While everyone might be starting to fall for seasonal greetings with the holiday season approaching, Disney is preparing to add some sparks of magic to our celebrations with this year’s Thanksgiving theatrical release of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ newest feature, Hexed.
Since the start of summer, Disney has been slowly rolling out first-look teasers, visuals and casting announcements surrounding this magical mother-daughter adventure. And as we now find ourselves counting down the days until Halloween and the kickoff of the most festive season of the year, a new trailer for Hexed has arrived to charm us. One that is giving us a much fuller and more robust look at not only the story itself, but the relationship at the heart of our central family.
While previous promotional material had already established Billie as a less-than-typical teenager whose life goes awry when she removes her bracelet and her magic is suddenly unleashed, we now have a better understanding of why that particular accessory came into existence. It wasn’t a fashion choice or anything elaborate, but rather something her mother created out of necessity after her daughter was attacked as a baby. An act that suppressed the mounting magic inside Billie for her own safety.
It was an act of love that also led her mother, Alice, to never speak of their shared truth of being witches.
That is, until fate begins to have its way.
In this trailer, we see much more of the world of Hexed and get a better idea of what everyday life is normally like inside this fantastical setting. That is, until Billie stands out a little too much and finds herself in danger. Thankfully, Alice is able to arrive and help her daughter, a true blessing considering there are now forces actively pursuing Billie.
Though there is a lot going on here, from establishing the world and its adversaries to showcasing magic and additional cast members, the core focus on display is the mother-daughter relationship and the heart of the story. It’s something that was largely missing from previous teases. Sure, this is Billie’s story, but her journey is also deeply intertwined with her mother’s. That gives the narrative an emotional charge while doing something that many fantasy-based stories often forgo: allowing family to remain central to the adventure.
Typically, magical girl series have a tendency to keep parents unaware of their daughters’ magical abilities until, at most, after the final battle has been won. Rarely are they fully aware of what is happening throughout the main storyline, leaving the characters to navigate additional pressures, secrecy and dual lives alongside the people they share a home with. While that can be narratively interesting, it can also leave these young heroines without an important source of support. And that seems to be something Disney is looking to approach differently as it breaks away from some of the more familiar conventions of the magical girl formula.
After all, that is something Disney has long been known for: putting family at the center of its storytelling. And with Hexed, that family connection appears to be more than simply the emotional foundation of the story. It may also be the very thing that shapes Billie’s understanding of her magic, her identity and the truth her mother has spent so many years trying to protect her from.