Where I Watched It: Disney Plus
Audio Description Provided By: Deluxe
Narrated By: Laura Post
We’ve got another winner here, a laura Post audio description on a Disney classic. I’ve really come to appreciate her voice on what seems like largely Disney fare, but certainly family friendly. I think if I were a parent watching films with my kids, or a sighted parent watching a film with a blind child, I would favor Laura Post as my narrator. She’s always delightful, charming, and has a quality that works very well for these films, and I can see why Disney keeps hiring her.
Now, that being said, i have seen Hocus Pocus. Before, when I had sight, and just in general because I was a kid when this came out. So, this is one of those nostalgic revisits even though I’ve seen this film a dozen times. What set this viewing apart was this being the first time through with audio description, and based on what can remember about hocus Pocus, as this audio description revived some of the imagery, it was some great audio description. The only oddity is that many moons ago, or halloweens ago, studios weren’t making audio description tracks, so this has that weird feeling where the audio description track is obviously newer than the film track. it’s not as bad as some I’ve seen, where a really old film hasn’t been preserved, and the audio description was recorded yesterday. This is from the early 90’s, and our sound preservation on film was already at the point where we were thinking about VHS tapes.
As far as the actual film, I’m obviously giving this one a rewatch because there’s nothing I can really say about it that isn’t shaded by my childhood. Sometimes, I restrain myself from just showing up and doing a review of Jetson’s: The movie or Beethoven’s 2nd, just because I loved them as a kid.
So for some of you, you might not get the fandom for the Sanderson sisters. When the film came out, people didn’t get them either. The film underperformed at the box office, but thanks to a devoted following and lack of Halloween themed content for families, hocus Pocus survived and thrived. Ernest Scared Stupid? Well, that didn’t get the same love and cult following.
Really, I’m just here to say, I loved Hocus Pocus as a kid, and I’ve seen it several times. Watching it the first time through with audio description, I thought it did a really superb job for anyone who hadn’t seen the film before of creating the world of Salem for these sisters to haunt, and Laura post is amazing.
Sometimes, my work as a critic is pleasantly easy. I like easy. We all do.
Final Grade: A
is it an A film? I don’t know. I just know I feel like a kid all over again Everytime I watch it, and I refuse to separate that feeling, but i will acknowledge my bias.
