Photo by Disney

In July 16 1993, was released one classic 90’s movie, ‘Hocus Pocus’. The movie is about a teenage boy named Max and his little sister, who move to Salem, where he struggles to fit in before awakening a trio of diabolical witches that were executed in the 17th century.

Stars: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy
Director: Kenny Ortega

To celebrate the 30th anniversary, here are some of the curiosities about this movie.

  • The role of Max Dennison was originally offered to Leonardo DiCaprio. He turned it down to appear in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).
  • Sarah Jessica Parker has said that she found being in the flying broom harness so comfortable that, instead of being lowered back to the ground during the extended downtime between certain takes, she would stash a copy of The New York Times on her person to read while remaining suspended in the air.
  • During a 20th anniversary screening of this film, Doug Jones revealed the moths that come out of his mouth at the end are real, not CGI. In a 2018 interview with Bloody Disgusting, makeup and special-effects designer Tony Gardner said that the actor wore a “mouth rig” a latex pocket attached to dentures that blocked off Jones’ throat to make the moths come out “There was a small hole in the very back of the pocket so that Doug could cough some air through it … An animal wrangler would place several moths in the pocket with tweezers, Then the stitches would be glued shut, and we’d run out of frame so that they could get to the shot as fast as possible,” Gardner said.
  • 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 everybody, my name is Rose, what’s yours?” spoken by Madam Rose in the musical “Gypsy”. Midler played Madam Rose in the television version, Gypsy (1993), the same year this film was released.
  • The city of Salem, Massachusetts, used the film as a theme for the opening parade of their 2018 Haunted Happenings, to coincide with the film’s 25th anniversary. The local National Parks Service office made a doll of Winifred dressed in one of their uniforms, while the Saltonstall School made a float based on Thackery.
  • The film was released in July 1993 to take advantage of children being off from school during the summer. Avoiding competition with The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Disney’s other Halloween release that year, may have also played a part.
  • Thackery Binx was animated by filming the scenes with a real cat and replacing its head with a computer-generated model.
  • Sarah Jessica Parker plays a witch who was executed during the Salem Witch Trials. 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, MA in the late 1600s for committing “sundry acts of witchcraft” and choking a neighbor 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.”
  • Disney Easter egg: a child is dressed up as Mrs. Potts trick or treating when the sisters get off the bus.
  • Contrary to popular rumor, the song Sarah Sanderson sings from the sky was not written by Edgar Allan Poe, nor does it carry the style or meters he would have used. It was written specifically for the film by Brock Walsh, and was composed by James Horner. This is the only music in the film that was not composed by John Debney.

Source: Imdb