When it comes to our ranking of all the significant streamers, in terms of their scary film libraries, perhaps it’s not a surprise that the family-focused Disney+ falls at the bottom of the list. After all, it’s the only one of the significant forces in the streaming world with a viewpoint that basically puts it at chances with extremely scary or troubling scary content.
At the same time, however, that does not mean there isn’t a good selection of more wholesome, family friendly Halloween fare to be discovered streaming on Disney’s service. The company has a long tradition, in truth, of supplying scares in a more mild and welcoming method, as in the famed Haunted Mansion of the Disney parks. And you can even go to stated estate through your TV screen, with the Muppets as your guide! Who could say no to that?
Here, then, are an unlucky 13 selections representing the best of the Halloween-appropriate titles on Disney+.
Year: 1993
Director: Henry Selick
Stars: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara
Rating: PG
Runtime: 76 minutes
View on Disney+.
On merely a shot-by-shot basis, The Problem Before Christmas ranks as one of the most visually magnificent films ever made. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, becomes obsessed with Christmas and chooses to pirate the vacation. Frequently provided under the title Tim Burton’s The Headache Prior to Christmas, the movie echoes a number of the hit director’s family pet styles, with Jack being one of Burton’s lots of brooding creative protagonists. The movie’s actual director was Henry Selick, who manages an ingenious style and a cast of endearing monsters. The film does not quite have the narrative fuel and elegant song lyrics to match Disney’s best animated musicals, however every year the movie looks much better and much better.– Curt Holman
Year: 1993
Director: Kenny Ortega
Starring: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Omri Katz, Thora Birch, Vinessa Shaw
Rating: PG
Runtime: 96 minutes
Watch on Disney+.
Hocus Pocus feels almost like a sister story at times to Roald Dahl’s The Witches— not rather as vicious, by any means, but its trio of Sanderson Sisters do still want to murder a lot of kids, which is quite hardcore as Disney goes. Mainly overlooked by both critics and audiences upon its initial release, the movie proved to be among those later bloomers that thrived in the classic mind’s eye in the 2000s, when it became a cable television Halloween season staple– the Halloween equivalent of It’s a Fantastic Life, if you will. The wonderful viciousness of Bette Midler’s Winifred is a prime factor for why we’re still speaking about the movie today, as she discovered a method to combine her epic screen presence with a just a tint of authentic hazard. That the film simultaneously treats its witches as both villains and fish-out-of-water perspective characters serves to make them a loveable performers of villains– how can you really dislike these girls after seeing them mistake an uncredited Garry Marshall for their demonic master? Thanks to the still-growing fervor for ’90s fond memories, Hocus Pocus probably feels more popular and relevant today than it ever has before.– Jim Vorel
Year: 2022
Director: Anne Fletcher
Stars: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Sam Richardson, Doug Jones, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo
Score: PG
Runtime: 103 minutes
See on Disney+.
The good news is if you liked Hocus Pocus, you will definitely like Hocus Pocus 2… since it’s generally the exact same film except with cellular phone, much better special effects and a cameo from Hannah Waddingham. Imitation stays the sincerest form of flattery. The bad news is … it’s the precise same movie. Hocus Pocus 2 gets a shock of energy when the Sanderson sis finally get here about a half-hour into the film. Midler, Parker and Najimy are clearly having a lot fun it’s hard to not accompany their hijinks a bit. All the beats of the first motion picture are there, consisting of a big Halloween celebration where the siblings perform. “I bet you’re looking for the stage,” one resident asks. “Constantly,” responds Winifred. Parker is humorous as the daft younger sibling. “I delighted in drawing,” she regrets. “‘T was my only task.” (And are sufficient to state by default, this is a much better sequel than Parker’s And Just Like That …)– Amy Amatangelo
Year: 1971
Director: Robert Stevenson
Stars: Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, John Ericson, Ian Weighill, Cindy O’Callaghan, Roy Snart
Rating: G
Runtime: 139 minutes
See on Disney+.
The easiest way to summarize Bedknobs and Broomsticks is essentially to state it’s Mary Poppins, except on half the budget plan and double the LSD. What the folks at Disney were believing when they conceived of a tale that included witchcraft, hijinks and the Nazis attacking England it’s difficult to say, but Angela Lansbury makes for a fine, matronly witch in training. Like Mary Poppins, the movie can boast an animated interlude including an island of anthropomorphized animals, their designs all suspiciously similar to Disney’s own Robin Hood, which would be launched 2 years later in 1973. And did we mention this is all in service of discovering a spell that Angela Lansbury can use to push back the Nazi intruders? Genuinely, the ’70s were a bizarre time for Disney.– Jim Vorel
Year: 2014
Director: Robert Stromberg
Stars: Angelina Jolie, Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Lesley Manville
Rating: PG
Runtime: 97 minutes
View on Disney+.
What little curiosity value Maleficent offers shows up mainly in the lavish visual design. It’s not a patch on the landmark work in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty— still among the most striking animated movies ever made– however something to witness nevertheless. Consider it both a strength and a weakness that Stromberg clearly put so much effort into the film’s visual design (largely, it appears, at the cost of story), and his first-class partners include makeup whiz Rick Baker (who developed Angelina Jolie’s witchy nose, horns and serious cheekbones), costume designer Anna B. Sheppard and production designers Gary Freeman and Dylan Cole. Their efforts clearly bring the fairy tale settings to life, updating among Disney’s initial witchy villains for the modern-day age.– Geoff Berkshire
Year: 2017
Directors: Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina
Stars: Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renée Victor, Ana Ofelia Murguia, Alanna Ubach, Jaime Camil, Sofía Espinosa, Selene Luna, Alfonso Arau, Edward James Olmos
Ranking: PG
Runtime: 109 minutes
View on Disney+.
Thanks to its story and, most significantly, its setting, Coco may count as one of Pixar’s clearest successes– and for numerous who long to see their culture spotlight instead of simply a taste spray, the story of Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) as he struggles to pursue his dreams could prove the studio’s most significant yet. The implicit contract between movies like Coco and the audience is a simple one: Relax and let us immerse you in a world you haven’t seen before, or one you’ve only pictured. Directors Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina do simply that. Coco‘s underworld is highly textured and thought of, but so is the “real life” where we start and end up. Sure, by now it’s what we expect from Pixar, but it’s notable nevertheless. And the enduring accomplishment of Coco lies in the respect and joy with which it illustrates another culture’s event. Dia de los Muertos isn’t used as some practical, unique setting or checked out through the eyes of someone from the United States (though early iterations of the script did just that, obviously). Instead, the movie represents a full welcome of a culture and its people, along with an event of household, both present and past. As such, it’s challenging to imagine much healthier vacation fare. — Michael Burgin
Year: 2012
Director: Tim Burton
Stars: Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, Winona Ryder
Rating: PG
Runtime: 87 minutes
Enjoy on Disney+.
When Victor Frankenstein’s precious bull terrier, Sparky, is hit by a car and eliminated, his mission is clear: Bring Sparky back to life! Now Sparky’s great as brand-new– except that he leakages water and anything he consumes. And when the poodle he loves next door, Persephone, sniffs his new neck bolts, she gets an electric shock that includes Bride of Frankenstein-like streaks of white to her beehive hairstyle. Sparky might be a re-animated dog made out of clay, but he’s also one of the most meaningful cinema pet dogs of perpetuity, one whose pain we feel when his resurrection is discovered and he escapes from Victor’s freaked-out moms and dads. He finds himself in the pet cemetery, where he lies down mournfully on his own grave– after reversing in a circle several times like any pet dog. He heroically conserves the day when other reanimated family pets run amok, and we cheer when the formerly terrified townspeople all pitch in to bring Sparky back to life once more.– Sharon Knolle
Year: 1949
Director: James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney
Stars: Eric Blore, J. Pat O’Malley, Colin Campbell, John McLeish, Campbell Grant, Claude Allister, Leslie Denison, Edmond Stevens
Ranking: G
Runtime: 68 minutes
Enjoy on Disney+.
Disney’s adjustment of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows is one half of a fantastic film. After Bambi came out in 1942, Disney didn’t release a full-length animated film for almost eight years. Throughout the ’40s they released a series of photos that packaged together different shorter films, both animated and live-action, under names like Make Mine Music and Enjoyable and Fancy Free. (This is also the age that brought us Song of the South, which is partially animated, partly live action, and practically totally indefensible.) The last of these plan films was called The Experiences of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and combined two half-hour short features based upon The Wind in the Willows and Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. After that preliminary theatrical run Disney split the 2 featurettes, with Drowsy Hollow ending up being an authentic Disney classic and Halloween staple, and The Wind in the Willows best being understood for motivating the Mr. Toad’s Wild Flight destination at Disney parks and the evil weasels from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Despite the budgetary and staffing concerns that continued at Disney throughout and immediately after the war, it’s a beautiful example of traditional Disney animation from Disney’s “Nine Old Guys,” with a crazed protagonist perfectly fit for cartoons. Neither a short nor a full-length movie, the half-hour Wind in the Willows and its erstwhile buddy helped prepare theaters and audiences for Disney’s victorious feature-length return Cinderella simply 4 months later.– Garrett Martin
Year: 1985
Director: Ted Berman, Richard Rich
Stars: Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, Arthur Malet, John Byner, Phil Fondacaro, John Hurt
Ranking:
Runtime: 80 minutes
See on Disney+.
Possibly Disney’s most well-known failure, The Black Cauldron is better than its track record. It’s not necessarily excellent, though. This adaptation of Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series is concurrently too ambitious and not enthusiastic enough, trying to squeeze 2 books into 80 minutes by merely skipping over big parts of the story. Whole chunks of narrative are plainly missing out on, making this one of those bad motion pictures that maybe would’ve been much better if there was more of it. Part of the problem is that Disney itself didn’t believe in it– Jeffrey Katzenberg, who joined the business under Michael Eisner and Frank Wells in 1984, when the movie was essentially done, infamously attempted to modify it like a traditional film, something that truly doesn’t work in animation. Despite its flaws, The Black Cauldron features some of Disney’s creepiest and most memorable images, from the design of the villain the Horned King, to the climactic scene when he raises an army of the undead with the titular Cauldron. It was such a failure at the box office that it took 13 years for it to eventually get launched on VHS, and still has actually never ever been released on Blu-ray.– Garrett Martin
Year: 2014
Director: Rob Marshall
Stars: Anna Kendrick, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Chris Pine, Johnny Depp
Rating: PG
Runtime: 124 minutes
See on Disney+.
Movie adjustments of beloved musicals are usually polarizing; to succeed, the film must simultaneously catch the magic of the phase while bringing something aesthetically brand-new to the proceedings. Movie stars take the parts of skilled phase stars, sometimes to the hinderance of the music. However the fantastical nature of Disney’s Into the Woods causes a visual spectacle, and the cast– including James Corden, Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Anna Kendrick– does a great job with the tunes. Streep is especially enjoyable as the story’s vindictive witch. The real delight here is seeing a Disney fairytale that satirizes Disney fairy tales, however with half an eye on its tween-set base, it’s never ever quite as wickedly dark as Stephen Sondheim’s initial. Still, it’s a revitalizing twist to see the princesses taking control of their own fates, and the humor of princes simply a little too in love with their own appeal won’t be lost on even the youngest audiences.– Josh Jackson
Year: 2021
Director: Kirk Thatcher
Stars: Dave Goelz, Costs Barretta, Eric Jacobson, Matt Vogel, Peter Linz
Rating: PG
Runtime: 49 minutes
See on Disney+.
The Muppets have a long and remarkable history of taking absolutely nothing seriously. Muppets Haunted Mansion is an initially, though: this time they’re not buffooning TV categories, pop culture cliches or a cherished piece of literature, however a traditional Disney amusement park tourist attraction. It’s been a long period of time coming; the Muppets made their Disney parks launching over 30 years ago, and have actually been outright owned by the Mouse considering that 2004. Fans of Jim Henson’s creations and Walt Disney’s theme parks can rest simple– this one-off special is a loving tribute to both Kermit’s crew and Disney’s grim grinning ghosts. Muppets Haunted Estate feels like a special episode of the classic Muppet Show. It’s a cameo-filled goof that roughly follows the structure of the ride, however with a story that sees Gonzo and Pepe the King Prawn going to a notorious haunted house on the 100th anniversary of a famous stage magician’s disappearance within. (Shades of Abracadabar, the fancy magic-themed bar at Disney World with a similar backstory.) Gonzo hopes to discover what occurred to the magician, while Pepe just wishes to meet some stars at what he assumes is a high-end Hollywood celebration. Along the way they’re haunted by the home’s big lineup of ghosts, characters from the trip played by traditional Muppets and the occasional guest celebrity. An important lesson about challenging your fears is found out, and the fourth wall isn’t simply broken however leapt through once again and once again like the Kool Aid Man blasting through walls on a bender. Most significantly, laughs are had by all, with the combination of purposefully cornball Vaudeville schtick and real irreverence that the Muppets have actually long been known for.– Garrett Martin
Year: 1998
Directors: Duwayne Dunham
Stars: Debbie Reynolds, Judith Hoag, Kimberly J. Brown, Joey Zimmerman, Emily Roeske
Ranking: NR
Runtime: 84 minutes
View on Disney+.
At the end of the ’90s, still a few years before Chris Columbus’ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone adaptation would strike theaters (but well into the Harry Potter trend that was casting spells upon kids all over the world), Disney attempted their luck at the witches and wizards video game. However this was no large release, where kids would drag their moms and dads to the theaters and beg for treats and soda. This was Halloweentown, one of 3 DCOMs (Disney Channel Original Movies) to be released on the network in 1998. There’s definitely no competing with J.K. Rolling when it concerns the magic category in the late ’90s and early 2000s, but Disney’s low-budget stab at the idea is actually positively wonderful. If you matured viewing Disney Channel in the 2000s and 2010s, you excitedly awaited October every year so you might capture back up with teenage witch Marnie Piper and her dysfunctional, at times displaced, family. The very first film in the trilogy (we do not speak of the so-called fourth movie in the series, Return to Halloweentown— a true DCOM catastrophe), Halloweentown presents us to Marnie, her mommy and brother or sisters and her granny, adorably represented by the a lot departed Debbie Reynolds. As a child, I wanted nothing more than to hop on that flying bus to Halloweentown and go broom-shopping with my granny. Halloweentown is absolutely a Halloween classic, one that does a fine job mentor kids about approval and inclusion, that can easily still be enjoyed today. — Ellen Johnson
Year: 2022
Director: Sam Raimi
Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Rachel McAdams
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 126 minutes
View on Disney+.
Marvel still has a lot to figure out with how it manages its females, however it’s getting the multiverse concept under its feet. Physician Unusual in the Multiverse of Insanity starts its busy but forgettable first act with discussion that could be improved by a middle schooler before giving way to an emotional Elizabeth Olsen efficiency that holds down some eye-roll-inducing lines about motherhood, outrageous cameos as plot channels, and horror cinematography, noise and instructions bouncing captivatingly in between the grotesque and comical. Regardless of uninteresting opening salvos that advised me why a lot of individuals have grown despiteful of the Marvel films, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Insanity ultimately ends up being very fun to view. It’s odd that many Sam Raimi fans were expecting a go back to his horror auteur type thinking about (1) we’ve seen a bunch of knowledgeable indie filmmakers crush their vision into the Marvel frame for a huge paycheck and (2) Raimi is known to the wider film-watching public as the person that made the original Spider-Man trilogy. It’s weirder still that the scary fans were kinda right to be enthusiastic: The 2nd and third acts have plenty of horror imagery, jump frightens and a Bruce Campbell cameo (and fellow Raimi partner Danny Elfman does ball game). Among my preferred features of the very first Physician Strange was that the intro of magic into the MCU indicated amazing psychedelic visuals. Multiverse of Madness alternates between being comparatively basic and going past the original into the macabre. Sadly, just like all Marvel movies, the director must square their vision with the circle of Kevin Feige’s machine. There are a great deal of cool minutes, however a great deal of the flaws are derived from requiring to establish a new superhero and link to 2 or 3 or 20 motion pictures. Opening with heavy CG that the actors aren’t engaging with in such a way that’s understandable as any sort of concrete space makes it difficult to accept the motion picture. It’s less intriguing. Too much time and money was invested in creating those FX beasts for me to come away considering how they could have gotten more out of the opening scenes by rather setting them in a series of dark spaces. Doctor Weird in the Multiverse of Madness will certainly be a commercial success, however it could have been more creatively pleasing if it wasn’t weighed down by the need to remind people of its outward connections. It stands better on its own than No Other Way Home however it’s still relying on early ’00s Fox movies and internet fan castings for theatrical audience pops. Doctor Odd in the Multiverse of Madness is everything you could fairly get out of a Sam Raimi-Kevin Feige collaboration, however not much more.– Kevin Fox, Jr.
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