The 1990s were responsible for a lot of great spooky kids' media, some of which have become Halloween staples -- especially for nostalgic millennials. Hocus Pocus, the 1993 film directed by frequent Disney collaborator Kenny Ortega, has become a true cult classic and a mainstay of the Halloween season; the 1996 television adaptation of Sabrina the Teenage Witch is less of a seasonal staple, but it was a fun and successful Archie Comics adaptation long before Riverdale and its associated programs hit the air. Both center on witches in the modern world, and it turns out that they featured the same animatronic cat.
Hocus Pocus' feline character Thackery Binx and Sabrina's Salem Saberhagen had both been born as humans but at some point, they were transformed into cats by witches. Both cats, who were still able to talk and think like a human, served as guides and friends to their protagonists. Since they both needed to be able to talk and move in unusual ways, it made sense that both characters were (partially) portrayed by an animatronic, and since they were both black cats, recycling the prop made perfect sense.
Thackery Binx is introduced in the first scenes of Hocus Pocus. He's a young boy living in Salem, Massachusetts in the 17th century, a time and place commonly associated with the infamous Salem Witch Trials, and when his younger sister Emily is kidnapped by three witches, he follows, intending to save her. The witches are the iconic Sanderson sisters -- Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mary (Kathy Najimy) -- and they feed on Emily's youth, then curse Binx with an immortal life so that he can never escape his guilt over losing Emily. What's more, he has to live in a cat's body.
The Sanderson sisters then do a spell that will allow them to be brought back to life under very certain circumstances, which involve a virgin, a full moon and a lit Black Flame Candle. In 1993, when Max (Omri Katz) accidentally lights the candle and resurrects the sisters, Binx appears and guides Max to safety. He then accompanies Max, Allison (Vinessa Shaw) and Dani (Thora Birch) as they try to stop the witches from enacting their evil plan. He also develops a strong bond with Dani, possibly because she's around the same age as his sister was when she died. When he finally passes away at the end of the film, he's seen in ghostly human form, reuniting with Emily.
Unlike Binx, Salem is actually a witch himself. It's revealed in the first season of Sabrina that as a human, Salem tried to take over the world, and the Witches Council sentenced him to live as a cat for a century. Hilda Spellman (Caroline Rhea) served on Salem's refreshments committee and the Council punished her for this minor treason by making her care for Salem in his cat form. Hilda and her sister Zelda (Beth Broderick) also take in their niece Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart), and she and Salem develop a rapport. The cat, though often cynical and greedy, proves a loyal and helpful friend to the teenage witch.
Both Hocus Pocus' and Sabrina's cats have human backgrounds and were cursed, and both cats serve as guides and familiars of sorts to young characters in the modern-day, but their circumstances and temperaments are very different. Binx is conscientious and still weighed down by guilt, and he speaks in a very old-fashioned way. In contrast, Salem is selfish, prone to scheming and much blunter, though he does show affection for others, particularly Sabrina. The technical requirements for a talking cat could easily be met by the same animatronic, though, as their personalities were displayed through voice acting and not mannerisms.