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 home video and annual Halloween rewatches. Directed by Kenny Ortega, it paired family-friendly scares with broad comedy, anchored by three witches whose chemistry carried the picture. Over the following decades it became a seasonal staple, prized for its rewatchability and its cast's evident enjoyment of the material, cementing its place in the Disney live-action catalog as a perennial rather than a one-time release.
This cell holds Mary Sanderson, played by Kathy Najimy, one of the trio of Sanderson sisters whose dynamic defines the film. Mary is the pliable, sensory-driven sibling, often serving as comic counterpoint to her sisters, and collectors seek her out for that distinct personality within the group. A cell bearing her name preserves a single frame of 35mm celluloid from the actual theatrical print, a physical artifact of the production itself rather than a reproduction, tying the object directly to the film's original release.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour theatrical release print of Hocus Pocus (1993).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds two complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges look clean with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a dual bilateral variable-area (two-track) stripe with a blue-tinted surround consistent with a Dolby stereo print.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at readable resolution.
Base & colour
The base shows a warm amber-yellow tint along the outer edges typical of a colour safety stock; the image area reads with a warm reddish cast consistent with a colour positive dye image.
Projection history
Light vertical scratching is visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; the two frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the content is consistent with a live-action theatrical release print matching the film on record.
Era check
The dual bilateral variable-area optical track with blue surround, warm amber safety base, and colour positive image are all consistent with a mid-1990s theatrical release print, matching the 1993 production date of the film on record.
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 000063387
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
