Strange Magic (2015)
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writers: Irene Mecchi (screenplay), Gary Rydstrom (screenplay), David Berenbaum (screenplay), and George Lucas (story).
Cast: Evan Rachel Wood (Marianne), Elijah Kelley (Sunny), Kristin Chenoweth (Sugar Plum Fairy), Maya Rudolph (Griselda), Alan Cumming (Bog King), Meredith Anne Bull (Dawn), Sam Palladio (Roland), Alfred Molina (Fairy King), Bob Einstein (Stuff), Peter Stormare (Thang), Kevin Michael Richardson (Brutus), and Llou johnson as Pare.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone on this planet, i know it's a bit much, but i don't care, love this time a year. The fact that families get together and feast is a wonderful thing. I always wanted to do a Thanksgiving special, and on that note the reason why i picked Strange Magic an animated film, because in my opinion it's perfect. Marianne the lead character felt empowered by the fact that she found out her significant other cheated on her, but that's not the main reason why i picked this film. Sometimes when you sit at the table, look across the people you love, and in some ways they're very opinionated, they disagree with every thought. Families get on your nerves sometimes, it happens this time a year, and for some reason only on Turkey Day. Thanksgiving can be a drag, families have many issues this time a year, it's because holidays make people crazy. Anyway going back to Marianne's character, she is a strong willed little fairy, but her father pretty much wanted her to do everything that he wanted, i guess being a King got to his head a bit. Marianne's the real reason why i picked the film, her characteristics are very real, almost like a teen arguing with the parents on Thanksgiving, because of the choices she's made, or haven't made.
The story of two lands, one wonderful, full of beauty, while the other is dark, desolate from the other. The Dark Forest holds a unique flower called the prime-rose. The properties that it holds, make up a potion that only a special fairy can create, she is the Sugar Plum Fairy. The only problem is she is held captive deep within the Dark Forest. The Bog King keeps her safe from all the beauty that surrounds his area, the other place from the distance, where the beauty comes from, where all the fairies resides. The forest has unique creatures that only are from that location, not really there fault, but it's the location and the forest which has made everything dark, and evil, maybe a bit evil, not really evil, but a bit, let's focus on the Bog King's lair, the evil place. The vile creatures are made to be evil because of their leader, or at least the creature that calls himself the Bog King. The King of the forest is the reason for all the darkness, the very place that makes him who he is, a dark creature that rules with an iron fist.
Characters in a story is a crucial and important in the process, because without the characters the story will cease to be. A good example of this would be the Bog King, he is the most important because of what happened in his past, and the connection he had with the Sugar Plum Fairy. She had given him a potion, so he could transform his love, transcend, in a way. But, the creature he loved, had another, and that caused her to hate him. The potion had no effect, but the connections the characters have with one another is the key to a great, epic, beautiful story. Marianne with all her issues added spice to the story, she was a shining example of a key character, with out her, the Bog King would never have softened up. So i have established the connection is the essence of the story, but not the gold treasure at the end of the rainbow, it's the interactions with each other that create an epic tale. What if? there were no characters at all, no Bog King, or Marianne. Would there be a film? the film would be an epic failure, the box office numbers will plummet. So why? bring up characters, because the point is simple, the characters are center point of a story, almost like building a stage, so the actors can do there thing, and example of this would be the blue screen, or green screens used for a huge special effect in the story. The actors need to visualize where they are, and to some actors, visualizing is difficult. remember Lord of the Rings, the director used an actual castle, so that the actors had something visual to go by. Imagine if Strange Magic had special effects, no background, no music or anything that would make the character loved, hated, etc. I guess the film would suck, because your just watching a film with no essence, power, life. Imagine Frozen without the words or music to go by, imagine the characters with no soul, because that's what you would be watching.
Strange Magic has a wonderful story, and a plus because of the music part of it. I'm a sucker for musicals, my favorite is "Wicked," a wonderful musical set in the world of the Wizard of OZ. Let me get back on track, the film Strange Magic featured some pretty big names for the singing part, the actors did well in that part of the film. Musicals are difficult because you have to tell the story, and in crucial parts, sing as part of the dialog. The power of a voice, and to see it performed on film as an animation or live version is a beautiful thing. I guess what got me was the performances, they were all good, each character delivered there part to perfection. So i give George Lucas and his team a huge smile, because this fantasy, musical, animated film did well across the board.
Critics are probable either liked or hated, depending on the type of film reviewed because readers or viewers, have there opinion, and at the end of the day, that's what matters the most. Critics online get hassled about either there content or pictures that they've posted, which if there doing it right, all pics are credited, meaning all your pics are backed linked to the original location, or the site you've saved it on. The problem here is the basic understanding of what is copy right. All you're doing is saving a pic and back linking to show credit to the other persons site. The crazy thing is even if you catch a pic with your phone on a personal DVD that you own, somehow, someone will have claim to the picture; But you've bought the DVD, with a receipt to show for it and still folks freak out. The point is that no matter what you do as a critic online it will always seem wrong, even through "Fair Use," which is the shield to all critics, because of what we are trying to do. Educating the public, and with that being said, fair use is important because you need critics to establish a good or bad review on products, basically everything on our planet. I read other reviews, and love it; The main reason for this rant here is because i want to deliver a message, and hopefully it is understood. Reviewing films is what i love to do, everything on my site here is done for my fans, public, as my intro states, "Movie lovers from all over," meaning if your a movie buff, then i will try to give you a good review on any movie, good or bad. Either way guys, thank you so much for your support, it really means a lot to me. Movies are my thing, in a way we can all come to an agreement, all this critic stuff is not for me, but for you, because in the end of the day we are all movie fanatics.
Now to get back to the movie rant, i was saying that Strange Magic is a very good film, in fact the only issue i really have, and it's small, basically the running time was a bit to long, like i said not much. George Lucas gets called out on a lot of areas of film making, and as a critic that's what we do; But what about the wonderful ideas, characters that this man has created since American Graffiti. Nice to bust on the guy about the bad stuff, but what about everything he has done, and the awesome ideas and imagination that came from his brain. The only thing i have to say is, when everything is done, this great man has given us a monster of a franchise, called Star Wars, he went on to Indiana Jones, which created a huge following, a pop culture that grew and all that came from George Lucas. The story to the characters were all good, maybe it's not your thing, but in the end it will indeed entertain, and the essence as i mentioned earlier is about the characters, and how they develop in a story.
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