Movie #3: Hocus Pocus (1993)

"It's a full moon tonight. That's when all the weirdos are out."

This film has the second-lowest quality rating of all the films in our countdown. So why does it rank so high on the list? Apparently, a lot of people love it. It's just that those people aren't film critics (see the "At the Movies" review below).

Family-Friendliness

• Rating: PG "for some scary sequences, and for language"


• Minimum Recommended Age: 9.5 (Common Sense Media: On for ages 11 and up, Kaboose: Ages 8 and up)


• Quality Rating: 44.7% (Parent Previews Overall Grade: D+, Common Sense Media: 3 stars, Rotten Tomatoes rating: 4.1)


• Number of Lists Recommend: 12


• Sex/Violence/Profanity:
  Kids-in-Mind:
  
  
  Sex: References to virginity and an unfaithful lover; some flirting. Boy hugs a pillow and says "Oh, Allison, you're so soft." Mild sexual innuendo is heard and cleavage is seen, including the mother's madonna pointy boob costume, which she adjusts quite visually during a halloween concert. One of the witches' outfits shows ample cleavage and she makes several references to boys and kissing. There is talk of the main character's virginity as it is a requirement to bring the witches back to life.
  
  Violence: The violence is all magical, but there are a couple of gross-out scenes, such as a cat getting run over by a bus and a zombie cutting his mouth open. Some bullying; a child dies onscreen but not violently -- the witches take her life-force while she's in a trance-like state and she quietly slumps over in a chair.
  
  Language includes "virgin" (9 times - enough for your kids to wonder what a virgin is), "damn" (6 times), "hell" (4 times, including "You bucktoothed, mop-riding firefy from hell"), "It sucked", "What do you call 'em, Max? Yabos? Max likes your yabos. In fact, he loves 'em.", "wench", "trollop", "zitface", "How come it's always the ugly chicks that stay out late?", "jerkface", "chicks", "maggoty malfeasance", "little towheaded brat", and "you putrid, festering sore"


• Running Time: 96 minutes


• What does it have to do with Halloween? The last half of the film takes place on Halloween night

Summary

During a Halloween in Salem, Mass., three witches are accidentally reincarnated as a young boy tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Blend of horror and comedy about three 17th century witches (Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker) who come to life in present-day Salem. Their objective is to live for ever by collecting kids and sucking the life out of them.

Watch Out For

Common Sense Media:
Parents need to know that this movie involves a plot to suck the life force out of children (and one little girl dies that way). A couple of high school bullies harass a male classmate in a graveyard, asking him for "smokes" and "hash" and finally stealing his shoes. There are mild sexual references, such as a high school boy hugging his pillow and murmuring, "Oh, Allison, you're so soft," as well as some frisky flirting from one of the witches. The main character is teased about being a virgin. The body of an "unfaithful lover" rises from the grave. Main features of the story are a book bound in human skin and a candle made from the fat of a hanged man. A tale is told about the Devil, and there are various gross-out moments. But it's important to note that all of the above is done in the playful, spooky spirit of Halloween.

Parent Previews:
Everyone screams, including the many children that are being sought by the witches so they can steal their souls. If you are bothered by Satanic subjects, pass this one by. If you are bothered by noise and stupidity, you might as well do the same.

With continuous derogatory references to the fact that a teenage boy can still be a virgin, and some very graphic scenes (heads falling off, fingers being cut off), and one emphatic profanity, the one person rolling in the grave would be Walt Disney himself.

The witches suck the life out of Emily

The witches turn Thackery Binx into a cat

Winnie chokes Sarah

The witches await their hanging

"On All Hallows Eve, when the moon is round, a virgin will summon us from under the ground."

"Hey, Max! Hey, how was school?"
"It sucked!"

Max gets harrassed by Jay and Ice

"What do you call 'em, Max? Yabbos? Max likes your yabbos. In fact, he loves 'em."

"Legend says that on a full moon it will raise the spirits of the dead when lit by a virgin on Halloween night"

A cat jumps on Max

"A virgin... lit the candle."

Winnie zaps Max

"So for three centuries I've guarded the house on All Hallows Night, when I knew some airhead virgin might light that candle."

"Brave little virgin who lit the candle."

Billy the zombie rises from his grave

Sarah's cleavage

"Oh, cheese and crust! He's lost his head! Ha! Damn that Thackery Binx! Damn him!"

"Damn, damn, double damn!"

Thackery is about to get run over by a bus

Sarah sits on the bus driver's lap as she runs over Thackery

"Hey, hey, cupcake, don't I get your phone number? Your area code?"

"And he's a virgin."

"Are you a virgin?"

Winnie hits Sarah in the stomach

Dani's mom, dressed as Madonna

"My brother's a virgin, he lit the black flame candle, the witches are back from the dead and they're after us."

"It's been 300 years, Right down to the day, Now the witch is back, And there's hell to pay."

"Welcome to High School Hell."

The witches burn in a furnace

"How come it's always the ugly chicks that stay out late?"

Jay and Ice are captured by the witches

Sarah's cleavage

Max and Allison start to kiss

The witches try to force Dani to drink a potion

Billy cuts his mouth open with a knife

"You bucktoothed, mop-riding firefy from hell!"

"Go to hell!"

Winnie turns to stone

Sarah dies

Mary dies

"I love you, jerkface."

Screencaps courtesy of newsie__nympho

Talk About It

Common Sense Media:
* Families can talk about scary stories, and parents can share their memories of Halloween. What's your all-time favorite costume? How do you want to dress up this year?
* Depending on kids' age, they may be interested in learning about the Salem witch trials.
* If kids are at all spooked by the movie, families can talk about why. What scared you? Do you think it was meant to be scary?

Kids-in-Mind:
Sorcery and witchcraft, the devil, death -- especially the witches' plan which is to "suck the life out of children." Kidnapping, murder, revenge, life after death.

Of Note

• The role of Max Dennison was originally offered to Leonardo DiCaprio, but was given to Omri Katz when DiCaprio turned it down to appear in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993).
• Rosie O'Donnell was originally offered the role of Mary Sanderson, but it was ultimately given to Kathy Najimy. O'Donnell claims on her blog that she turned down the offer to work with the Divine Miss M because she didn't want to be a "scary witch".
• After having locked the Sanderson sisters in the school kiln, the three kids celebrate as they walk to the park. The house shown directly behind Max and Thackery while they talk is the residential edifice used as Thora Birch's home in 1999's American Beauty (1999).
• Brother and sister Garry Marshall and Penny Marshall play husband and wife. He's the one dressed as Satan.

On TV

"Hocus Pocus" will air at 8:00 and 10:00 PM ET/PT on Saturday, October 30 as part of ABC Family's "13 Nights of Halloween"

Trailer

At the Movies Review

"There is nothing funny in this movie."

Watch It

Day 28 Intermission: Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (1972)

Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (1972)

In 1972, Rankin/Bass produced a sequel of sorts to Mad Monster Party?, with the TV special Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters. This Halloween special featured many of the same monster characters, including an imitation of Boris Karloff as the doctor (he died in 1969), although it presumably was not intended as a direct sequel since many of these characters perished at the end of Mad Monster Party. Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters was created using cel animation, rather than stop-motion. While Mad Monster Party still enjoys an ardent cult following, Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters has fallen into comparative obscurity.

For this special they used traditional cel drawn animation rather than the 3D "Animagic" stop motion technique they are so well known for. The show was created as part of series of TV specials created for the "The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie", which ran for one hour each. The Rankin/Bass studio produced a total of 4 episodes for this series, including "That Girl in Wonderland", "Willie Mays and Say-Hey Kid", "The Red Baron", and "Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters".

The crew for this special featured quite a few studio veterans that had worked on so many other specials. The background musical is from Rankin/Bass composer Maury Laws. Character design was by Paul Coker, another studio veteran and a Mad Magazine artist. The writing was done by William Keenan and Lou Silverman who worked on so many of their projects.

The premiere release of this cel animated TV special was on ABC on Saturday September 23, 1972. This was 5 years after the studio released its stop motion musical "Animagic" theatrical release titled "Mad Monster Party", in theaters for the Fall season of 1967. Many of the characters and plot elements from the theatrical movie appear in the TV special.

Movie #4: Casper (1995)

"I can see right through you."

My family watched this one the other night. While my sons didn't notice - or didn't seem to notice - the language in the movie, my wife cetainly did. Fortunately she left the room and missed a couple more, but she wasn't too happy about it. Honestly, why would you base a movie on a children's cartoon and then put words like "bitch", "piss" and "damn" in it? Within the first five minutes, we heard two "hells", two "damns" and one "crap".

Family-Friendliness

• Rating: PG "for mild language and thematic elements"


• Minimum Recommended Age: 6.5 (Common Sense Media: Iffy for ages 6 to 7, Kids Pick Flicks (review by a 17-year-old): All Ages)


• Quality Rating: 61.3% (Parent Previews Overall Grade: C+, Common Sense Media: 3 stars, Kids Pick Flicks: 4 stars, Rotten Tomatoes rating: 4.7)


• Number of Lists Recommend: 10


• Sex/Violence/Profanity:
  Kids-in-Mind:
  
  
  Screen It!:
  
  
  Sex:
  Casper enthusiastically says "There's a girl on my bed -- Yes!" when Kat (not seeing the invisible Casper) sits on the bed. Innuendo from the ghosts trapped inside a vacuum cleaner: "Who's got their pointy head against me?" "That's not my head." There is the implication of talking about the "birds and the bees" between Kat and her dad where he starts to talk about that and she says "It's too late" and then rephrases that to "It's not that late." Lots of innuendo, much of which will go over kids' heads -- as when Casper's mean uncles drop Dr. Harvey's pants, and one comments, "You're no Marky Mark."
  
  "Mild language" includes "This sucks" (in reference to being sucked up into a vacuum cleaner), "Shut up," "Piss off," "This really bites," "The bitch is back", "a bitch just like you", "I'm gonna drag you and every one of those damn dolphins into court", "If you would have just forged the damn will", "Damn it, Dibs", "Stop being such a weenie", "What the hell is that thing?", "What the hell do you think you're doin', bulbhead?", "Hell, you could even fly through...walls", "To hell with the livestock", and "Cut the crap, okay?"


• Running Time: 101 minutes


• What does it have to do with Halloween? The dance/party at the end of the movie takes place on Halloween night

Summary

Casper is a friendly but lonely young ghost who can't seem to help scaring people. Then, one day, two new visitors show up on the doorstep of his fantastically haunted house, Whipstaff Manor: Kat Harvey and her eccentric dad, Dr. Harvey, a self-styled ghost therapist. Whipstaff's scheming owner, Carrigan Crittenden, has hired Harvey to exorcise the house's spectral inhabitants so that she can get her hands on the manor's fabled treasure. Unfortunately for Dr. Harvey, the Ghostly Trio--Fatso, Stinkie, and Stretch--have their own methods of getting rid of unwanted visitors--and a certifiably twisted sense of humor.

Watch Out For

Common Sense Media:
Parents need to know that the cartoon Casper and other Casper movies are much milder than this one. There are deaths here and much talk about the spirit world and grieving the loss of parents. The main character, Kat, sees one parent as a ghost, and another parent dies and comes back with the help of an invention. Kat also has a crush on Casper, who died as a tween boy. Casper's ghost uncles can be crude and mischievous and they take Kat's father out drinking at a bar.

Parent Previews:
On the surface, this is a typical story, which at times is surprisingly slow considering the money this film cost to make. It has a great deal of real life "cartoon" violence -- a technique used to disguise what are often very violent situations. The love interest between Kat and Casper is similar to many other movies where preadolescents are depicted in scenes with serious attraction for each other. In this case, Kat's mother has died, and there almost seems to be a need for her to have her "own man" as she seeks security outside of her family.

Parents that don't appreciate topics dealing with ghosts and the supernatural may also be concerned. This movie has a very casual attitude towards life. The rich daughter falls off a cliff and dies, but no matter, now she is a ghost with even greater powers.

The bottom line is with the marketing and promotion done on this film, your children may be begging to see it. If they do, try and help them find dangerous situations that are made to look funny. After viewing Casper, you may find that today's version of the friendly little ghost is a wolf in sheets clothing.

Kaboose:
The only thing that I would warn about if watching with younger viewers is that the ghosts, aside from Casper, try really hard in the beginning to scare the new intruders off. So much so that I wondered if I shouldn't shut the movie off and wait until my daughter was asleep to watch it. Quickly though, almost as soon as I had the thought, the trio turns from being malicious to just mischievous and really funny. I might suggest, if you are watching with younger kids, skip over the early parts of the film for the first time and then go back to watch its entirety when they already know and like the uncles.

"Just shut up and take the picture."

Two boys are frightened by Casper

"I'm gonna drag you and every one of those damn dolphins into court!"

Dibs' hand catches on fire

"Cut the crap, okay?"

Carrigan and Dibs are frightened by Casper

Don Novello's (Father Guido Sarducci) head is turned around by the ghosts

Dan Aykroyd asks, "Who you gonna call? Someone else."

Amber is jealous of Kat

"There's a girl on my bed--Yes!"

Fatso in drag pretending to be James' wife

"This really bites."

Kat passes out when she sees Casper

Kat screams when she sees Casper again

James reacts to seeing Casper

Stretch, Stinkie and Fatso scare James

"What the hell is that thing?"

"This sucks!"

The ghosts pretend to melt from the sunlight

"What the hell do you think you're doing, bulb head?"

"Piss off!"

"Stop being such a weenie."

Carrigan tries to run over Dibs

"The bitch is back!"

The ghosts attempt to kill James

James, just before he falls into an open trench and dies

"Oh, you can haunt me all you want, but it's gonna be in a great big, expensive house... with lovely purple wallpaper... and great big green carpets... and a little dog called Carrigan... a bitch just like you."

"It's a little late for that, Dad"
"How late?"
"Oh, don't worry. Not that late."

Casper is melted

The ghost of Carrigan passes over

Kat sees the ghost of her dad

"Just shut up and get your head down."

Amber is scared by the ghosts

Amber hits her head on the floor before being dragged away

James' wife appears to him as a ghost

Kat and Casper kiss

The kids react to seeing Casper

Screencaps courtesy of newsie__nympho

Talk About It

Common Sense Media:
Families can talk about fantasies and ghosts. What is appealing about ghost stories? Why do you think Casper is friendly while his uncles are looking to cause trouble? Why do you think so many ghost stories take place in mansions?

Kids-in-Mind:
Death and ghosts

Parent Previews:
Try and help [kids] find dangerous situations that are made to look funny.

Screen It!:
Death and dying.
Losing a parent (and forgetting what they were like).
Constantly moving and thus having no friends.

Of Note

• This was the first film with a computer-animated title character
• The last name of the Christina Ricci's and Bill Pullman's characters is "Harvey". Harvey Comics is the long time publisher of Casper the Friendly Ghost.
• The cartoon Casper flips to after Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and before the Hard Copy story is the 1950 Casper The Friendly Ghost short Once Upon A Rhyme (the 1950 version of Casper is not seen in the clip used).
• A scene was filmed with Zelda Rubinstein reprising her role from Poltergeist (1982) (shooting out of a chimney and shouting "Go toward the light!") but was not included in the final cut.
• 
  Ranks #10 on AMC TV's Movies with the Best CGI Performances list

Trailer

Revealing Casper: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Movie