Thackery Binx

Thackery Binx is the heroic black cat at the heart of Disney’s 1993 Halloween favourite “Hocus Pocus.” In the film’s prologue, set in Salem in 1693, Thackery is a young man who fails to save his little sister Emily from the witch-sisters Winifred, Mary and Sarah Sanderson. As punishment, Winifred curses him into the body of an immortal black cat, condemned to live forever with his guilt — and to stand guard, century after century, against the witches’ return.

Three hundred years later, when a teenager unwittingly lights the fabled Black Flame Candle and resurrects the Sandersons on Halloween night, Binx springs into action. As a talking cat with three centuries of hard-won knowledge, he becomes the story’s guide and conscience, shepherding the human children through a night of chaos and repeatedly putting his nine lives on the line to stop the witches from draining the life from Salem’s youngsters.

What gives Binx his emotional weight is that his story is really about grief and redemption. Beneath the adventure, he is a brother who has never forgiven himself, and the film’s bittersweet ending finally frees his spirit to reunite with the sister he lost. It is a surprisingly poignant note for a family comedy, and it is Binx who carries it.

Brought to life through a mix of real black cats, animatronics and early computer effects, and voiced with wry warmth, Thackery Binx became one of the most beloved fictional cats of the 1990s — and a fixture of Halloween film marathons ever since.