Hocus Pocus

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1993	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	92:13 minutes	Other Extras	None
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	2,4	Director	Kenny Ortega
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Bette Midler Sarah Jessica Parker Kathy Najimy Omri Katz Thora Birch Vinessa Shaw
Case	Amaray
RRP	$34.95	Music	John Debney

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s) French (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?	Smoking	No
Subtitles	English Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	Yes, very mildly
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Three witches are put to death in Salem (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy) but are raised from the dead by a virgin lighting a cursed candle on Halloween (a running gag). Mayhem ensues as these three witches try to consolidate their power and keep from turning to dust at dawn.

    I was rather looking forward to this movie, since it sounded like so much fun - I was disappointed. It dragged for the first 30 minutes, and then just remained silly in a dull kind of way. The witches also came back from what appeared to be an impossible situation at about 60 minutes into the film and wreaked more mayhem. Even the great comedic talents of Bette Midler couldn't save this turkey.

Video

    The transfer is generally clear and sharp, though it falls considerably short of the best contemporary transfers. A significant number of scenes were lacking in the fine detail that I have become accustomed to seeing in the best transfers, almost to the extent of seeming somewhat out of focus. The overall white balance of this transfer was a little on the low side, which contributed to the lack of definition. Shadow detail was lacking, and most shadows were rendered as large areas of blackness. There was no low level noise.

    The colours were very strongly rendered, to the point of oversaturation, particularly in the witches' house. This is one transfer where you may need to back off a little on the colour adjustment to obtain a pleasing picture.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. No film-to-video artefacts were seen. Film artefacts are present more frequently and more prominently than I would have expected for a film of this vintage. They consisted mainly of white flecks throughout the transfer which were a minor distraction.

Audio

    Dialogue had a processed and ADRed quality about it. Generally, it was not well-integrated with the rest of the soundtrack and at times appeared on the verge of going out of sync. Nonetheless, all the dialogue remained easily understood.

    The score by John Debney was frequently present and was very whimsical, very much in the style of Danny Elfman's work (Beetlejuice).

    The surround channels were used for music but little else - this created a semi-enveloping sound since the music was almost omnipresent, but there was little in the way of special effects in the surrounds.

    The .1 channel had little use.

Menu

    The video quality is acceptable without being great.

    The audio quality is acceptable.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras	nil
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
21st October 1999