Strange Magic

Strange Magic is a not an animated film for kids, more directed to teens and adults. This is an odd film, a mix of The Princes Bride meets Tim Burton's world and they sing Moulin Rouge style.

The main virtues of the film are, beyond the beautiful animation and character design, the quirkiness of it. To me, the most important thing in movies that are derivative an predictable like this one is the sense of humour and the message conveyed. Strange Magic was funny to me, and found myself laughing more than once. The message if is not new, but important to recall it, there is a lid for every pot, love comes in all colors and shapes, and love happens between people who are, a priori, very different and even opposite. The film is unpretentious, and the familiar soundtrack will keep you (or at least me) singing along.

The cast does a good job at providing the characters with their voice and songs. I especially liked Allan Cumming as Bog King and Elijah Kelly as Sunny.

There is strange magic in this film, because from the known and predictable we get something magic, perhaps just hocus-pocus, and a freaky love story. I think this is one of those movies you really like or dislike, nothing in between. I did find it very enjoyable, but I had no expectations about it, so that always helps.

I read the reviews and watched the trailer with my 6 y/o daughter before going to see it, so I wasn't expecting much. I was happily surprised and frankly, I liked it! It isn't Pixar, by far, but the animation wasn't bad at all. The characters weren't cheesy, and the animators did well to give them a full range of emotion. The voice actors did pretty well, though a lot of the music were the characters singing short covers of hits that didn't play all that well. Still, my daughter never noticed or complained. The background of the forests was done quite well too, especially the dark forest and black castle. The plot was a bit predictable, but the humor was there for both adults and children, and several times the entire audience laughed at the jokes. It's a kids movie, after all, but what was not to like? Not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon.

I was worried that a few of the parts would be too scary for my daughter, but overall she liked it too. Of course, it ends with a happy ending for everybody. Can't beat that.

I won't be first on the list to buy this, but if I see it in the $5 bin at Walmart, I will buy it. Like I said, I liked it.

And unfortunately the music is all pervasive.

They had a good cast, made good characters, and had a solid plot.

And then they ruied it with their musical score.

None of the songs fit the mood of the movie and rarely even fit the scene they are sung in. It is a square peg in a round hole. The renditions are campy renditions of 70s and 80s songs in the public domain.

They would have been much better off without the musical singing in the first place. Take the pixar route just use background music when necessary (and they do at some points, and it works).

If they absolutely had to they should have made their own musical scores, at least then it would have fit the scenes better, but I maintain that this movie would have been much better without music entirely.

Cutting down, parsing, and/or eliminating those scenes would have cut the movie time but that's not a bad thing with this being an hour and 40 minutes (that's on the long side for an animated kids movie).

Good visual graphics. Interesting choice of characters. So much non-stop singing. Maybe, it would have made a difference if all the songs were original. The message is not to insult physically "good-looking" people. It only reminds us and re-affirms that "beauty" and "love" is not skin deep. It is not something superficial. It is not something you see only with just your two eyes. It may not suit the majority's approval because it is not-so-stereo-typical kind of fantasy story like the "beauty and the beast" and "princess kissing a frog prince". Definitely for the kids with pure heart. Not recommended for highly superficial-minded adults.

If you look at the statistics of IMDb votes, you will find that Strange Magic unfortunately falls into the category of "either you love it or hate it" - very few in-betweeners.

From a graphical animation viewpoint it is superb, with well thought out details backed by a lot of hard work. For adult viewers who like animations (like me of course!) the plot, musicality and characters are significantly above the average animation, with a well-balanced socially and politically conscious theme.

The immense flake it has got in the media and the "hate it" viewers are totally unwarranted. Its main problem is the strong disconnect between its actual adult theme and characterization, vs the way it is portrayed and marketed as a family animation - a sort of fairy tale mummy bring kiddies to - and you can see many of the complainers fall directly into this category.

In other words, it 'looks like' animation for kids, but the plot and dialogue is totally way too adult.... which is exactly what keeps it interesting for me! Kudos to Mr Lucas for doing this - just too bad the real target market segment of "adults who like fairy tale animation" is just too small for it to make any commercial impact. But... thanks all the same!