Kleks Academy

Let me start by saying that the original movie (starring Fronczewski) was the wacky movie of my childhood. It was aired on public TV quite frequently. It has to be said that the movie was not a perfect 10-far from it-but I remember it very fondly.

I will not compare it to either the original written work nor the original movie.

I went into this movie with high hopes; I really wanted it to be good.

Now, most of the high-star reviews here are written by Poles who either do not know how basic storytelling should work or who really want this to become the Polish "Harry Potter." And, oh boy, this movie stinks.

1. Setting the premise.

There is none. All the scenes feel deeply disconnected, either by design or due to budget cuts. There is no character development-just a whole lot of disconnected scenes showing the somewhat beautifully written world (according to the book).

2. Production value.

It seems to me it's also quite absent. The practical effects are there, and I do believe they are top-notch, given the CGI era we live in.

All the enclosed environments feel cramped and claustrophobic. While watching the movie, I felt the money leaking into the CGI, and in turn, it seems there was not enough left to make the enclosed spaces grand. The US part of the movie was one of the worst things that happened. Even the cops that the main villain runs across in the "real world" had a strong "I'm not from the US" accent, which is just sad, in my opinion. Surely they could afford a voiceover and/or a consultant.

3. Character development.

Now, this is what I feel strongly about, as I have read reviews online suggesting this might be the aforementioned "Polish Harry Potter" franchise. In a single word: NONE. While watching, you are introduced to the main character, her dreams, and her hopes... aaaand that's it. She just keeps being annoying throughout the whole movie. The rest of the student roster is briefly introduced in somewhat unimportant scenes, and after that... nothing. Not much happens between the characters. No friendships are shown on screen, and no relationships between the characters are ever developed.

4. Acting.

Not there for the teenage roster. Okish for the rest.

5. Music.

Great! Not a single complaint there. The opening scene had me giggling and cheering. Did anyone else get Witcher (CDPR one) vibes from the opening score?

In general, the film lacks direction, forethought, and character development. I would like to say I hope it will get better on the second try (oh yes, the sequel is in the works), but I do not have any high hopes for this franchise.

I'm a big fan of all 'magic academies' in any regards, in both book and film form: Harry Potter, Miss Peregrine, Charlie Bone, amongst others. Unlike the previous three, I went into this without any prior knowledge of the franchise. Imagine Harry Potter mixing in Narnia for this.

It's got spirit, the potential for the series and obvious draw are there. The effects and setting are great too, on par with American production - you could even see what was happening in the darker scenes.

This film falls when it comes to story sadly. It's a mess with little consistency. Sure, I understood the broad strokes of the story and what the characters wished to do, however, that was it. Characters rarely, barring three exceptions, grew or made me fully attached to their progression. Locations and world building came out of nowhere and I got lost trying to remember which characters to care for.

Major potential and a contender to join the magical school success is cut short by odd editing choices and a poorly plotted story. Like others have mentioned, I'd be interested to see the director's cut.

Cinematography 6:10 Set Design 7/10 Character visual design 8/10 Character Development 2/10 Storytelling/Story flow 1/10 Acting 4/10 Diversity 6/10 Sound 7/10 (Reasons later in review)

This was based of a book that built a large majority of my childhood and eventually became a movie (made in 1984) which was so magical to my small brain and still is to this day.

But watching this movie was the biggest disappointment ever.

Like the blurb of the movie says it starts with the character of Ada which in the original version was called Adam. She is an unimaginative child who then goes to a magical fairytale world. In the beginning we see different characters from different parts of the world for example a Brazilian girl and a Japanese girl. The intro of these characters is stereotypical to their cultures where they come from which did send a shockwave of cringe coursing through my body which didn't give me a great first impression but it just went downhill from there and honestly throughout the entire experience I just wanted to throw my tv remote at the screen.

Character Visual design 8/10 When I saw the trailer I was excited to see the characters as I saw the wonderful colours and creative costumes and in this department it did not disappoint. Each character had a unique element to them with complementary colours which didn't make them blend into the environment for example the prince had a bird like design with a whimsical face with eccentric feathers. Another point is the wolf characters specifically the main villain, when I saw her I was immediately in love with her design which felt so immensely evil and worked seamlessly with the actors features from the dark 1920s flapper hair to the leathery look of her 'armour' -I say that loosely as it could be classed as clothes and I must say the quality mostly carried through most of the Wolf peoples designs. Most costumes were very high quality. But the only reason it doesn't get a 10/10 from me is the main character and the children portrayed. I get that the main character is supposed to be a 'simple' type character who is supposed to adhere to the audience as she is more like but as the story progresses she seems less and less like it (more on that later). Her clothes are alright at the beginning of the movie as she's a tomboy who gets mistaken as a little boy -probably in reference to the original character of Adam to be 'O look it's not what you thought!!'- but it just so quickly is lost like it's a piece of information given and just as quickly gone. Her outfits also remind me of an adult imaging a 'average child' but they are very out of touch with the youth with the classic baseball cap and random t-shirt combo but this could just be me overthinking that. Also minus points to random cultured clothing done wrong too but that's just my opinion many won't even think about it as it's just not that important.

Character development 2/10

As far as the character development is concerned it's utter garbage. Every time a character was on screen it felt like I knew them for maybe 5 seconds prior which continued to feel like that to till the very end. The dialogue constructed was very simple and often felt out of place it didn't feel like it was even needed and the information that was provided with these characters sometimes just came out of nowhere for example suddenly the main character cares about growing up with no previous buildup just wow now I care! Which feels so weird because maybe 5 minutes ago I had the impression you where ok with being perceived as older and we never receive and explanation as to why the sudden change of heart it just happens because they needed it to. And we just have to guess which if they focused a little more on the characters gradual emotional change then the execution would've been spot on but it just feels like 'now this is happening to this character because it has to!' There's no effort put into developing the characters motives to change not even in a fairytale way just forced change which is why I felt like I was meeting them for the first time because the feeding of information to the viewer is like we just met them no deep dive into their feelings. But I can't just discredit their efforts completely because evidence of trying is there when it comes to the other children (which I will admit where gonna be much more important because if they way they where introduced one by one with a apparent backstory but ok) where we find that one of the kids has a hobby and dream they want to do and manage to actually do it at one point so 👏👏 to them.

The main character just felt so 2 dimensional and not at all relatable even to a young persons brain I can't think of any situation where a person could connect with Ada and it wasn't even the actors fault at all since even though her acting wasn't amazing it was palpable her dialogue might have been the most random main character garbage ever made since at the start of the movie she talks to her phone while riding a scooter but it genuinely feels like she's advertising with a script (fake in simple terms) if you know what I mean I feel as if the director had the thought that children are stupid and don't understand anything so giving a realistic situation with realistic scenarios- not talking to a phone over enthusiastically while riding a scooter in a pathetic attempt to show the audience that the main character is quirky and 'just like the average 12 year old' which didn't work at all and as I said earlier felt fake like and advertisement and just cringe. The worst part about this is that even at one point she says 'you don't have to fight!' Which made my jaw drop because that's the most tasteless and uncreative line they could possibly utter as it is the most cliché phrase to ever say for a speech. The point of her father also felt like it was so very important but just ended up being a sob story to flesh out the character because he exists to provide a reason to why her 'saving grace' item exists and is given to her and honestly if he didn't even exist nothing would've changed as the item is maybe used?-it's implied but we don't actually see much action with it. We don't even see anything happen with the existence of the father as it's said so many times he is missing and Ada learns he's still alive and somewhere out there, and what is done with that information? Nothing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It was such a big detail that I thought we would get a reunification scene and that we would finally know where he actually is but no he was just there for the reason I gave earlier which is a waste of a character why put him in if he isn't gonna do anything?

Ada also is given the role of saviour and she's the 'special one' who will save everyone and it honestly made her character so much more boring than it already was because it adds nothing to her personality as sticking a she's special!! Label onto a character is definitely not a trope used time and time again to make a boring character special seemingly by default to give them an unneeded reason to win her situation. It added nothing to her character because she didn't need an additional useless reason to win. It could've worked is they just gave the information that she cared about the people around her instead of making her the SPECIAL ONE! And I additionally believe is why they made the father related to the professor just to make a legitimate connection to why she is special. But it all could've worked without this I'm so sure about that.

Cinematography 6/10 I don't have much to say about this one but I have one comment, some of the shots where a landscape is seen felt magical but that's really it as it felt like any more cinematography. No immensely unique shots and felt like any other Movies shots so it doesn't get a bad rating and didn't ruin the movie in the slightest.

Set Design 7/10 This was one of the main reasons I wanted to see this movie as what I had seen gave me the impression of quality and honestly ignore it the fact that I'm 99% sure that the grass had a 'green to red' filter on it was rather well made and where I think most of the budget was dumped on felt whimsical and very creative which gave me the joy I felt watching the old professor kleks movie and the whole landscape was very woven into each other with no area feeling out of place. There were a few moments where I felt like we could've seen more in this fairytale world but overall a good job.

Storytelling/storyflow 1/10 This is the sole reason the review is so low. The story telling is blasphemous. And this section links to the character development too. The biggest fad that the story telling has is the distinct jumps as I said earlier in the review that the information that the characters give out just feels useless and it continues throughout the story too as you probably guessed. But one of my biggest peeves about the story is how it barely actually includes the elements important for example we don't see enough of the academy's teaching and effect on the students especially Ada it just feels like all the important stuff happens when the camera isn't there, sure we got a few lessons but maybe 2 where actually worth it to the story which is you know, about a magical academy with a fun professor? The story just glazed over the existence of the academy a little more than it should as I'm not completely against confusing more on the alternative plot (the wolf people) but the way it was done just didn't feel right.

There is a scene in the story you could tell was meant to be heartbreaking but just felt so annoying the whole lead up to this moment wasn't right and now the whole scene is ruined simple because I just couldn't make sense of the pacing which is a extension of this issue I have as I couldn't believe it but 30mins of this movie was just Ada at home and this movie was 2h 10m So much time was wasted but at least they had 1h 40m to do its magic... (LIMIT)

Despite my great desire to whitewash this film with the argument that it is a children's production, unfortunately it is difficult for me to say anything positive about it. I wonder who the target audience of this film is, because it is scary at times, and the "wolves" use a fictitious language with subtitles as a translation, which may be a problem for children up to 8 years old. The film's production is very poor: the dialogues are artificial and quite awkward to listen to for older viewers - people don't talk like that, the magical land looks very cheesy and doesn't seem extraordinary. Moreover, the photos from the movie were better in moments when the action takes place in the "normal world" (my personal opinion). Mr. Kleks himself, as well as most of the characters, are created to be funny, but it doesn't work here either. However, the biggest complaint I have against "Mr. Klesek's Academy" is the length of the film and, at the same time, its incredible chaotic nature and lack of consistency in the continuation of threads or events. Personally, I got lost in space-time a few times and couldn't understand many situations, let alone a viewer aged 6-10. There were many small children in the cinema hall, and I also had an ambitious task to explain to my 6-year-old sister what, where and how. The songs were definitely a big plus as they enlivened the children during the show and most of the room sang along. Additionally, the messages woven into this chaotic projection were very valuable, but I am not sure whether they were catchable for a young viewer. I am not able to rate this film and I am still not sure who it is intended for. However, after leaving the room, my younger sister said that she liked the film, so it seems that the film is popular among children 😉

Title says it all. It's win-win for both parents and children, assuming you, as a parent took something beforehand to relax. This movie is WILD. What is even happening? Does anyone know? I sure don't. My kids seem to like it though, and that's all that matters, right? I'm also enjoying it kind of, even though it's terrible.

There was one scene I didn't love, where the owl man was talking to the main girl in her window and asked if he could use her toilet. I immediately turned to my kids and said, "HEY. If a strange person appears at your window, don't open it under any circumstances, even if they look like an owl. I don't care if it's a unicorn, a princess, a horseman, or whatever--just don't open it, okay?"

All this to say, this movie is objectively terrible. HOWEVER, it's still kind of entertaining. So that's why it still gets a 6. It entertained me and that's all a movie is supposed to do.