The 29-year-old cult hit only grows in popularity with each passing year, and with it being one of the best films based on the Salem witch trials, there’s a lot to unravel. Hocus Pocus features a lot of great talent, but with the movie being about three witches, the mortal characters don’t get as much attention as they should.
Dani and Allison are two of the best characters in terms of likability, but they are also two of the most well-rounded characters in the movie with bold personalities. Although they have plenty of similarities, fans resonated differently with both.
Dani Was The Best Character
She Stood Up For Herself
For an 8-year-old, Dani was one of the most outspoken and outgoing characters in the movie, and her courageousness was what made her such an electric presence on screen despite being so small and so young.
She was fearless and stood up for herself. no matter how big or small her opponent is. Whether it’s a teenage bully twice her size or a witch who has been brought back from the dead. Dani always stood up for herself, and it made her one of Hocus Pocus’ best characters.
Dani’s Confidence
For being so young, Dani’s confidence was one of her best traits. She was far braver and more heroic than Max was. Whether it was standing up to Max’s bullies, flagging down a police officer, or standing up to the Sanderson sisters, Dani didn’t need saving - she could save herself.
Her biggest showing of confidence was the way she protected Thackery Binx from the Sandersons. As soon as she got to know Thackery, she took him in and promised him a better life than he’s been living. Her compassion and confidence made her better than any character.
She Always Embarrassed Max
Being the younger sister, Dani knew how to manipulate her brother. Whether it was in front of his crush, Allison, explaining that she’s heard about her, or calling him out for spooning his pillow, Dani always found a way in any situation to totally diminish her brother’s ego. This isn’t to say Max was unlikable, but he made worse decisions in the movie than Dani did.
Even in the unlikeliest of times, Dani told a man who she believed to be a police officer about her brother’s lack of sexual partners. She provided the most comic relief out of all the mortal characters and had some of the more hilarious quotes throughout Hocus Pocus.
Dani Covered For Her Brother
Winifred Sanderson was one of the strongest characters in Hocus Pocus, but that shouldn’t discredit Dani. Despite being so young, Dani is one of the mentally strongest characters in the movie, and though she’s known to joke around, she was wise beyond her years. She believed in her brother Max and looked up to him and was smart enough to know when he was in trouble and needed her help.
Dani also sacrificed herself to the Sandersons, telling them that she was the one who lit the black flame, as she full well knew that Max would have done everything he could to save her.
Her Taste For The Dramatics Worked For Her
At the beginning of the movie when Dani was caught snooping around by the witches, she quickly thought on her feet and started speaking with old English grammar like the Sanderson sisters did. She acted confidently as if she knew exactly what she was talking about, and dropped any fear she might have had.
It might have been one of the most useless attempts at confusing the sisters, but it was hilarious, spontaneous, and an attempt nonetheless. It also threw the sisters off when they realized how much had changed from the late 1600s.
She Protected Billy Butcherson
Though Billy Butcherson was a pawn in the Sanderson sisters’ game for the whole movie, when he got a hold of Max, he suddenly came to his senses and helped the mortals. When the tables turned and Billy became endangered, it was Dani who left her hiding area and risked her life to save the undead.
Though there’s a lot about Billy that made no sense throughout Hocus Pocus, him helping Dani and her brother was one of the more endearing moments in Hocus Pocus. Billy didn’t need to know what era he was in or what Dani and Max were doing; what mattered most was getting retaliation on the sisters.
Allison Was The Best Character
Her Deep Knowledge Of Halloween
Without Allison, Max and Dani would have been the Sanderson sisters’ supper. With hatred and disbelief in the supernatural and witchcraft, Max had his world turned upside down when he stupidly lit the black flame candle. Lighting the black flame candle brought the Sandersons back to life.
It was Allison’s knowledge and interest in Halloween and the Sanderson sisters’ lore that helped them get out of a lot of sticky situations. Allison is so obsessed with Halloween that she’d probably be someone who made Hocus Pocus-themed Halloween memes.
Allison Showed No Fear Against The Sandersons
Allison showed similar forms of bravery like Dani did. But what made Allison such a great character was the way she protected and cared for two people she had just met. She only met Max recently in class, and only spent Halloween night with him and Dani because of an exciting opportunity to explore the old Sanderson house.
As soon as she felt threatened by the Sandersons, she could have left Max and Dani to save herself. Instead, she took it upon herself to lead the group to safety since she knew Salem and the Sandersons’ history more than Dani and Max did. Her heroism made her An influential character.
She Gave Max’s Number Back To Him
Though Dani was usually the prankster and loved messing around with Max’s head, Allison was a bit of a prankster herself. She wasn’t going to blush and bow down to any guy who thought he was smarter than her, which was exactly what Max expected would happen.
In the scene when the two first met, Max obnoxiously gave Allison a scrap piece of paper with his phone number on it, and when they talk in the park afterward, Allison gave Max a piece of paper too, which he expected to be her number. But when he opened it up, he found out it was his own number. Though the letter looked different the second time (which was one of the smaller Hocus Pocus details fans missed), it was one of Allison’s many ingenious moments.
The Ultimate Broom Basher
Allison had a lot of heroic moments in the movie, and an argument could be made that she was the most heroic character in the whole film, but her true highlight came in one of the few scenes when she was more physical than theoretical.
When she was in the Sanderson sisters’ house, and they were trying to escape, she wards off Mary by beating her senseless with a broom, and then again with a pan. While some fans suspect that Allison is actually a witch herself, that didn’t stop her from going after another witch that put her in harm’s way.
She Saved The Day With Headlights
By this point in the movie, it became clear that Allison was the brains of the mortal group, as she came up with almost every half-decent idea to fool the witches.
One of those schemes was when she shined the car lights on the Sanderson sisters’ house making them think that the sun was rising, which was when the witches’ time on Earth ran out. It was one of the smartest ideas in the movie and the least scary the Sanderson sisters ever seemed.
Allison Came Up With The Ultimate Plan
The closest they came to defeating the Sanderson sisters by themselves without the help of Billy Butcherson or Thackeray Binx was when Allison came up with the ultimate plan. As she was hiding behind an oven at the time, she had an epiphany to trap the witches in the school’s furnace and set them ablaze.
It was one of the most brutal and sinister ways to kill someone, especially when it came from the mind of a teenager, but it almost worked on the evil witches. After all, Allison was trying to save her and Salem’s lives. Allison’s chase for safety and the fear she had from the Sandersons made Hocus Pocus one of the best Halloween movies on Disney+.
