In the neighboring kingdoms of the Dark Forest and Fairy Kingdom, the boarder is marked with primroses, a key ingredient in the love potions. Eldest Fairy Kingdom princess Marianne (Evan Rachel Wood) prepares to wed Roland (Sam Palladio) only to find that Roland has been unfaithful to her which results in Marianne calling off the wedding and denouncing love. Meanwhile, Sunny (Elijah Kelley) an elf and friend of the younger princess Dawn (Meredith Anne Bull) secretly has a crush on Dawn which is unreciprocated. The Fairy King (Alfred Molina) concerned for his two daughters attempts to persuade Marianne to take back Roland to no avail, while keeping the impetuously romantic whims of Dawn in check. With Roland's efforts to win back Marianne met with failure, Roland enlists the unsuspecting assistance of lovelorn Sunny by nudging him towards the creation of a love potion by venturing into the Dark Forest with a primrose petal to enlist the help of the captive Sugar Plum Fairy (Kristin Chenoweth) who is held captive by the Bog King (Alan Cumming) following a past incident involving the potion that left the Bog King soured in matters regarding love. While Sunny successfully obtains the potion, the potion is soon stolen by a mischievous imp intent of spreading the potion everywhere it can. When the Bog King learns a potion has been created he kidnaps Dawn to ransom the love potion with the intention of destroying it, unaware that Dawn has been exposed to the potion and fallen madly in love with Bog. Meanwhile Marianne sets out to rescue Dawn, while Roland assumes control of an army, and Sunny attempts to reclaim the potion.
Beginning development in the late 90s or early 2000s, Strange Magic was George Lucas' attempt by his words to make "Star Wars for girls" with the intention being to make a Beauty and the Beast type story where the beast doesn't change at the end and inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by way of the soundtrack to American Graffiti. Going through a lengthy development process even alongside the Star Wars Prequels, the film was well into production by the time Disney bought Lucasfilm with very little input from Disney going forward. The movie was the first Lucasfilm projected released under the studio's Disney ownership and released in the January dumping ground of 2015 where it scored the worst opening for an animated film opening at over 3,000 screens with critical reception being equally dismal. The movie was quietly forgotten, but is it THAT bad?
Watching the trailer Disney cut together for this movie, it gives the impression the film will be like one of those all too numerous Shrek knock-offs that John H. Williams squirts out with minimal effort every few years featuring "hip" pop culture references, a pop song rich soundtrack, and ironic spins on fairy tale tropes. In a way I suppose there's some truth to that, but the trailer or sidesteps the Moulin Rouge esque aspects of the film in it being a jukebox musical featuring songs ranging from Elvis Presley to Lady Gaga. Like most Jukebox musicals there are points where the songs really fit, and other points where it's cringey and pandering particularly when it comes to Elijah Kelley's Sunny whose cringey exchanges such as "shake your booty" are featured prominently in the trailer. In terms of narrative, the movie's opening act is very rushed with characters changing on a dime, and multiple characters all with different motivations and set-ups. Marianne in particular starts off the movie as a carefree Disney-like princess and then following the revelation Roland is unfaithful to her does a complete 180 on her character becoming a "warrior princess" archetype renouncing love and all things related to it. This in turn leads to another major sticking point with the movie, Alfred Molina's Fairy King whose motivations as a character are massively confused with him trying to push Marianne back to Roland who the king knows (or should know) is an unfaithful womanizer who only loves himself and power while also wanting to keep his younger daughter Dawn from ANY sort of suitors or romantic inclinations. The movie has many of the issues that have dogged George Lucas' post 1989 career with clunky dialogue, overly broad and juvenile humor, and basically feeling like a first draft without any outside revision, but that's not to say there's nothing here of value.
Once the movie gets to the halfway point roughly 45 minutes in, the movie actually finds more focus with Alan Cumming's The Bog King given greater presence and his establishment in the earlier part of the movie as a seemingly generic fairy tale antagonist is contrasted against Dawn's potion fueled mad infatuation with him for comic effect that actually really works. Even the Jukebox musical format is better incorporated in the second half with the songs better matched with the situation and animation especially with Dawn's running joke of singing "Sugar Pie Honeybunch" to Bog King, and a combination fight/musical number between Marianne and Bog King that's not only entertaining on its own but serves as an unconventional "meet cute" establishing the burgeoning relationship between the two characters and finally giving the film some semblance of focus and an emotional core. Granted this focus means that the other competing plot threads of Sunny's infatuation with Dawn, Roland's quest for power by using the potion on Marianne, and the Fairy King learning not to dictate the course of his daughter's affairs are mostly resolved in what feels like a rushed "cliff notes" approach, down to the fact the King plainly announces what he's learned (only for it to be undermined for comedic effect).
The movie is the feature directing debut of Academy Award winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom who's known for his solid sound work on films from the likes of James Cameron and Steven Spielberg, as well as directing the English language voice dubs for several Hayao Miyazaki films. Rydstrom has directed in animation before, notably the dialogueless Pixar short film Lifted and the Toy Story short film Hawaiian Vacation both of which are enjoyable if not particularly substantive animated shorts. Strange Magic feels like a first attempt at something major, and it's unmistakably directed by someone from a sound/music background as it feels like the movie's primary focus is in showing off the soundtrack and remixes of songs rather than creating a world where they make any sort of sense. Some of the design work is really top notch, especially with The Bog King whose design in combination with Alan Cummings delivery makes him the best character in the movie. But other parts feel a bit rougher particularly with the fairies and elves who's designs do fall into the uncanny valley every so often.
Strange Magic certainly earns its name as it is "strange" and there is "magic", but it's hard to quantify how successful it is at either of those things. The movie's first half is a confusing directionless mess, but it nearly redeems itself with a strong second half where the focus shift to Bog King and Marianne creates an engaging dynamic. The humor is very broad and plays to a pretty base level with flatulence jokes, puns, and mugging aplenty, and the soundtrack has a wide range of new and classic tunes that have been remixed with many very well done and others quite cringe inducing. I can't say Strange Magic is good, but it's got way to much drive and passion for me to dismiss either. Strange Magic has some fantastic scenes amongst a plethora base humor and ham fisted dialogue, but the stuff that's good is almost good enough to redeem those issues. I can't guarantee you'll like Strange Magic, but I can guarantee you'll remember it. Good points and bad, Strange Magic doesn't strictly speaking "work", but it's not forgettable either.
Beginning development in the late 90s or early 2000s, Strange Magic was George Lucas' attempt by his words to make "Star Wars for girls" with the intention being to make a Beauty and the Beast type story where the beast doesn't change at the end and inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by way of the soundtrack to American Graffiti. Going through a lengthy development process even alongside the Star Wars Prequels, the film was well into production by the time Disney bought Lucasfilm with very little input from Disney going forward. The movie was the first Lucasfilm projected released under the studio's Disney ownership and released in the January dumping ground of 2015 where it scored the worst opening for an animated film opening at over 3,000 screens with critical reception being equally dismal. The movie was quietly forgotten, but is it THAT bad?
Watching the trailer Disney cut together for this movie, it gives the impression the film will be like one of those all too numerous Shrek knock-offs that John H. Williams squirts out with minimal effort every few years featuring "hip" pop culture references, a pop song rich soundtrack, and ironic spins on fairy tale tropes. In a way I suppose there's some truth to that, but the trailer or sidesteps the Moulin Rouge esque aspects of the film in it being a jukebox musical featuring songs ranging from Elvis Presley to Lady Gaga. Like most Jukebox musicals there are points where the songs really fit, and other points where it's cringey and pandering particularly when it comes to Elijah Kelley's Sunny whose cringey exchanges such as "shake your booty" are featured prominently in the trailer. In terms of narrative, the movie's opening act is very rushed with characters changing on a dime, and multiple characters all with different motivations and set-ups. Marianne in particular starts off the movie as a carefree Disney-like princess and then following the revelation Roland is unfaithful to her does a complete 180 on her character becoming a "warrior princess" archetype renouncing love and all things related to it. This in turn leads to another major sticking point with the movie, Alfred Molina's Fairy King whose motivations as a character are massively confused with him trying to push Marianne back to Roland who the king knows (or should know) is an unfaithful womanizer who only loves himself and power while also wanting to keep his younger daughter Dawn from ANY sort of suitors or romantic inclinations. The movie has many of the issues that have dogged George Lucas' post 1989 career with clunky dialogue, overly broad and juvenile humor, and basically feeling like a first draft without any outside revision, but that's not to say there's nothing here of value.
Once the movie gets to the halfway point roughly 45 minutes in, the movie actually finds more focus with Alan Cumming's The Bog King given greater presence and his establishment in the earlier part of the movie as a seemingly generic fairy tale antagonist is contrasted against Dawn's potion fueled mad infatuation with him for comic effect that actually really works. Even the Jukebox musical format is better incorporated in the second half with the songs better matched with the situation and animation especially with Dawn's running joke of singing "Sugar Pie Honeybunch" to Bog King, and a combination fight/musical number between Marianne and Bog King that's not only entertaining on its own but serves as an unconventional "meet cute" establishing the burgeoning relationship between the two characters and finally giving the film some semblance of focus and an emotional core. Granted this focus means that the other competing plot threads of Sunny's infatuation with Dawn, Roland's quest for power by using the potion on Marianne, and the Fairy King learning not to dictate the course of his daughter's affairs are mostly resolved in what feels like a rushed "cliff notes" approach, down to the fact the King plainly announces what he's learned (only for it to be undermined for comedic effect).
The movie is the feature directing debut of Academy Award winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom who's known for his solid sound work on films from the likes of James Cameron and Steven Spielberg, as well as directing the English language voice dubs for several Hayao Miyazaki films. Rydstrom has directed in animation before, notably the dialogueless Pixar short film Lifted and the Toy Story short film Hawaiian Vacation both of which are enjoyable if not particularly substantive animated shorts. Strange Magic feels like a first attempt at something major, and it's unmistakably directed by someone from a sound/music background as it feels like the movie's primary focus is in showing off the soundtrack and remixes of songs rather than creating a world where they make any sort of sense. Some of the design work is really top notch, especially with The Bog King whose design in combination with Alan Cummings delivery makes him the best character in the movie. But other parts feel a bit rougher particularly with the fairies and elves who's designs do fall into the uncanny valley every so often.
Strange Magic certainly earns its name as it is "strange" and there is "magic", but it's hard to quantify how successful it is at either of those things. The movie's first half is a confusing directionless mess, but it nearly redeems itself with a strong second half where the focus shift to Bog King and Marianne creates an engaging dynamic. The humor is very broad and plays to a pretty base level with flatulence jokes, puns, and mugging aplenty, and the soundtrack has a wide range of new and classic tunes that have been remixed with many very well done and others quite cringe inducing. I can't say Strange Magic is good, but it's got way to much drive and passion for me to dismiss either. Strange Magic has some fantastic scenes amongst a plethora base humor and ham fisted dialogue, but the stuff that's good is almost good enough to redeem those issues. I can't guarantee you'll like Strange Magic, but I can guarantee you'll remember it. Good points and bad, Strange Magic doesn't strictly speaking "work", but it's not forgettable either.