Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Hocus Pocus arrived from Walt Disney Pictures in the summer of 1993, a modest box office entry that found its true audience later, through television airings and home video, until it became a fixture of American Halloween viewing. Directed by Kenny Ortega, it paired Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimo as a trio of resurrected witches, giving the studio a comedic horror property that has since sustained a lasting fandom and merchandising afterlife.
This cell centers on Sarah Sanderson, the flirtatious and easily distracted of the three Sanderson sisters, alongside the Master, played by Garry Marshall, a figure tied to the film's mythology of dark bargains. Sarah Flirting points to one of the character's defining traits, her playful, seductive manner, a quality collectors associate with Parker's performance and the character's comic appeal. A 35mm cell preserving this pairing offers a physical trace of that dynamic, a single frame drawn from the film's negative, valued for connecting a fan favorite character to a specific, nameable moment in the story.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Hocus Pocus (1993).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges look clean throughout the strip.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a two-track variable-area format; Dolby Digital data blocks are also visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge, indicating a hybrid optical/Dolby Digital soundtrack configuration.
Edge print
"▲▲+" is visible printed along the lower edge margin; additional manufacturer or key-number text is present but not fully legible at this size.
Base & colour
The base shows a warm amber-yellow tint along the lower margin consistent with a dye-based safety stock; the image area carries a warm, slightly red-shifted colour balance.
Projection history
No visible splices; faint longitudinal lines are present across the frame area consistent with projection wear.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, consistent with a release print of Hocus Pocus (1993).
Era check
The hybrid variable-area optical plus Dolby Digital inter-perforation data track, warm safety base, and positive colour print format are all consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000063385
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
