15 surprising things you probably never knew about 'Hocus Pocus' (2024)

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Leonardo DiCaprio said he was offered the role of Max, but he turned it down.

In a 2014 interview with Variety, Leonardo DiCaprio said he was offered "more money than I ever dreamed of" to play "Hocus Pocus" leading man Max Dennison.

But DiCaprio turned down the part to hold out for a role in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (1993) — a film he hadn't auditioned for yet.

"I don't know where the hell I got the nerve," DiCaprio said. "You live in an environment where you're influenced by people telling you to make a lot of money and strike while the iron's hot."

DiCaprio went on to star in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," and Omri Katz played Max instead.

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Two actors helped bring Thackery Binx's character to life.

As shown in the film, the Sanderson sisters turned 17th-century kid Thackery Binx into a cat after he insulted Winifred Sanderson.

"NCIS" star Sean Murray played the human version of Binx, and actor Jason Marsden voiced the character, both in his human and feline forms.

In 2017, Marsden told the Daily Beast that producers dubbed his voice over Murray's because the actor sounded "contemporary" and they thought it would be more realistic if Binx had "an affected accent" from the same time period as the witches.

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Each witch had distinct broomstick choreography.

According to an archived press release, the film's choreographer, Peggy Holmes, said each of the Sanderson sisters flew their brooms "in character."

"Winifred is in charge and much more aggressive than the other two," Holmes said. "She's always leading the way and looking for children."

"Sarah loves to fly. She's always lifting up with her mop and can't wait to get up in the air, whereas Mary is more cautious. Like a good driver, she signals with her hand. Mary is the safe and steady flier," she added.

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The director of "Hocus Pocus" also worked on other popular Disney films.

"Hocus Pocus" director Kenny Ortega was also involved in the creation of Disney's "Newsies" (1992), the "High School Musical" films, and "The Cheetah Girls 2" (2006).

In a 2020 interview with Forbes, he spoke about his work on "Hocus Pocus," saying, "It has always meant a lot to me. It was an incredible experience. It was only my second project as a feature-film director. It was extremely ambitious considering what we had to work with."

More recently, Ortega produced and directed the Netflix series "Julie and the Phantoms."

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Katz was high while filming an important scene of the movie.

During an October 2022 roundtable with Entertainment Weekly, Katz said he "started experimenting with cannabis" at 16, the age he was filming "Hocus Pocus."

"Let's just say, some of those scenes, I was having a good old time," Katz said.

The actor added, "I'll tell you what I do remember: I was misperforming and not hitting my keys or marks. Kenny comes up to me and practically grabs me by the shirt, and he was like, 'Are you high?' and I was like, 'No,' and of course, I was."

He described the experience as "a wake-up call," realizing he had to be "a little more professional and make sure you hit your cues."

Also at the roundtable, "Hocus Pocus" costar Vinessa Shaw said she recalls that happening while shooting the sequencewhere Winifred zaps Max with magic during the beginning of the film.

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Bette Midler helped come up with the design of her costume.

In a 2019 interview with Glamour, the film's costume designer, Mary Vogt, said each witch's outfit was tailored to resemble the character's personality.

Sarah's dress was inspired by "Sleeping Beauty," and Mary's resembles a baker's uniform.

But Bette Midler herself inspired Winnie's look.

Vogt recalled, "When I talked [to Ortega] about my vision for Bette, I said, 'You can't put her in some black witch outfit. You have to put her in something that's colorful and fun and has a little sparkle to it.'"

"So when I did sketches and talked to Kenny about it, he responded, 'Now let me talk to Bette, because this might not be what she was thinking of,'" she continued. "So he talked to Bette, who said, 'Well, of course. I'm not going to wear some black dress.'"

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Multiple cats were used on set to play Binx.

Due to the length of the film and the variety of tricks Binx performs, several cats were used on the "Hocus Pocus" set.

Humane Hollywood reported that the crew chose which cat to feature in each scene based on the animal's skills and personality. Still, the animal stunts required training and creativity.

According to Humane Hollywood, "When the children first meet Binx at the witches' house, Binx surprises Max by jumping on him and Max falls down. To achieve this scene, one trainer released the cat, while a second trainer called the cat by way of a buzzer hidden in the actor's clothing."

For some scenes, animatronics were used in place of a real cat.

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Real moths fly out of Billy's mouth in the film.

Doug Jones, who played Billy Butcherson in "Hocus Pocus," had real moths in his mouth.

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.

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"Hocus Pocus" started as a bedtime story.

The inspiration for "Hocus Pocus" came from the bedtime story producer and cowriter David Kirschner would tell his kids.

"Halloween is a huge deal in our home, and it has been since our daughters were little," Kirschner told Yahoo in 2015. "It speaks to me in a way that becomes so emotional for me and always has."

Kirschner went on to pitch the plot of the spooky story to Walt Disney Studios in 1984.

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The film was almost called "Halloween House."

"Hocus Pocus" was originally titled "Halloween House."

And the title wouldn't have been the only difference — the first draft Mick Garris wrote in the 1980s was much darker than the final version.

What I had written originally was about 12-year-olds," Garris told Entertainment Weekly in 2017. "The kids being younger and in more jeopardy was certainly something more explicitly frightening."

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Winnie's insults were accurate for the time period.

Winnie's iconic curses like "maggoty malfeasance" and "trollimog" weren't scripted, but are authentic insults. They came from a book of old curses Midler referenced on set.

Thora Birch, who played Max's younger sister Dani Dennison, said in a D23 and Creature Features 2013 panel, "Bette had two people running around behind her with dictionaries of old curse words."

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"Hocus Pocus" wasn't released around Halloween — and it initially flopped.

The film made its theatrical debut in July 1993. The summer-time release date may have contributed to its less-than-stellar box-office performance.

Ortega spoke about the film's initial flop in that same 2020 interview with Forbes.

He said, "Honestly, at that point, I thought it's all over for me. I thought to myself, 'I'm never going to get a chance to do this ever again. My career as a filmmaker was all over.' Then, over the years, everything changes."

He continued, "What I've learned is don't give up. I believed in Hocus Pocus, the girls believed in it, and even though it wasn't found by audiences immediately, the generations have believed in it."

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The original trailer featured deleted scenes.

Two scenes featured in the original trailer of the film didn't end up in the final movie — the Sanderson sisters surrounded by trick-or-treaters and Mary running wild in a grocery store.

Kathy Najimy, who played Mary Sanderson in the film, told SYFY Wire in 2018 that the movie originally was centered around the witches, but was later edited to be more kid-friendly. As a result, five major Sanderson sister scenes were cut.

One of the deleted scenes found in the trailer involved Mary being set loose in a supermarket, Najimy said.

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There's a "Hocus Pocus" show at Disney World's annual Halloween event.

The Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular, which debuted in 2015, is an exclusive attraction at Magic Kingdom's Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in Florida.

The 20-minute show is performed on the Cinderella Castle stage. The Sanderson sisters come back from the grave to perform alongside other famous Disney villains like Maleficent and Dr. Facilier.

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"Hocus Pocus" has a sequel.

A sequel to the original 1993 movie was released in 2022 on Disney+.

29 years after the events of the first film, the Sanderson Sisters are brought back to Salem, and three high schoolers team up to protect their town.

Midler, Parker, Najimy, and Jones all reprised their roles.

This story was originally published in October 2018, and most recently updated on July 18, 2023.