It's good! Minor spoilers + my 2 cents.

It's been a while since I saw the original (which I've watched maybe like 3 times in my life when I was a kid in VHS in the late 90s), but just finished watching Hocus Pocus 2 and I feel like it captured a lot of the original movie's tone... Bette Midler hasn't missed a beat! It was nice that Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy were back, but they felt even more supporting/limited appearance than on the original.

I've read that this is one of Midler's favorite roles in her entire career, so perhaps the other two actresses agreed to come back as a favor to her? They are barely on screen.

There's a prologue at the beginning with younger actors playing the Sanderson sisters as kids... so the classic trio doesn't show on screen until almost half an hour into the movie.

I found Hocus Pocus 2 to be pretty good. I've already read some people complaining about wokeness/forced diversity/checklists/agenda... but to me everything on screen felt very natural and not forced at all... worth a watch and nice callbacks to the original movie.

There was no standout song... like the original's I Put A Spell On You... but yes, there are some songs.

Wish Thora Birch could have returned for a cameo... allegedly she was busy shooting another film and just couldn't make it.

Solid 7/10 (the original 8/10)