eventually having their parents (Stephanie Faracy and Charles Rocket) force him to celebrate. While they are out they wind up at Allison's house, and he manages to convince her and Dani to take him to the Sanderson house which had been made into a museum, now run down and unused due to "strange things happening" there. While there, Max lights the Black Flame Candle, inadvertently resurrecting the sisters who encounter and take a particular interest in eating Dani. The children manage to escape with the spellbook and the feline Binx (now voiced by Jason Marsden). Winnie explains to her sisters that the candle brought them back for just that Halloween night, when the candle expires at dawn, unless they've sucked the lives out of children they will no longer exist. Chasing them to a graveyard, Winifred resurrects her once unfaithful lover Billy Butcherson (Doug Jones) who gives chase while the sisters encounter several oddities of the modern world, such as firemen, a paved road, and a bus. They eventually become confused because they sense children, but due to Halloween costumers are convinced that their powers are not working and they are really surrounded by demons. Encountering a man dressed up as Satan and his wife who they believe to be Medusa they are briefly fooled, but come to the realization of the night's activities.
The children make their way to the Town Hall's dance their parents are attending and attempt to warn them, but the sisters break in under the guise of an act, and cast a siren spell to force all present to "Dance, dance, dance until you die!". Luring them to a high school, the kids lock the witches in a kiln and burn them alive. Being immortal for that one night, however they are resurrected. They decide to return to their home and accept their fate, in their haste, however they run into Jay and Ice, promptly kidnapping them for calling them "chicks". Unable to remember the potion ingredients, they prepare themselves for their deaths. Meanwhile, Max and Allison open the spellbook in the hopes of finding some way of reversing the curse placed on Binx, which sends a signal of its location to the sisters. Binx closes the book, but its too late and the witches come, they kidnap Dani and Binx and escape back to their home. Sarah uses her own siren song to hypnotize all the children in Salem who start making their way toward the house. Using the concepts of Daylight Savings Time and car high beams, Max and Allison trick the sisters and take Dani and Binx back. Chasing them back to the graveyard for a last stand, Winnie manages to grab Dani and tries to force her to drink the potion when Binx knocks the vial out of her hand. Max drinks the potion to sacrifice himself for his sister. Winifred is knocked off her broom when the others send Sarah and Mary crashing into her, she continues to try to suck the life force from Max, but because she is standing on hallowed ground, she instead turns to stone. The sun rises and Sarah, Mary, and Winifred's statue explode and turn to dust. Binx, who was mortally wounded dies, and after reassuring that he is at rest to Dani who had developed a bond with him, he goes with his sister into the afterlife.
Later, the adults who were cursed into dancing are seen leaving Town Hall, sweating and exhausted from having danced the night away; and back at the Sanderson home, Jay and Ice, who are locked in very small cages begin to sing Row Row Row Your Boat and the eye on the cover of Winifred's book opens and looks around the room and at the audience, before the screen goes black.
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When Bette Midler takes the stage at the town Halloween Party, she says "Hello Salem, my name is Winifred. What's yours?". This is a take-off of the famous line, "Hello world, my name is Rose, what's yours?" that is spoken by Mama Rose in the musical "Gypsy". Midler played Mama Rose in the television version, Gypsy (1993), the same year this film was released.
The role of Max Dennison was originally offered to Leonardo DiCaprio, but was given to Omri Katz when DiCaprio turned it down to appear in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).
The ballad hit "Almost Unreal" by Swedish pop duo Roxette was originally meant to be included in the movie's soundtrack, but it was dropped and used in Super Mario Bros. (1993) instead.
Charles Rocket acquired a certain notoriety for swearing on live television during the final moments of the 21 February 1981 episode of "Saturday Night Live" (1975). There's an in-joke in connection to this, where he says to Max, "Watch your language!".
Omri Katz was unwell at the time of his first audition, and was initially rejected for the role of Max.
There were seven statues made of Bette Midler for the scene in which she bursts in the sunlight toward the end of the movie. One of the statues, along with Winnie's spell book, is housed at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Orlando, Florida.
Rosie O'Donnell was originally offered the role of Mary Sanderson, but it was ultimately given to Kathy Najimy. O'Donnell claims on her blog that she turned down the offer to work with the Divine Miss M because she didn't want to be a "scary witch".
After having locked the Sanderson sisters in the school kiln, the three kids celebrate as they walk to the park. The house shown directly behind Max and Thackery while they talk is the residential edifice used as Thora Birch's home in 1999's American Beauty (1999).
During the final fight in the cemetery, the background music imitates Miss Gulch's (the Wicked Witch) theme from The Wizard of Oz (1939).
The film grossed $39,514,713. Although it became more popular over the years; not only is it a cult favorite but it also can be viewed regularly on television during the month of October. Although this film became more popular over the years; it a cult favorite loved all over the world, from places like Cancun Mexico and Punta Cana Dominican Republic to places like China and India. It can be regularly viewed on television during the month October all over, just in case you are on vacation and cannot watch it at home.
Brother and sister Garry Marshall and Penny Marshall play husband and wife. He's the one dressed as Satan.
Several scenes appear in the original trailer that are not included in any theatrical, VHS, or DVD version of the film. They include the kids attempting to push the witches into a pool, the witches being surrounded by trick-or-treaters holding out their hands, and Mary snacking in a grocery store only to be dragged out by Winifred.
Tobias Jelinek plays a character named Jay. Oddly enough, his physical appearance as well as his personality reflects the character Jay, of the Jay and Silent Bob fame.
A kid wearing a Michael Myers Mask and Clown Suit was seen out the front of the "Devils" house.
The three little girls who steal the witches' brooms from in front of the house are dressed as the sisters themselves: Winifred with red hair and green cape, Mary with black hair and red cape, and Sarah with blond hair and purple cape.
In this film, Sarah Jessica Parker plays a witch who was executed during the Salem Witch Trials in the late 1600s. While researching her family history for the show "Who Do You Think You Are?" (2004), Parker was shocked to discover that her 10th great-grandmother Esther Elwell was arrested in Salem in the late 1600s for committing "sundry acts of witchcraft" and choking a neighbour to death. Esther's case never went to court, she escaped with her life and the accusation ended the Salem Witch Trials. Parker said: "It has changed everything about who I thought I was."
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