I am by no means a Halloween movie expert. However, I was excited about the return of the Sanderson sisters. I remember when I saw “Hocus Pocus” for the first time,  I was staying over at my friend’s grandma’s house. 

The plot is not hard to follow either, it’s a simple new boy in town who releases three witches and with the help of new friends has to make sure they don’t get their hands on a child. 

The movie was made for children and yet I can still find myself enjoying it as a Halloween classic. 

Disney, wanting to kick a dead horse, decided to make a sequel. If you know anything about the movie industry, it is that sequels are usually a quick money grab and this one definitely showed it. 

It was almost as if the writers copy and pasted the original plotline and made sure that they made a few changes. They made a lazy sequel to a beloved classic, which doesn’t bode well for the future of Disney. 

Disney also built up the excitement around the movie. As soon as I pressed play, that excitement faded throughout the whole movie when I realized that it was just a repeat of the first with a little more flavor.

“Hocus Pocus 2” instead follows the story of three girls who have lived in the town but their friendship is falling apart since one of them has a boyfriend. 

It’s almost the exact same plot of the two girls running around town trying to make sure the sisters don’t capture their friend’s dad. Disney did give way more context about the Sanderson sisters in the sequel but that extra information was unnecessary. 

Disney did almost no research on who their audience was for this movie. It was like they wanted to get a whole new generation into it. That is almost impossible to do with a sequel. Since the only ones who will watch it will be the original lovers of the first movie. 

The only major difference in the movie is that it had a more modern feel and a more varied cast of actors than the original. 

One thing it actually did well is not excluding those who hadn’t seen the first one. The movie did a really good job explaining what had happened and why. However, I still do not think it could be a stand-alone movie in the slightest. You have to watch the first. It boggles my mind why Disney made a sequel for this movie. The first one ended with them defeating the sisters. Watching them return just made me wonder.

Why? The characters in the first movie were just not bright, but in this one someone actively made the two girls bring back evil witches because they are his heroes.

There are some parts that are somewhat enjoyable. A few jokes here and there and instead of broomsticks they used more modern equivalents. The residents of Salem recognize them and think they are in costume.

When it comes to movies, I am an easy person to please. It doesn’t take a whole lot to get me invested yet at the end of this movie, I just wondered why it was made in the first place. I highly doubt anyone who has seen both really got that much enjoyment out of “Hocus Pocus 2.”