Hey, remember Hocus Pocus from 1993? It was directed by Kenny Ortega and starred a very young Sarah Jessica Parker, with the legendary Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy as her evil witch sisters. Together, they wreak havoc in Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween night, and it’s up to two teenagers and one adorable (and immortal!) cat to save the day. Well, twenty-two years later, Hocus Pocus and its hysterical musical numbers are so adored, that a Disney fan has created the ultimate tribute. And this isn’t just any old Disney fan.
We’re talking about Traci Hines, the popular YouTube personality whose resemblance to Ariel in The Little Mermaid encouraged her to cover Disney tunes (such as “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid and “Let it Go” from Frozen) and create an original web series called Life Lessons From a Hipster Mermaid. In the following videos, Hines unleashes a wilder, edgier side of her inner pop star persona. She does a pretty accurate impersonation of Sarah from Hocus Pocus (played by SJP in the film) singing “Come Little Children,” and the video itself is appropriately hilarious. Hines is then joined by her friends Lauren Matesic and Chrissy Lynn, for the most memorable song from the film, “I Put a Spell on You.”
The production value in these videos is very high, and the three gals deliver strong performances. They definitely did their research on Hocus Pocus and its characters, because the videos really don’t seem like they were ‘fan-made.’ There’s an authenticity and consistency that elevates them. Do these covers make you want to re-live the original songs again? Well, why don’t we do that.
We hope you enjoyed that as much as we did. And if you haven’t seen Hocus Pocus, you should seriously seek it out this Halloween. If you have, how about re-visiting it? This is a film that never gets old, even with its 300+ year old witches sweeping across the sky on broomsticks!
What do you think of Hines’ covers? Do they do justice to the originals? Let us know in the comments below.
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HT: The Disney Blog
IMAGES: TraciJHines, YunaQQQQ8, Florin Ciurte
