Loose Cannon - Halloween 2025 Week 4 - Hocus Pocus Movie Franchise Discussion - ThisWeekInGeek

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yum yum. It's time for a tasty and refreshing snacks.
You know what I can do with that?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I can do without the people in the video store,
which ones all of them. They never rent quality flexed.
They always picked the most intellectually devoid movie on the racks,
and no on.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
With the show.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Jump back to list the Bones and the key Nacists.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Back in sixteen ninety three, the people of Salem, Massachusetts,
which is thought they got rid of the Senders and
Sisters for good.

Speaker 4 (00:53):
We shall be back.

Speaker 5 (00:58):
I better stay sailing forever. They were right to fear.
The magic has a way of uniting. Happy sixteenth birthday, trial, I.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Have a gift for my favorite customers.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
Legend has it it's on the sixteenth birthday that a
witch gets her powers.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Your children.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yes, Salem, Hey, guys, what's going on? You are listening
to this week and geek dot Net and welcome out
to Loose Cannon, the show that celebrates the big box
videos of yesteryear. But they hey, maybe they were a
modern blockbuster, maybe they were a cult classic, or maybe
there's something obscure you might have seen on TV at

(01:51):
three o'clock in the morning once maybe and for some reason,
Warren Baby holds the rights to it. Anyway, I'm like
the Birdman, but I'm not alone. As we trek to
a Disney classic that takes place in the city of Salem,
Massachusetts and involves Bett Middler, of all people, I'm joined
from the Great State.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Of Ohio with David Denier, and.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Of course it is not The Twig without Twig's resident anime, dorc.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
Ken from this anime, and I was ackingly surprised how
much the first one hold held up.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yeah, so, what we're gonna be talking about tonight, guys,
as part of our continuing coverage of Halloween and all
things spooky and all that sort of bullshit. We're gonna
be talking about a hocus Pocus one and hocus Pocus two,
And I will say, off the hop here, I like
the second one more now that I've seen it more

(02:50):
than once. I do have some thoughts, and we'll obviously yeah, yeah,
So I'm gonna give you guys a second to kind
of think about this. But we often start these office
when did we first see these movies? And for hocus
Pocus one, I was fortunate enough to see this in
theaters in the nineties when this originally came out now,

(03:11):
if I'm not mistaken, this was a late July or
August movie, if I'm not mistaken, which I thought was
a little weird that they're putting out a Halloween movie
in the middle of the summer, but it was Disney.
What wrong could Disney do at that point? It had
the guy from Erie Indiana, Omnri Katz thora Birch, who

(03:32):
I think was like the childlike Empress. If I'm not mistaken, Yeah, so.

Speaker 4 (03:40):
Stat dash cast yeah F one.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Oh yeah, And it's one of those things that I said.
I remember going to the theater and I can't remember
how old I was at the time, So I might
have brought one of my junior high girlfriends to this
movie or not. I'm not one hundred percent sure. But
I remember going into it and having a really, really
fun time and went in saw it, had a fantastic

(04:06):
time with it, left the theater smiling, wonderful. But the
thing is, I don't remember it becoming big until years later,
Like I don't like, I didn't hear a lot of
people talk about it being rented. I think it showed
up on TV.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Yeah, it became a cult following.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, like I like, I don't remember it showing up
a lot on TV in Canada, but I think on
the Disney Channel would obviously get replayed a lot during
the Halloween season. And since this time, there's been a
lot of YouTube videos that have dived deep into the
history this.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Like.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
I know horror director and writer Mick Garris was involved
at one point from an early draft, but so much
so he's still credited in this. But this was a
very surprisingly fun movie that watching it again, uh literally
just moments before we started recording, I just finished my

(05:03):
thousandth watch through of it so much so I like
this movie enough that I went out and bought the
four K for my wife last year when it finally
got released. And yeah, I had a lot of fun
that I'm honestly surprised how well it holds up, and
it holds up in some surprising ways against its sequel.

(05:25):
But we'll get to that. So I'm gonna throw things
over to Dave. When did you first see this and
what were your initial experiences with it?

Speaker 2 (05:34):
So hocus Pocus was a movie that came to me
solely because of what a huge fan my grandmother was
of it. That one is if it's still to this day. Uh,
but she loved this movie. And I mean, and this
is when my sister and I were both pretty young.
My sister's three years older than I am, so I
mean it would have probably had to been between the
ages of like four and five ish. I would say

(05:56):
probably is when it kind of came into my ether.
It was a movie that this was a movie that
was when it was on TV, Like we scheduled time
to watch it and whatnot, like or in some cases
we would record it. I have memories of her having
a recording of it. And right at the point when
Danny is kidnapped along with the book is stolen and
the house like has that explosion happen, I pushed something

(06:18):
wrong on the VCR and the tape aid itself. So
I have memory of that forever with that. But it
was a movie that came to me solely between like
I said, four and five ish and has stuck with
me since. I have personally hosted screenings of this at
the theater here in Troy when it used to be
up and running. I've watched this movie probably once every

(06:39):
October for the last I would say, probably last twenty
years or so. There's a few years in there that
I've missed, but this is one that I always have
in the rotation. I've made friends because of this movie,
And genuinely, what has surprised me with this movie is
overall the expansion of how far it went from ninety
three to two thousand and three, because everybody kind of

(06:59):
credits two thousand and three with it being the year
that it kind of exploded and kind of became the
thing that you always saw in free Form and the
Disney Channel and all this stuff.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
So I think it was probably the same thing that
happened with a gooviy movie. They did like some stupid
thing at D twenty three and then they went, wait,
this is a cultural thing for people.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
We can Yeah, no, I mean, I mean, I remember
it was very tough for a while to get merchandise
for it, because, like I remember, I got fright racks,
fright rags put up in a yeah put up an
or yeah I put They put up an order for
a shirt because it was the first time I'd ever
seen a Hokus Poka shirt, so immediately I grabbed it.
And that was back in like twenty fifteen. So now
you go into spirit and I mean I even said

(07:42):
that my letterbox review today. You into spirit and this
is the number one most merchandised movie at a Spirit
Halloween here in the States.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
So I mean it.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
It has always been a cultural phenomenon for the factor.
I mean because I along with preparing for the show,
I watched the twenty eighteen twenty fourth anniversary special that
Freeform did that was you know, re you know, reuniting
the cast, all the stuff. This movie just created a
an iconic sense of Halloween that has never been touched

(08:15):
by anything else, Like you know, Christmas has you know,
it's a wonderful life and sometimes at Christmas, Carol Halloween
has hocus Pocus and John Carpenter's Halloween. And that's really
about the two that you have that have this much notoriety.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
I would say, Nightmam, before Christmas is up there too,
but like yeah, pretty much, yeah, no.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
You're right, No, not wrong with that, And Ken, what
about you?

Speaker 4 (08:38):
For me, I didn't Again, this was ninety three, so
both me and Dave where we're only two years old
at the time that this thing came out, but it
it came to me when it was kind of starting
to get its Disney was starting to realize it had
a cult status and started put it out there, and

(09:01):
I eventually caught it on cable at some point and
I'm like, now this is this is a fun little film.
I didn't revisit it in forever until like doing prep
for this, and I'm like, I forgot how many people
moved on to do other big shit after this? Like

(09:25):
I would recognize the most random side characters. I'm like,
I know you from somewhere? Where do I know you from?

Speaker 6 (09:32):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (09:32):
You're you were in a movie like two years ago
that was really significant and it it definitely stands a
lot of them stand out as like, oh, this is
a lot of I can do six degrees of Kevin

(09:53):
Bacon with some of these cast members and start connecting
dots with oh, you're from the I can pull you
from here and you from here, and I can start
like playing connect the dots with some of the cast.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah. It's kind of amazing how much of a big
Star Trek connection. Uh, both of these movies have. Because
Doug Jones, that's Seru from Star Trek Discovery, which is
pretty cool. That's also Abe Sapien from hell Boy.

Speaker 4 (10:25):
Oh yeah, yep, Doug. Doug Jones is a mass. Doug
Jones is a plus. He's one of the greatest.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
No, he's one of the one of the one of
the greatest creature actors of all time. I mean he
he is a man that completely moved into his craft
and moved into it well and has succeeded to so
many lengths of the characters that he's portrayed, and I mean, yeah,
him as Billy Butcherson in this movie alone is so memorable.
But I mean, there's just so many memorable things about
this first movie that, like you said, you were surprised

(10:56):
at how well it held up. It even though it's dated,
it's still topical to this day.

Speaker 4 (11:02):
If it is a timeless kind of messaging, it has
timeless messaging, and I think that's why it is held
up for so long with so many people and so
many generations of people.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yeah. No, absolutely. Would you like me to give the
pertin Adets Birdman loop?

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Absolutely, because I think you did this before. I'm almost positive,
So yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Hit me.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
All right, So we're talking about hocus Pocus of nineteen
ninety three one hour and thirty six minutes rated PG.
For some thematic elements, and this film stars Bette Midler,
Seriah Zexea Parker, kathyen To, Jimmy Omari katz, Thora Birch,
Vanessa Shaw, Doug Jones that we mentioned. It is directed
by Kenny Ortega and writers on the film are David Kirshner,

(11:50):
Mick Garris for story on screenplay, and we also have
Neil Cuthbert. I will say in watching the twenty the
twenty fifth anniversary special, they did mention that this was
a story that Kirshner had kind of told his young children,
and he had been working for Disney at the time,
so he kind of took it to Disney. That's when
they wrote up the first screenplay for what was called
Disney's Haunted House or Halloween House, And according to mc garris,

(12:13):
it was way more of a darker and scarier version,
and then they came in and kind of cleaned it
up a little bit more.

Speaker 4 (12:19):
But I think overall with this any o, Yeah, if
I remember correctly, Kenny Ortega is like an uncredited writer
on this.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yes, you are correct, Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think what is really interesting about hocus Pocas is,
even though we say the thing about how they kind
of lightened it up.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
This is a really dark story.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
I mean, this is genuinely like a pretty dark story
for a Disney film.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:45):
If you think about what transpires in this movie, you
go like, oh, that's a that's pretty dark.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Three witches.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Three witches are literally trying to take all the lives
of children in the town of Salem so that they
can keep living and be beautiful. I mean they're literally
kidnapping children and sucking the souls out of them. Not
to mention, well, this is also going on that, like
you have a whole background element of probably the most
times the word virgin has ever been said in a
Disney film.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, I noticed that when I was rewatching. I'm thinking, man,
they're really hammering that point home like I could. I
was saying to Blairs, like, I wonder how many conversations
in the car on the way home where someone said, Mom, Dad,
what's a virgin? And yeah, I was like, okay, one
thing I also picked up on this, And this is
my inner D and D dork coming to the surface.

(13:36):
I don't know what you would call the Sanders and
sisters by definition and witches. I would call them warlocks actually,
because and this is such a dorky thing that I
picked up on. But where the guy comes out of
the costume party dressed as Satan, they're like, oh look
it's Masta and they're talking to him and it's.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Uh, that is that is the late great Gary Marshall
with his wife Penny Marshall. Mind you, yes, the creator
of Happy Days.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
Did she direct Wayne's World two?

Speaker 2 (14:07):
No, the Penny Marshall directed shit maybe, yeah, I think
that does sound right. Two seconds. Yeah, I just know
her as the I think she was also the creator
of Livernon or well she's on the Vernon Shirl but yeah,
but oh she's the director of Big Big, Yes, that's.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
What it was.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
So yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
So just from the way that they're talking, and.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
I was like, you know what, they have more in
common with a with a warlock as they have like
a patron. And it definitely just gets reinforced in the
second one where they meet the witch who says, if
you want to do this, you must do X y Z.
I'm thinking that's a lot like a demonic act with
a patron. So either way, I'm quibbling and she uses

(14:56):
eldritch blast, so I'm like, okay, fine, but yeah, that's
something that I kind of noticed. And the bullying in
this movie's kind of hysterical.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
It's really like, it's very tame for what we've gotten
used to with movie bullies. I think I think the
overall fact that like they end up in cages and
that's literally how the movie ends is with them in cages.
And even on that anniversary special when they brought them
out for the reunion, they were still in the cages
and they're like.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Okay, I think it's time to let these guys out.

Speaker 4 (15:27):
But like I noticed the guy that plays Ice, I'm like,
I know you from somewhere. Where the fuck do I know?

Speaker 1 (15:37):
He's in a lot of stuff?

Speaker 4 (15:38):
And then I looked at his IMDb and I'm just like,
holy shit, I've seen a lot of his stuff.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
What else is he well?

Speaker 1 (15:46):
And then the guy that plays Jay is in Stranger Things?
Mind you too?

Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (15:50):
That too?

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Who is he in Stranger Things?

Speaker 1 (15:55):
His name?

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Hang on here, it's Tobias Jelicate is Jella Nick is
his name?

Speaker 1 (16:00):
And he was the lead agent.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
In probably season four, I'm guessing.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
Yeah, I think it's season four. Let me check here.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
And he's also just recently on a Monster He's gonna
play Richard Speck. Apparently let's see on Stranger Things he
is goddamn it is season season one.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Oh wow, okay, yeah, he's the agent in season one.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Like one of the things I noticed about Hocus Pocus
tonight watching it, and it's something that will come up
when we talk about the sequel. The thing that I
think makes this movie so enduring and literally timeless. This
has some of the strongest charisma from a child's movie

(16:47):
I've seen in a really long time. Like Omni Cats
literally owns every scene he's in. Thora Birch's enduringly cute, sassy.
She works with the scene but doesn't steal it. And
what I mean by it is there's a scene where
they're up in his I can't remember the character's name, Max,

(17:10):
Max's room and she's on the bed going ooh, you
want to kiss Alison, and just like it feels so natural,
like these kids literally grew up together.

Speaker 4 (17:23):
There's a reason Thora Church is still acting today.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
The brother the brother's sister element between Danny and Max
is so sweet. And I as I told you guys
in the chat that I'll announce here, I read in
preparation for this for the show I read the novelization
that they put out, and I think it was twenty
eighteen that has a novelization of the first movie, and
then it has a sequel to the movie that we
didn't get as the actual sequel. So when we talk

(17:49):
about that, I'll talk about that a little bit more.
But one thing I really liked about the novelization because
overall it was pretty paint by numbers. It was pretty
much most of the story that you knew before if
you seen the movie many times. One thing I really
did like is there were a couple scenes added with
Alison and Max, and Alison did not like, did not
pull back on the fact that she really took into

(18:10):
Max simply for how he reacted with Danny and how
he really showed care for her and whatnot. And that's
one thing that when watching the movie today you pick
up on. I mean literally the one point in the movie,
the climax is you know they've made the final potion
that she has left, and she's gonna try and take
Danny soule Winnifred is and Max literally grabs a vial
put it down, or I'll put her down, or I'll
smash it, smash it and she dies and he just

(18:32):
drinks that vial and says, now you have no choice,
you gotta take me. I mean, he literally sacrifices himself
for his sister. So I think their relationship in this
is one of the sweetest things to watch, even early on,
you know, when she's like, you know, you gotta take
me trigger treating and he's like, no, I don't, and
she's like, well, I'm gonna tell mom. And then there's
the whole thing of her running into the bullies and
making him humiliated, and he's all, collect your.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Candy, get out of my life.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
And then she runs off and he, you know, sits
with her and he's like, you know, I hate it here.
She's like, well, this is your home now, so get
used to it, and you know he's just like, you know,
you're right, Like my sister's actually got a voice of reason,
and you see him kind of come over on this
and then lo and behold they bump into Alison in
the next scene. I think their charisma, their chemistry, whatever
you want to call it, is so sweet and comes

(19:15):
off as brother and sister so much that you invest
in this friendship, relationship, whatever you want to call it,
which is I think Birdman what you said previously in
your letterbox review for two, what the second movie lacks.
There is so much chemistry between these characters here, which
is what makes this movie so strong.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yeah. Like, it's one of the things that I'm noticing
as I start to review movies casually more now. But again,
it's weird. It's different when I review a movie and
I'm like, hey, here are the special features on the disc,
blah blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
Whatever you're building your repertoire.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Yeah, Like, I'm noticing casting. When a movie's cast, well,
it brings something else. Now I used to The example
I used to use was Andrea Romano from uh DC
Animated Stuff, because all those voices work so well within
the cast. But when I look at certain live actions,
particularly children's movies, if you don't get the casting right this,

(20:16):
it's either going to become a classic or it's forgotten.
This is a movie you will talk about after you
watch it. Whereas the sequel, you leave the theater, you're
in the car on the way home, what's for dinner?
It's not memorable outsid of maybe one or two sequences,
Whereas this one it's got so much going for it

(20:38):
that it's genuinely really amusing. And to speak about some
of the other casting to speak about the Sanderson sisters, obviously,
Bette Midler a powerhouse. What more can I really say
about her? Wonderful singing voice, amazing community timing. Oh yeah,
she's like fucking kirk. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
One of my favorite things to do in any future
watches of Hocus poke Is lately have been just keep
an eye on Sarah. Watch that Sarah's in the background,
because Sarah Jessica Parker is just having a field day
with this role. One of my favorites is the of Death.

Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah, go ahead, And this was one of her more
Uh this was like probably one of more first like
adult adult roles, like if they think about it, because
she no, I.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Mean it's she's.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
She comes from. I think girls just want to have.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Fun in like the mid eighties and Theator that was
more the Navigator teeny So yeah, I mean this this
might have been one of the bigger ones. I mean,
because it's not too long after this that she'll pick
up Sex and the City. I think, like what four
or five years later, which weird that.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Sex and the City was two thousand and eight, so.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
I have what was it? Ye, yeah, I didn't think
it was that late. I thought it was that might
have been that movie that that mo Yeah, like what
I've seen Sarah Jessica Parker in I've seen four episodes
of the show, couldn't stand it. I've seen Flight of

(22:12):
the Navigator obviously, and I've seen this. And this is
not an indictment on her. I can't say that I
hate her, but I could say this is the movie
where I think she's the most enjoyable, mostly because you're right,
she's just she's having fun. She's goofing off, but it
works and it never seems out of character or over
the top. Like there's a scene where they're in the

(22:34):
house and she's just drinking the sprinkler. She's like, how
refreshing is.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
That's what I'm saying. Yeah, the burning rate to death
and she's.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
Just like, ah, like there's that going on. But what's
even funnier is so, yeah, like we all look at
her as the background character, she's actually the one that
brings all the children into happening, Like she's literally the force.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
That summons everything.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
So it's kind of funny that you think of her
as kind of like the comedic relief when that Ashley,
that's kind of I mean, Mary's the one that's riding
a vacuum in the first movie and then riding rumbas
in the second movie. Yeah, Sarah's definitely quirky and whatnot,
but like Mary's kind of more of the slapstick one
and the fiend off one where you know, Winifred is
in the moment and in your face. And but what's

(23:15):
funny and what makes this movie so sellable, because like
we mentioned it's so dark, is because they're goofballs. Yeah,
they're witches, but they're also kind of bad at their jobs.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
They're like they're the Three Stooges.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, Like they're not an overwhelming like Fano's level threat,
Like like, yeah, they're scary, they're gonna kill people eventually,
like they're going to get to it, but they're so
over the top where they would fuck up on timing.
They're like, oh, we're gonna destroy you.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Even shit even in their prologue, even in the beginning
of this movie, as we see this setup for the
movie basically, which is the Sanderson sisters have kidnapped Emily Binks.
They're gonna suck the life out of her. Her brother
Thackeray comes and he ends up getting caught by them
and turn into Thackeray being the cat that we know.
But the whole thing that happens in between this is
Emily dies like they suck the life out of her

(24:06):
because beautiful, and then the villagers swarm and hang them.
I mean that's literally the setup in your Disney movie
in the first ten minutes. So, I mean you have
this whole setup of the witches even then, and when
you first see them, they're pretty horrifying in this it like,
and we don't see that version of them the rest
of this movie. So the initial like look of them, yeah,

(24:26):
those are witches, and then once they suck that life
out of out of Emily, they stay the same, you know,
kind of beautiful, hideous sense the whole rest of the movie,
and then we never see them as witches again. Even
in the second movie. There's never anything that makes them
look like, you know, more phased out or evil than
they do in that initial opening. So I always found
that fascinating that the movie does really start with them

(24:48):
looking horrifying and then once they become beautiful from sucking
that life. They stay there the rest of the series, basically.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
Yeah, it's probably the one element that was kept from
the darker tone.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yeah, I could definitely see that.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
Like that opening sequence is probably the only thing that
was kept from the original screenplay.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah, I'd be very curious to see what Mick Garrison's
original look like. And I want to say, Joe Blow
did a really good video on this, like a couple
of years ago, but I'm not.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
Yeah, there have been multiple deep dives with multiple people.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
But yeah, one thing I did find out today that
I thought was fascinating real quick was in regards to
working with a cat. Obviously, you know there's a computer
animated cat when it's talking, but as far as working
with the real life cat, they had buzzers. These cats
were trained by buzzers that the actors would click and
then they'd hop on their shoulder and then they'd run
into the scene. Like there's clips of that from the
the twenty fifth anniversary special. So they were really working

(25:51):
with all kinds of wire working. They were working with
animal trainers. They had these early early early computer generated effects,
all this stuff, and you know, the movie literally tanked
when it came out, like they released it in July,
comes out against the fucking Jurassic Park.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
Yeah it didn't.

Speaker 6 (26:09):
It made.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
It barely broke even.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
Well, I mean, we don't know what the advertising campaign was,
and I guarantee they threw a lot behind this one.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
I mean yeah, like when you're all quite a bit
of advertising for this movie.

Speaker 4 (26:26):
Yeah, so it was like it was a twenty eight
million budget. At the end of the day, it's gross
was forty six So maybe broke even maybe not kind
of thing.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
From what the everybody says in the cast and crew,
it was pretty much a bomb.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Even Kenny Ortega said that.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
So, I mean, I love the fact that you have
this resurgence that happens in two thousand and three and
everything takes over and then you start having a reappraisal
of the movie. There's been books written on this movie now,
to the point of people sing and whatnot. I've actually
read a couple and I mean there's a lot here.
But I think overall, what I've always loved about Hocus
Poke is it's a movie for everybody. It has something,

(27:05):
it has a little bit of something for everyone, and
it feels like and it it's.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
A fun Halloween film to sit a kid down.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
And watch yeah, like it's safe, it's non threatening, but
it has just an it's if the kid is into movies,
they're gonna have a good time. Like there's yeah, there's
nothing here that's bad or boring. Like I like, it's funny.
My wife was saying to me, like I remember when
she the Sean Murray, the kid that plays back. He's like, oh, yeah,

(27:35):
I I had a crush on him kind of growing up.
And when I think.

Speaker 4 (27:40):
That that dude is look the same for.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
Decades, well yeah, and now he's in like NCIS or something.

Speaker 4 (27:48):
Yeah, he's doing the long running NCIS cast members.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
And the girl that played that played Alison, Like she's
that classy beauty that comes out of the nineties with
like the teenage girls that came in like a lot
of the nineties movies. So I think of hocus Pocus,
I think of Lady Bugs stuff like that, where there's
like a certain look to the girls. They don't look overly.
I don't know. I don't want to say fake because

(28:12):
that's very mean sounding, but there's just, like I said,
there's something there for everybody.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
I gotta shout out props to the late great Kathlin Freeman,
who plays the teacher in the class. Yes, that is
that's doing the Sanderson Sisters lesson. Yeah, I've always loved her.
But like the fact that she is literally doing this
class dresses a witch and like throwing freakin' streamer at
one point like as a joke and everything. I just
I've loved that opening because it just kind of shows that, like, oh, yeah,

(28:39):
like this is this is absolutely that kind of movie
where it's like we're in Salem, and naturally Salem would
embrace everything with witches, even though you know they did
horrible fucking things to them.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
Yeah, but yeah, Like there was just a lot about
this movie that I really enjoyed and I loved. Going
through the background, I was just looking for costumes. I'm thinking, well,
Disney holds a license to so many things, like I'm
really surprised there's not more licensed characters. However, in the background,
I did spot Sonic the Hedgehog, which Sonic two would

(29:13):
have come out around ninety two or ninety one. I
want to say, I spotted a Tron character in the
scene in the city hall. I guess they're all having
a dance.

Speaker 4 (29:25):
And probably the production designer or even Kenny Ortega himself
that was.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, yeah, did you spot Michael Myers when Winnifred scares
him off in the Devil's House?

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (29:36):
I did, Actually, yeah, no, I've I've always loved that.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
So there's so many fun little easter eggs in the
movie like that. And despite this movie, like they clearly
explicitly say, oh, what years is? Oh it's nineteen ninety three,
oh even three hundred years, it feels weirdly timeless in
its own little way, like it it exists in this
perfect bubble where like you're not saying, well, why don't

(30:03):
you just use a cell phone, why don't you just
use a computer? Na, Like the timeframe almost has nothing
to do with anything other than it's a one off
line and that's how long they've been. It's just merely
to establish timeline. I was thinking, you don't find many
kids movies that are timeless like that, Like there are
sometimes movies where they mentioned a year, but it's unimportant.

(30:25):
I would say Ghostbusters is one, and the Terminator movies, right,
other than the fact they're establishing timeline and it needs
to happen at the specific time with this didn't need
to happen in ninety three.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Would you like me to blow your mind with something
that we have spoken about previously that is true fact
and is confirmed by IMDb. But also, if you watch
the movie, you know in twenty eleven they just took
the hocus Pocus script and put a new, little fresh
coat of paint on it with puppies and called it
Spooky Buddies. Because Airbud entry Spooky Buddies is hocus Pocus

(30:58):
with the buddies.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
And I'm not kidding.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
Is there anything that those buddies don't destroy in your life?

Speaker 2 (31:04):
Dave Listen, I was talking to my roommate earlier today
about the air Bud cinematic universe once again, and said
again how I appreciate Spooky Buddies and space Buddies because
anytime that somebody went like.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Oh, let's just do aburgeddon but throw some dogs in it,
I'm in sure. Let's go ahead and just do that.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
By the way, Mike uh So, I just did a
quick scan of the production designer for Hocus Pocus. Yeah,
this dude's a freaking boss. Uh He is the production
designer for fucking RoboCop.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
Oh my god, that's amazing.

Speaker 4 (31:42):
He's he did Air Force One, Small Soldiers, Deep Blue Sea,
Perfect Storm Master and Commander. Uh yeah, goddamn, we have
to find it.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
We have to find a reason to talk about Small Soldiers.
I fucking love that.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Give me any reason I love that movie too?

Speaker 3 (32:06):
Well?

Speaker 2 (32:06):
You want to know what the cinematographer Hero Narita shot
besides Hocus focus?

Speaker 3 (32:12):
What else?

Speaker 2 (32:14):
So we also have and I quote, we have Subdown,
which is a nineteen ninety seven direct to video action
Moofy James and the Giant Peach, The Arrival with Charlie
Sheen White Fang two, Star Trek four, The Undiscovered Country
or excuse me, Star Trek six, The Rocketeer, Honey, I

(32:37):
Shrunk the Kids, And I think those are pretty much
most of the main titles.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
Now.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
That's not to say though that they also were not.
Second Camera on Apocalypse Now Wow, Yeah, and second Unit
on the time Machine, the really bad Time Machine remake
from two thousand and two.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
I mean, it's kind of like outstanding, just to see
how a movie can go to theaters and like you said,
it'll just flop, it'll disappear, maybe it'll show up on
rental stores. People start talking and eventually it gets re
evaluated and rediscovered like a decade decade later or whatever.
I'm really glad this happened with this movie. And I know,

(33:21):
obviously we've mentioned so many these people have gone on
to so many bigger and better things, or they're steadily working.
Some people have not. I know Omri, I'm pretty sure
he's vastly retired from Hollywood. I recently found out Catherine
n Jimmy that's Piggy Hill from King of the Hill.
I was like, really, so that kind of blew my mind.

(33:44):
And I got to say, the the reboots season on
Hulu or Disney plus surprisingly good.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
I've need to dive into it. I've heard it's fantastic again.

Speaker 4 (33:55):
King of the Hill has aged like fine fucking wine.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
Oh yeah, it's kind of outstanding.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
So also just to give a last minute shout out
to another person we lost, I think because I love
him in this movie, Charles Rockett, who plays Max's dad.
He's also Nicholas from Dumb and Dummer, the main villain.
So I've loved that guy ever since that I love
him in this movie. So just throwing a shout out
to him.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
That's awesome. I mean, like I said, I'm really glad
we all sat down, and I'm really glad Dave that
you pitched this as an idea because when me and
Blair were watching this, literally just before we came on
air for this, this movie, it's the perfect length. It
knows exactly how to hold your attention. It's fun, it's memorable,

(34:41):
it is everything a classic movie for this time of
year should be. And it's just Chef's Kissed. No notes.
Absolutely worth watching now the second movie, hocus Pocus two,
because I want to hear Dave what you got into
it with some of the notes this, so yeah, I yeah,

(35:04):
so gather your thoughts. So I watched this with Blair
the night that it premiered, and we were pretty excited
for this because we're like, hey, we saw the advertisements.
We've been following the production stills throughout the year. Cool,
all right, a little weird and late, but Hollywood likes
to dig up the corpse of old properties and see

(35:26):
what happened. Sometimes you strike gold, sometimes you hit a
sewer line. And originally I didn't like this going into it,
like I thought, like, that's derivative, that's lame, this is
fucking stupid. And while I was watching this movie. I
like it more the second time round. And the thing

(35:46):
that I noticed immediately, especially when you watch these back
to back. It's something that I mentioned in my letterbox
review and Dave has alluded to, is the chemistry between
the lead kids in this movie is not as strong
as ominriy Cats and Thorer Berths. It's just it's just
not there. And it's not that the characters are not likable.

(36:08):
They are. It's just I said this to Blair, these
are the type of people you run into in the
doctor's office. She's like, what what do you mean by that?
And I said, they're fun, they're pleasant to talk to,
but they're what I call single serving friends. You meet
them in a public place or on an airplane, you
have a conversation, you have a few laughs, and you

(36:30):
go about your business and by the time you've done
your business, you forget who they were.

Speaker 4 (36:35):
And it's Disney Channel level acting.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
Yeah, and it's nothing, and it's nothing against them. It's
just like they're not as memorable as they could be.
And that's the thing. You're right. This feels very very
made for TV esque. This would not be.

Speaker 4 (36:49):
Technically why TV.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Yeah, it was. It was made for streaming specifically because
this was like a this was this supposed to be
like a COVID comfort basically.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
I think so, because like this would not succeed on
its own in theaters. Now, if you did this as
a double bill special with the original hocus Pocus, with
maybe like a fun song in the middle as the
intermission after the credits, then yeah, this may have some
legs as a as a as a movie on its own.

(37:24):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
I mean spoilers they're making a third one and it's
come and.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Are they because I heard much because I got and
then it filming.

Speaker 4 (37:38):
Yeah, that film.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
I actually looked into that, so I can't find a
reliable source. The closest thing we found, I think Blair
found this with some digging from me, is there was
a quote from Sarah Jessica Parker saying they were talking
about it and having conversations. If they were doing something
with it. My guess is we probably would have seen

(38:01):
something right now, at least a production still.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
I mean, I does say it is in production, so
I will say that we'll see.

Speaker 3 (38:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
I mean, like, look, the odds are it'll probably come
out next Halloween.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
If they're doing it at all. Yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
They're doing it. We'll see it next Halloween. Yeah, and
it'll go straight to Disney Plus if not, do like
a small theatrical run.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
Which I really think they should do because one of
the coolest things I've ever seen done again side Tangent,
but last year Shutter, which is a streaming service available
around the world. You they showed VHS Beyond in theaters
for like a week.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
Shutter does that with a lot of their stuff.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
I mean, technically that's how they did Clown in the Cornfield.
Clown in the Cornfield wasn't technically a wide release it was.

Speaker 4 (38:54):
Yeah, they do that legitimately, Mike here in the States
like they do that a lot.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
Yeah, I've seen Clown in a Cornfield. I think it
was in theaters up here for like maybe two weeks.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
I saw there. The last one I saw was there there.
It's a wonderful life, but a slasher movie.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
It's a wonderful knife. Yeah, we saw that in theaters too.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
That's crazy, I mean, but I think having hocus Pocus
make it event cinema and I think you'd have a
really good time. I'm not saying it's going to recapture
like the Wicked crowd of people seeing gravity in the
theater and dressing up. But I could I could see
a certain pop portion of the population doing that. It's

(39:39):
it's fun.

Speaker 4 (39:39):
They're probably that. If Disney was smart, they'd probably do
like a small theatrical run like they did with Young
Woman Sea, which was a cup a year or two ago.
They did like a small theatrical run, very short. It
was like maybe a couple of it was like maybe
three weeks at most, and then it went straight to

(40:02):
Disney Plus.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
Like I can see them doing that, like do it
for the month of October and then maybe drop it
on Disney Plus like the week after Halloween.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
The one thing that I heard that people were curious about,
and I don't know how much, you know, how much
is this hold water? But I think the whole idea
of a prequel series with the Sanderson sisters was something
that like I think it was like a six episode
or something that was discussed early on that never came
to fruition. And I almost think that might be better
than doing a third because I feel like the thing

(40:43):
that I really have issue with with this second movie
is we're doing the same movie. We're doing the first
movie over again, but we're leaning heavily on the nostalgia
of that first movie.

Speaker 4 (40:57):
I mean, you can and also, just like the the
whole you can backdoor pilot into a series because we
have the young versions of these characters in the movie.

Speaker 7 (41:10):
Yeah, which there's something to say about the young Sanderson
sisters in this They're on screen for less than five minutes,
but they make a fucking impression.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
A girl who plays the young Winnifred, Holy shit, I
want to know more about that character. She's funny, she's
got she's got spunk, she's got that charisma. That is
a star right there, because even just a little bit
she was in it was it was great.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
Yeah, looking at her IMDb, she's only done two other
things and they were guest stars on TV shows, long
running TV shows.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
Yeah, she deserves a lot more. And like even the
other people who play like sarahs.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
Who that's who she was.

Speaker 6 (42:05):
She was.

Speaker 4 (42:07):
Uh. She did a voice in the English dub for
the Goro Miyazaki's Earwake and The Witch. She was the
main character of that. That's where I recognize her voice from.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
I can see that I've heard that I've heard that's
a really good happened. I chance I'll see it, yep.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
But yeah, I like Goro as a director.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
Sum But yeah, there's the thing about hocus Pocus two.
There's a lot of really clever gags, like a lot
like the like the rumba thing that's pretty friggin funny.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
And it pays off, Like the rooma thing is not
just a sight gag. It comes back and like has
actual play multiple times in the movie. So like, I
really appreciate that aspect of it because it's not just
like the site gag of initially, like the vacuum flying
off on the vacuum in the first movie.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Yeah, like it's something that again I didn't pick up
until the second watch through yesterday watched it again. Oh yeah,
that kind of makes sense. Like for a year I
thought for two Like, I didn't realize this movie came
out in twenty twenty two. I thought it came out
last year. So this movie exists in like a weird
time warp for me. I thought the rumbas I thought

(43:26):
I thought it was a hoverboard. I didn't realize they
were two separate entities.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Again, Okay, I thought they spent way more time in Walgreens,
to be honest, And then when I was watching it today,
I was just like, Oh, actually, we're really not in
there that long. I mean, there's definitely it is definitely
an odd addition to the movie. I think it's funny
today we're watching it because it was like the pocket
some money exactly.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
No, it's it is. It is absolutely that. I mean,
it's it is.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
You know it it is a what is a brand?
I can't think of the phrasing for it, Uh, brand market, Yeah,
something like that. But no, like I think that was
one of the things that going back to it, I
was just like, Okay, this is actually a pretty fun movie.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
It does not have that feel of the first movie
one hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
But the Sanderson sisters Bette Midler, Kathyen and Jimmy Sara
Jusica Parker, they knew the assignment and they went full
tilt on it. And do I dislike the musical numbers
in this the Witches back in one way or another.
I'm not a big fan of them, But at the
same time, the musical number of I Put a Spell
on You, obviously is one of the most memorable things

(44:32):
of that first movie.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
So I understand why they did it.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
It just feels like a really odd lean in when
they first are summoned and now they come back singing
the Witch's back, whereas the whole uh, you know, the
whole build up to the come little children will take
you away in the background.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
Love that. I think that's super creepy. It's like that
whole sign of all shit, they're coming to.

Speaker 4 (44:55):
Be fair this The director of this one is the
director of Step of.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Two, Step Up, twenty seven Dresses, and Anne Fletcher is
a pretty decent director. But it's interesting to take a
rom to com director primarily and give her this property
because I don't know, like I mean, it doesn't like more.

Speaker 4 (45:15):
She was more of a ooreographer for a lot of
her career, like she had Wayne boreographer credits than she
is a director.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
But I will say that her directing credits are good.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
I think Anne Fletcher, I think she was an interesting
name to assign this project in regards of who you
could have attached to it at this time too, because
I mean, the first thing that we got to say,
we're not first thing, but the biggest thing we gotta
say is everybody has been pitching a Hocus Pocus sequel
for a long time. I mean a long like or
even early two thousands. It was something that was like

(45:47):
could be till.

Speaker 4 (45:49):
At least during as soon as it started getting a resurgence.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Well, I I vehemently remember there was a fucking fan
poster that was going around all over social media for
a while. That was the Witches in New York. I
saw that poster so many times and people were like, oh, man,
hocus Pocus two is coming. It's like, no, it's fucking not. Well, yeah,
that is a fan poster. So when we actually got
a sequel, I was completely shocked. And as I mentioned previously,

(46:17):
I read the novelization for the one that they got
released in twenty eighteen.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Completely different story.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
In twenty eighteen, it's Allison and Max's daughter, Poppy, that
is living in Salem. Max is a history teacher at
the high school. Jay is the fucking principal at the
high school, and his daughter is one of Poppy's biggest bullies.
Long story short, they end up going to the Sanderson
house with a spirit board and in the press directing
the Sanderson sisters, they get turned. One of them gets

(46:44):
turned into an animal and they basically have to fight
them with the help of Aunt Danny and Max and Allison.
So it's kind of a rehash of that first movie.
Like I mentioned, you know, the one thing that's kind
of I feel lazy. But in the novel, it was
a lot of fun to have those characters back.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
I will say.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
One thing that I had a thought about this. So
they introduced this character of Gilbert the Great.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Who is this name? Richardson is so good in this movie.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Oh yeah, he's amazing. I like him, but I think
he's misplaced. This is what I mean by that. So
they they show him in nineteen ninety three he saw
the witches and for some reason, he's enamored by them
and he wants to help bring them back to Earth reasons. Okay,
I'm fine with that. What bothered me it's not the

(47:33):
inclusion of the character, but who the character should have been.
That character, in my opinion, should have been Henry and
Ice because they had the history with the Sanders and sisters,
or as they're just introducing just this random new character.
It would have been nice had the Ice, who was
trapped in that cage for thirty years or whatever, if

(47:54):
you had him thinking this traumatized him so much that
that's why he's assisting bringing them back. So he's choosing
to guard this house because he's all messed up or something.
But yeah, that I was like when I saw the
original today, I was like, why wasn't Gilbert Ice or

(48:14):
his buddy? That would have been a nice callback and
a way to bring back more original cast from the
first one. And again, I really like the guy who
plays Gilbert. He's hysterical, he's got great comedic timing.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
It feels is a great actor period.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
He's a great actor. He's hilarious.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
My biggest issue with this movie vehemently is the treatment
of how the ending comes about with Winifred.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
I don't way too fast.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Well, not even that, I don't like the fact that
we have to shift sympathies to I mean, like she
always she has always cared.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
About her sisters.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
That has never been anything that's been argued. You know,
you could say that, you know, she definitely treats them
a little rough sometimes and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
But she does love her sisters.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
So this whole concept of basically hocus Pocus too is
that she comes back wanting to get into this spell
called Magna magicia or something like that. It's basically like
the ultimate witch spell, and she is warned by the
older elder witch when she is a child with her sisters,
who never cast a spell book doesn't like this spell.

(49:17):
She've has to cast a spell on book for him
to stay open, for him to read, for her to
read the spell. And then when she casts a spell,
it is basically taking everything you love in exchange for
ultimate power. So she watches her sisters completely like vanish
into dust. So then there's this whole thing of her
being like, well, I didn't want this, and then she
turns over to our main characters and.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
It's just like, you know, can you help me?

Speaker 2 (49:40):
It's just a really like I understand, I understand the
sympath the sympathetic point of it, and I understand.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Like where it comes from.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
It's just a really weird turn for the Sanderson sisters
lore in this movie, in my opinion, And that was
one of the biggest issues I had and still kind
of do have. But I've softened up on it because
I still think the movie is a lot of fun
and if there's a legacy sequel done right, I feel
like it is this one.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
Yeah, I mean, the intent is there, but like I'm
kind of with you on how fast and how weird
the ending feels. So that's like, I do love the
idea that now there's a new witch who again is
using a lot of D and D coded spells. So
that made my night, but it's just like it's too much.

(50:27):
And when Beca, the young witch who has the power,
says the power wasn't to bring them back, it's to
send you to them, I thinking that's, yeah, that's kind
of poetic, and I kind of dig that because.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
I do like that.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
Like that, like, it doesn't redeem Winifred other than the
fact that she has so much love and care for
her sisters despite coming from an evil background. But that's
the sign of a good villain. You're giving them an arc,
but I don't see how she arrives to that arc
outside of a couple of minutes.

Speaker 4 (51:03):
Some connection points.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
Yeah, And like to what Dave said, having a prequel
series could be really fun if you did it right,
and you would build up these characters, give them the
background and make it interesting. Now, is that gonna carry
you for five seasons? Probably not, but a mini series
of five to six i'd be if you got you

(51:24):
dropped one episode a week with a double length finale
on Halloween, I think you could have a solid Disney
Plus winner.

Speaker 4 (51:33):
Yeah, I think the if Disney was still pumping money
into Disney Plus content like wholeheartedly, I would think that
could have been a possibility in today's climate. I think

(51:53):
they're gonna try. They're gonna try and get this third
movie out and put it in theaters for a select
period of time and see if they can make some
money on it. But overall it's I.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
I don't see it going to theaters. I see it
being an exclusive and being done. To be honest, I
don't know. I feel like the audience for two spoke
pretty loudly and they were pretty much split of Yeah,
this is good or what the hell is this? I
didn't see anybody like Over the Moon ecstatic about this movie,
So I don't know if they really have a theatrical

(52:31):
audience there for another sequel. But you can still pull
in numbers with releasing the original in theaters, so maybe
I'm wrong.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Yeah, Like I think a lot of the franchise is
propelled by people in my age bracket into a lesser
extent your guys's age bracket that has nostalgia. Would it
succeed at a wide box office? Probably not. However, if
you make an event cinema for a weekend or two
in I think it. I think you'd see some surprising

(53:03):
returns on it. But I know with theaters you have
to pay so much to book it for so long.
It has to get so many shops.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
Yeah, and it's Disney, Disney strong Arms Theatrical releases a lot.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
Yeah, so how they run Yeah. So I mean the sequel,
I wouldn't call it bad, but it's not memorable. And
I think that's this thing's worst crime. We have thirty
something years of build up and expectation and this is
what we get. While we get some funny moments like
them drinking revitalized cream and Walgreens that's pretty funny.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Yeah, Like I said, the Walgreen stuff was funnier this
time around. Like I will say that rewatching it this time,
have or not watched it after three years, It did
hit better for me this time.

Speaker 4 (53:53):
I think what I think hocus Pocus two is it's
seven out of ten. If you have if you're enjoying
a lot of the gags. Probably a six out of
ten if you're finding it insufferable, and then the first
one is a solid eight or a nine.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
Yeah, I would agree, I gave it. I gave the
first one a four on letterbox and this one of
three and a half. I think hocus Pocus two is
definitely still watchable. I think there are some really fun
things there. But I also think you really kind of
made a mistake not investing in the Denizens coming back
against the Witches. I think that was kind of a
mishap on this.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
Yeah, like I wanted more than member Berries. I wanted
something a little more cohesive, and like I said, there's
some wonderful side act or something like Tony Hale. Randomly,
Buster Bluth is the mayor. That's kind of funny, that's
the heat.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
He's great.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
And honestly, Doug Jones returning as Billy Butcher's and Billy
Patterson and Gilbert's stuff together is really fun.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
I have a feeling a lot of that might have
been libed. Oh yeah, it's into because again I just
get the vibe because it's it's it's entirely too natural
to be funny, and that's kind of what I dig
about it. But yeah, I mean, if they do something
more with this franchise, take the time to do it right.

(55:18):
I mean, if you're gonna involve everybody again, like bringing
back Bet, Sarah and Catherine. Sure, but I don't know,
like I don't want to see them mind the franchise
for nothing. I want to have a fun time. But
I feel because hocus Pocus two came out in twenty
twenty two, I don't know whether they're under the clock

(55:41):
of strike while the iron's hot. I don't know whether
there's exactly a huge group of people clamoring for a sequel,
Whereas it would be cool if it happened, But I
don't see the internet lighting on fire demanding it like
right now, so to speak. So I guess, guys, conclusion
on this franchise, what do we think as a whole? Dave,

(56:04):
let's go with you.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
I mean, hocus Pocus will always be a timeless classic.
As far as the first movie goes, it is untouchable.
It is the Halloween time staple, as I've already mentioned previously.
The second one, I genuinely do find some very fun
things inside of it. I think it is a fun
movie overall, with enjoyable moments and jokes and decent humor.

(56:27):
Also a very astute sense of knowing where the original
where you came from with the original, and it does
pay homage to the original with a lot of the
Sanderson sister jokes and the overall affinity that the town
has with.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
The Sanderson sisters. Now you know, thirty years later, I
think it's really cute.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
Both movies as a whole, I think are are still
a good time. I think hocus Pocus two is absolutely
a step down from the first one, but I think
it's hard to match up to how great that first
movie is, but the second one, if you watch it
when it came out and you weren't super impress so
that maybe go back and get another shot, or if
you didn't even check it out when it came out,
maybe go back and check it out now and just

(57:06):
you know, maybe take your own point from that. I
think both movies have a lot of Halloween fun lore
to them, and overall, I think you can't go wrong
busting them out anytime in October. I think they're kind
of perfect for that, even if one is lesser than
the other. And if you haven't seen the twenty fifth
Anniversary special, which is also on Disney Plus here in
the States at least, It's a really really cool thing
to check out to see where the pop culture zeitgeist

(57:29):
was with this, not even just seven years ago for
that matter, and probably where it's at now.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
So I mean is it's pretty crazy to see a cultural.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Phenomenon come from a bomb like this and become one
of the quintessential Halloween films that everybody is catching on
TV or busting their Blu ray disc out every October.
So as a whole, I think the movies are are
a solid little double feature. As a standalone film with
the original, you can't get any better than hocus Pocus
one hundred percent all right.

Speaker 4 (57:56):
And Ken I mean again, the first one surprisingly held up.
The second one is just kind of okay, Like it
feels very TV movie. It's harm it's one of those
harmless watches. It didn't blow me up out of the water,

(58:18):
but it was like, there's some good jokes I chuckled
here and there, and kind of that's what you expect
for a direct to streaming movie. So it it did
its job. Whether it deserved its supposed budget is a mystery.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
I'd say For me, they're absolutely worth watching, and much
like what Davin Kin have said, they're they're just they
are a part of Halloween, and while one is clearly
superior to the other one, you're not gonna have a
bad time watching either. I think they're both easily accessible
for audiences. You definitely need to see the first one

(59:07):
to see the second one to really get it, but
you're still gonna have a fun time. Wonderful sequences, wonderful
sight gags and both, And like I said, I thoroughly
enjoy both of them. I'm hoping for a bright future
for this franchise to see where it goes. But if
all we get is the two movies, I'm fine with it.

(59:29):
Get me some more merchandise. I do have one of
those mugs that says, what a beautiful warning it makes
me sick. I got that from my wife last year.
And I have a replica of book that I use
for dungeons and Dragons notes. So that's pretty cool. So anyway, guys,
that's gonna do it for us here on this weekend,
we probably got a couple more Halloween shows. We're talking

(59:50):
about doing an examination of Beetlejuice and Beetlejuice, beetle Juice.
I'm I'm sorry, I just yeah, fuck.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
I don't beetle juice.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
But man, god, damn, God, damn that there was a
disappointment in that movie.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Yeah, if there was a show that tasted like member
Barry jam, that is it. So we will talk about that,
I'm sure. Plus, like I said, we've got a few
more things. We got the big Halloween show coming at
the end of the month. Hopefully me, Alex and Aaron
will get together to do some additional stuff. But I
will keep you guys posted on that. So that's gonna
do it for us. So from the great state of Ohio.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Come little children, I'll take you to Troy.

Speaker 3 (01:00:33):
This is Dave de Noyer from New Jersey.

Speaker 4 (01:00:38):
Kid from this anime. I have nothing to say to that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Yeah, can't top that. So I'm like the birdman. We'll
catch you guys next time. Right here on this we
can geek dot net.

Speaker 6 (01:01:00):
We are either one of these any good sir? What
are either one of these? Any good?

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
I don't watch movies. Quick change the child.

Speaker 4 (01:01:18):
You're wasting your life making shit. Nobody cares.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
These movies are terrible.

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
You're still here it's over go, home go,

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Loose Cannon - Halloween 2025 Week 4 - Hocus Pocus Movie Franchise Discussion

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Loose Cannon - Halloween 2025 Week 4 - Hocus Pocus Movie Franchise Discussion