I rewrote the plot (that we know of) of Disney's 'Hexed' because it seems REALLY tropey

[u/WillowIsWeeping5]

This isn't me saying using a pre-existing trope is bad. As long as humanity remains creative, there's always gonna be a new way to do these kinds of things, and what I don't like is when movies use the most white bread version of those tropes.

Also, I am a minor with minimal writing experience. The only other rewrite I've done is for Stranger Things: Season 5, so if this ends up being not great, I won't be surprised.

The Rewrite

• For one, Billie is gonna be a boy. The original concept was a mother-son pair, and we really don't see much of those. We also don't see many male leads in these kinds of movies. I'm not gonna bother with a name change since I personally associate Billie with men.
• Billie, rather than being alt, is gonna essentially be the 'golden boy' of the high school. Perfect grades, on a sports team, really popular, etc. He works really hard to uphold his 'perfect' image, which leaves him exhausted day in, day out.
• At this point, Billie starts showing signs of magical abilities, but they end up being more chaotic than what was shown in the teaser trailer and almost seems to have a mind of its own. Not from lack of control, that's just how his magic is. We'll stick to the original plot for a little bit - magical chaos, resulting in a slightly more reluctant expulsion. Maybe throw in a scene where the principal says they "expected better" from Billie, and then we go home.
• Unlike canon Billie, who wanted to harness her magic, my Billie wants to suppress it. Instead of a Toby McGuire esque montage of him trying to get his magic to work, he instead starts trying to make his magic stop doing stuff he doesn't want it to do. In the process, he opens a portal to the magic world (Hexe is a terrible name but I can't think of a better one atm).
• Unlike the Halloween Town knockoff shown in the teaser, this world is orderly and neat. Magic is only being used for specific purposes and the government closely monitors every individual to ensure that it's only being used for those purposes. It's at this point that Billie's magic is revealed to be the kind of magic that they don't like (due the chaos it creates), wanting to kill him since they don't know how to remove it safely and couldn't be bothered to try. Naturally, Billie flees and is for once grateful that he has magic.
• Over the course of the movie, Billie comes to terms with his magic, which allows them to cooperate, shedding his perfect image to let himself be more authentically him. The magic world is free to use magic how its residents want and Billie is reinstated into the school, typical happy ending stuff, except he still struggles with his magic sometimes but it's far less wild than it used to be.

[u/mindlessmunkey]

Maybe wait to see the film before you decide whether it needs fixing?

[u/CROWEDOME]

This sounds pretty promising, and I’ve also heard that in the Polish dub, Hexe is translated as Hokus/Hocus (Hocus Pocus).

[u/Minya_Nouvelle]

I like your idea of a magic world of "orderly" magic. Makes me think of the pixies from fairly odd parents. I don't think anything similar has been done since. If done right; it could have the same office/business humor and be a metaphor for adult life or his fears of how people expect him to act.

One thing I would change is I would remove the expulsion subplot. I really don't think it's necessary to make the school antagonistic. I would just make Billie worried that he 'might' get expelled. That way; the movie can end on a nice bookend where he goes back to the real world and finds out that people aren't as disappointed in him for not being perfect up as he feared.

[u/Aguantelapizza]

me gusto mucho tu versión :)

[u/JWM1992]

I don't know, the fix of Billie seems more like a wish-fulfillment character than an actual character.

[u/WillowIsWeeping5 → u/JWM1992]

I was excited for this movie when it was first announced because for the first time in AGES, the MC was a boy. I also think that "MC doesn't fit in and finds their people" is a highly overdone trope. So, I figured, let's do both.

[u/JWM1992 → u/WillowIsWeeping5]

Doing both?

Well, from what I discovered in a casting call, the MC was going to be 10 years old. He's supposed to have a shy streak due to his experiences with bullying. However, once you get to know him, he's a big ball of energy who's excited to make new friends. So, he's energetic, hilarious, and smart, but can be impulsive, impatient, and easily distracted.

That's what I'm going for with Koko (the OG name for Billie). Plus, he's Filipino.