Here’s how the ‘Hocus Pocus’ sequel followed up that legendary musical moment

Halfway through “Hocus Pocus 2,” Bette Midler shouts off a set of direct commands. “Clear the altar, all of you! Clear my stage!” she says, sending everyone around her scurrying.

“And you — try to keep up.”

That last instruction is directed at a petrified four-person rock band, but the same could be said of the sequel itself. Debuting Friday on Disney+, the movie attempts to echo a rare feat pulled off by its 1993 predecessor: staging a musical number with villainous charisma, narrative action and a sprinkle of spookiness — a formula that reinvented a well-known song as an iconic Halloween movie moment for the film’s legion of fans.

The original “Hocus Pocus” sees Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as sibling witches desperate to extract children’s souls in order to maintain