Accidental Aesop: The whole movie could be a study in "Don't be a Leeroy Jenkins" and have a plan while preparing to improvise against murderous adults. Thackery running after his sister to save her life was noble but ended up leading to her death and his unwilling transformation; his father did better arriving with an angry mob and the weapons needed to subdue bloodthirsty, murderous witches. Thackery as a cat tends to use his knowledge of battling witches to assist Max, Dani, and Allison; Max in contrast to Thackery is great at improvising when he needs to protect his little sister but still does better when there's a plan in mind. Not all plans work, but they do help.
Is Sarah as ditzy as her sisters treat her? There are a couple of times where Sarah displays Simple-Minded Wisdom - remembering the ingredient for the potion, sensing the children in the alley behind the restaurant, and being able to get the bus driver to give them a ride just because he's attracted to her. The latter could point to Sarah being more aware of her own seduction power than her sisters give her credit for.
Dani teases Max for being a virgin, but she's only eight years old; she may not even know what it means. As far as she can tell, it's just something that applies to Max and he's embarrassed by it and doesn't like other people to know about it, so she keeps bringing it up to tease him in front of others.
Why is Binx freed from his immortality curse in the end? Is it just a case of No Ontological Inertia, because the Sandersons are more truly dead than they were before, with no way (for the time being) to bring them back? Or is it because the curse was for him to live forever "with his guilt" over failing to save Emily, so helping to defeat the Sandersons and save Dani relieves his guilt and sets him free?
Aluminum Christmas Trees: The Sanderson sisters are hanged, not burned, which is much more historically accurate to the fate of most of the Salem witches.
Ass Pull: The Sanderson Sisters survive getting burned alive in the kiln—because their spell prevents them from being killed on Halloween Night. This is never foreshadowed or set up in any way: the entire premise hinges on the fact that they can be killed just like anybody else, since they were hanged in the backstory, and the audience is only told that the spell would resurrect them on Halloween Night for a single day, not that it would make them temporarily immortal.
Audience-Alienating Premise: Much of the negative reviews from critics in 1993 felt that the themes regarding child sacrifice were too dark for what was clearly intended as a children's film from Disney.
"I Put a Spell on You," the Villain Song that the sisters sing to make it seem as if they're merely costumed entertainers and not real witches, is pretty well-loved.
John Debney's rich, soft score perfectly captures the film's blend of fun, spookiness, and tenderness.
"Come Little Children" is a lovely song with which to lure children to their doom.
After they made him watch his sister die in front of him, it's satisfying when Binx in cat form attacks Winifred before she can force-feed Dani the potion, giving Max an opportunity to bargain with Winifred for Dani's life. Though his real death is a Tear Jerker, Binx's ghost smiles at Dani, reassuring her and thanking Max for freeing his soul. To top it all off, he reunites with Emily who escorts him to heaven.
When the kids who tormented Max for half the movie have to beg him to release them from the witches' cages, Max just takes his shoes back and leaves them there as petty revenge for their behavior.
Despite Winnie and her sisters being ruthlessly evil, the scene where the weakened witch calls out the window for her Book, then breaks down crying, does have its element of sadness.
Sarah when she dies a second time oddly has a Face Death with Dignity moment. As the sun rises, she spreads her arm and wishes Winifred goodbye.
Cult Classic: It wasn't a great hit at the box office (being a Halloween movie released in July will do that to you) or with critics, but has become a modern Halloween classic.
Draco in Leather Pants: Sarah is often thought of as less evil than the other two, probably because of her status as The Ditz and being the most attractive of the sisters. But then she sweetly serenades children (with "Come Little Children"), luring them to the sisters' home — and she's as happy as her sisters to drain Salem's children of their life-force. She also excitedly proposed playing sadistically with Thackery, once they caught him.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Billy only shows up in the last third, but tends to be well-remembered and a favorite of fans of the film. Being played by Doug Jones certainly helps.
Estrogen Brigade: Max has quite the following of girls who crushed on him when the movie first came out.
Evil Is Cool: The Sanderson sisters are much funnier and more interesting than most of the heroes, and get an iconic Villain Song. The only thing that keeps Rooting for the Empire from kicking in is they're targeting children.
Ham and Cheese: The film is corny, sure, but those witches sure make up for it. Bette Midler called this her favorite role, after all.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: Binx is a human-turned-cat who cannot die. In 2021, a condo in Surfside, Florida collapsed, killing dozens. One of the very few good stories to come out of the disaster was that a black cat named Binx managed to survive under the rubble for two weeks before being found and returned to his family.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Billy the Butcher in Hocus Pocus was misunderstood and ultimately a good guy. Fast forward nine years later to Gangs of New York and Bill the Butcher is anything but. The fast forward again to 2006 and another Billy Butcher is like a hellish fusion of those two, a friendly, personable person who is also a complete psychopath with an axe to grind.
Hype Backlash: Thanks to the amount of promotion, merchandise, and airplay Disney gives the film during October, many new viewers often come away from their first viewing puzzled as to why a film that has a fairly simple and, often cliché, plot and characters gets so much attention.
Karmic Overkill: Ice and Jay’s fate. Sure, they were jerks who deserved to be taken down a peg, but the last time we see them they’re still trapped in those cages with no indication anyone's coming to help them, and it’s clear Max isn’t going to go back considering how badly they treated him. The sequel book brings this up and uses it as a minor plot point.
LGBT Fanbase: It's as camp as twelve tents, stars three major gay icons, and was even directed by an openly gay filmmaker. It would honestly be more shocking if this didn't have a queer fanbase! Not to mention many gay males had a crush on Max and many gay females had a crush on Sarah Sanderson.
Memetic Loser: Max is this in the film itself, due to the number of times it makes fun of him for being a virgin.
Long after this movie left theaters, you couldn't use the word "amok" without somebody chiming in with Sarah Sanderson's sing-songy "A-MUCK, a-MUCK, a-MUCK, a-MUCK!"
"Oh look, another glorious morning... makes me SICK!"
Moe: Dani starts the film as a Bratty Half-Pint, but she mellows when bonding with Binx. She looks especially adorable when feeding him milk and promising they're going to be best friends forever.
Narm Charm: It's fair to say the fan base likes it because of the outrageous levels of Camp.
Sarah's "lucky rat-tail" — still there after 300 years.
Never Live It Down: Max's perpetual Virgin-Shaming (he's 15, by the way). It tends to be overblown by non-fans, but there are plenty of viewers who are so turned off by it that they're willing to dismiss the whole movie as a result.
In the 1964 short Looney Tunes short "Bewitched Bunny", Hansel and Gretel turn to Witch Hazel and say, "Ack, your mother rides a vacuum cleaner!" before fleeing.
An older Mighty Mouse cartoon short featured a witch who rode a vacuum cleaner instead of a broom.
Hocus Pocus didn't originate the Unusual Euphemism "Yabbos." According to IMDB, "yabbos" was used in National Lampoon's Animal House for breasts in the phrase "major-league yabbos."
It's assumed that this is the first Disney movie to use the word "virgin"; the first Disney movie to do so was Dragonslayer.
One-Scene Wonder: Those skull-faced jazzers/rockers at the Halloween party were pretty cool. It may take a second viewing to realize that these performers segued from "Witchcraft" into "I Put a Spell on You" shortly before Winifred took over the show.
When the kids are in the cemetery for the first time, Winfred mocks Max by repeating "It's just a bunch of hocus pocus!" He said that before lighting the candle, so she could've have known it was spoken.
The human form of Thackery Binx is played by Sean Murray, better known for his role as Tim McGee in NCIS ten years later.
Kind of hard to believe that Mary Sanderson is the future voice of Peggy Hill.
He's never been easy to "recognize" due to almost all of his work being done under heavy costumes and/or makeup, but Doug Jones has become far better known since this film.
Rewatch Bonus: After Billy is summoned, you can see how openly peeved he is about having been resurrected by the Sanderson sisters and being ordered to chase the kids.
The "I Put a Spell on You" Villain Song scene is easily the most iconic part of the film.
"Come Little Children" is also a very well-known song, though it may be considered mildly Covered Up as many people online don't know (or remember) its source.
Tastefully averted with Emily Binx. She gets all the youth and vitality drained from her at the beginning of the film - but she slumps over in death, leaving only her gray hair visible. One can only imagine what her face looks like.
Billy Butcherson's undead state offers plenty of squick, particularly when he gets his finger caught in the manhole lid after a motorcycle runs over it.
Binx is visibly squashed after being run over (though at the very least he survives).
Toy Ship: Thackery/Dani, if you can believe it. While it's true that they do a lot of bonding in the film, it's more along the lines of Like Brother and Sister.
Values Dissonance: The plot puts emphasis on the fact Max is a virgin, even though he's 15 and not even technically legal yet. Such a plot point may not fly as easily today as it did in the early nineties. Or at least, he wouldn't be shamed for it.
Values Resonance: It's quite refreshing to see a 90s movie that portrays a subversion of Double Standard Rape: Female on Male. Sarah is meant to be a Womanchild, but it's implied that she would molest Thackeray or Max, given by her attempts at seducing them or wanting to hang the former on a hook and "play" with him. The script and filming make it quite clear that the viewers should see this as creepy. Thackeray doesn't get a chance to respond due to being turned into a cat but he was glaring at the trio, and Max is appropriately revolted, while his bigger priority is protecting Dani at the time.
It's hard not to feel very sorry for poor Thackery Binx. The poor kid fights for all his worth to save his little sister, just to fail and then endure a Painful Transformationinto a cat. Then he gets rejected by his father who he was trying to communicate with in his hour of grieving. Finally, and this is the juicy bit, he spends the next few hundreds years, alone, with only his self-appointed duty in keeping the witches from coming back to give him purpose, but otherwise wandering aimlessly through his own personal, eternal hell. The only thing that averts this from being a full on And I Must Scream is that he somehow relearns how to talk as a cat, Max says he's one of the Dennisons now, and Binx reunites with his sister in the afterlife.
Then there are Mr. and Mrs. Binx, Emily and Thackery's parents. Mr. Binx finds out that his little girl is missing, and that his son is going after the local witches. He manages to raise an angry mob and subdue the witches, but he finds his daughter's corpse rapidly aged in the cottage, and Thackery nowhere in sight. The scene where he interrogates the witches on the gallows about his son's whereabouts is quite a Tear Jerker, especially when Binx in cat form tries to approach him and he doesn't realize the truth. Meanwhile, Mrs. Binx never speaks, but her expression as her husband interrogates the witches shows that she's in despair over the loss of her children.
Max himself. He misses his old home and friends, it's hard moving to a new area, especially when you're a teenager, and his first day of school involves him being humiliated and having his trainers stolen. He's then constantly pestered by his bratty sister, and not once do his parents punish her for annoying him and going into his room, and then he is forced to take her out trick or treating. A lot of it is typical teenage angst, but poor Max does seem very down during the start of the movie, especially when he tries to take refuge in his room. Being harassed for lighting the candle and all that virgin shaming doesn't help matters.
Tropes associated with the video game
Anticlimax Boss: Trolodon isn't all that difficult, since he only has a single attack- shooting a fireball straight ahead.
Catharsis Factor: After defeating the first several Mad Monks at the end of Episode 1, which may prove challenging for first-time players, you can get a Rapid Fire potion that allows you to almost effortlessly blow away the remaining Mad Monks, since, unlike the other bosses, they were designed to be defeated without rapid fire.
That One Boss: The Tree Demons, the bosses of Episode 2. They're the only bosses that lack a ranged attack, but they make up for it by having lots of health and killing you instantly if they collide with you. Special mention should be given to one Tree Demon midway through the level- you have to use the jump potions to escape before he reaches you, get another rapid fire and jump potion and repeat the process until one of you is dead.
," the Villain Song that the sisters sing to make it seem as if they're merely costumed entertainers and not real witches, is pretty well-loved.