Today we’re talking about the 2022 film Hocus Pocus 2.
Story
It felt like the first closed the book on the Sanderson Sisters, but the sequel uses a clever linguistic loophole (the best kind) to bring them back. The structure of the movie is close enough to the original to have callbacks, but different to be unique.
I’m really impressed with the tighness of the story. There are elements that seem like they were meant as one of gags, but then come back later in a great way.
Score: 1
Characters
The sisters, and Billy, are 29 years older and it show in little things like the timbre of their voices and the way they move. That being said, they are completely beleivable.
The new characters are very much like the first set of kids, except instead of the awkward romance, we have the story of friends who’ve drifted apart. Much less secondhand awkward and more fun.
I also enjoyed the clueless boyfriend who didn’t realize he was a bully.
I liked the evolution of Book from a malevolent force to a loving friend.
Score: 1
Dialogue
The dialogue was quipy and a lot of fun. I liked the self awareness of the film.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
The visuals were beautiful. They were sparing with the CGI and what little they used was well done. (Looking at you Book)
The music was fantastic. I loved the musical numbers and the other music was great. I’m buying the soundtrack if I can.
Score: 1
Fun
This had all the fun of the first with no angst, awkwardness, or child death.
It was fun and spooky in all the right ways. The entire family loved it.
Score: 1
Overall
A new Halloween tradition is here! With all the charm and fun of the first with more songs, more magic, and less awkwardness. In most ways, it’s just as good if not better than the original.
Final Score: 5*
*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.
This year I seem to have watched, and reviewed, 73 films. Wow. Below is a list of them in decending star order. Within each catergory they are in alphabetical order.
Virtual school this week was MUCH better than last week. Dragon raised her hand and got to list out both the days of the week and the months of the year (with assistance on the latter). She answered 2-3 counting questions in French. She asked a question during the presentation of another kid, although she didn’t understand the follow-up response. And she got to present the geometry cut-and-paste that she had done with four different shapes, responding to requests to point at each different shape and many different colours. She repeated French said to her by the teachers, and even responded a tiny bit in French (oui). And she paid attention throughout the school day. There was another minor incident with the playdough – she still doesn’t quite grasp the rolling of it and doesn’t care to learn. She does enjoy using the cutters to make shapes and will make a series (pattern) with them, but ask her to roll it out and place it along a letter? Tears. Screams. “I can’t do this!” Result: I will ask her to use a crayon to print the letter instead of using playdough to make the shape. I see no reason to get her all upset for no reason.
The home school portion was quite fun this week, with a couple special surprises.
Dance
No martial arts again this week, but she did ballet 2-3 times this week.
Music
Her letters are doing well.
She had a rhythm piano lesson on Wednesday afternoon at our house. She did very well. Whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes and rests were clapped (or not).
We listened to a bunch of French music. Coeur de Pirate was the favourite yet again and I am thrilled because it is a beautiful album. But we also listened to Isabelle Boulay, whom I also very much enjoy. (Yay for remembering to change the CD lol)
Crochet
We did not crochet this week. I am crocheting advent calendar boxes all the time!
Basic Information
Working on the days of the week verbally is going well. She remembers without prompting, and can even pick out the words and put them in order when given the full seven days. As for the months of the year, she has the first 6 down and can repeat them without prompting. The second half of the year is a bit of a struggle still, but she can figure out the rest of the word if given the first sound.
Printing words
Tracing letters went well on Wednesday, but Friday when she had to print the letters did not go as well. I think she didn’t sleep well the night before, because everything was very dramatic.
Counting objects/math-type activities
She seems to be doing better with verbal counting. Her printing needs work on some numbers – 5’s come to mind right now – but she is working hard. She can count to 12 in French, but not consistently yet.
Counting 12 random objects
We started doing patterns (les suites) this week, as the virtual school teachers mentioned it again this week, to one of the other students. I thought it might be a good idea to do more with that.
Storytime
We didn’t read any French books together this week.
Activity
Experiment: elephant toothpaste – this was quite fun, although it was mostly a demonstration. We didn’t have the right kind of yeast, and we didn’t realize that the narrowing at the top was relevant, so we ended up trying this three times. First was as written in the experiment. Second was halving it. Third was with the right yeast AND the right kind of bottle, but I shook it and didn’t wait for the bubbles to go away, so it had a similar reaction as the first two. Also – don’t buy the cheap food colouring. It doesn’t work as well.
Pumpkin carving: Dragon picked her stencil (stencil weblink) and drew it onto the pumpkin. It turned out very well!
Learn about Samhain – we had a video call with one of our friends, who celebrates Samhein (pronounced Sow-in). He told us about the history behind it and how it is celebrated today. We won’t be having a feast, but we set out an extra place on Halloween night in honour of our ancestors. No pictures of the chat, but here’s one of Dragon waiting for the chat to start:
Today we’re talking about the 1993 film Hocus Pocus.
Story
It’s harder for me to judge this movie’s story than normal because I’ve watched it yearly for 25+ years. There are a lot of witch clichés thrown around in this movie but it also works as a satire of the concept.
I was impressed that there were no offensive moments and it was as much fun as it always was.
Score: 1 (Admittedly not objective)
Character
The witches were wonderfully evil, narcissistic, and funny.
I’ll always have a soft spot for Dani (one of my first crushes). Max is an idiot who doesn’t think before he speaks or acts but has lots of heart. The brother-sister relationship makes him likeable beyond the typical white boy with a crush. Allison is a little bland but could have been worse.
The movie is greatly lacking in any sort of representation.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
I think I need a list of Bette Midler’s insults in this for my next internet argument. Maggoty Malfeasance and Thundering Oafs being some of my favourite. The dialogue is over the top and a little awkward but delivered perfectly. I’ve often danced around singing Amok! Amok! Amok!
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
This movie more than anything defined what I thought of as what Halloween should look like. The beautiful leaves and lively decorations. Similar to home but we had more snow and less leaves by that point. I envied their lack of snowsuits.
The music is sometimes epic, sometimes silly, and always right on point.
Score: 1
Fun
This movie makes me nostalgic and makes me smile. Watching my daughter’s face as she whispered, “He’s going to light the candle.” and, “No don’t light the candle.” made my night. It was great to see how into it she was.
Score: 1
Overall
This is a classic and is both scary and funny. It’s not a perfect movie but it is a lot of fun. The sections with the kids would have made for a fun movie but the witches send it over the top in every way. I’ve watched this dozens of times and I’ll happily watch it every Halloween.
Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano
Crochet
The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)
Basic Information
We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.
Printing words
Download materials
Counting objects/math-type activities
Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type –in download materials
Count pumpkin seeds after cleaning them
Count candy packages and group them (do some subtraction)
We recently introduced the classic Disney movie Hocus Pocus to our 3yo Dragon. She loved it. Obviously.
But it got me thinking…why haven’t I written a post about visiting the sets of Hocus Pocus yet?
Most of the movie was set on a sound stage (kinda hard to rig a flying witch in the real world, I guess!) but the outdoor, daytime sets were in Salem and Marblehead, Massachusetts.
Image of Max’s house in Hocus Pocus. Image from boston.com
With the 25th Anniversary of Hocus Pocus last year, the cities saw an up-tick of Halloween tourists, happy to see the outsides (and some insides) of buildings that made up part of their favourite Halloween movie.
