Strange Magic
Tags: fantasy

Plot synopsis:
A realm divided between a land of fairies and light, and a land of bog creatures and darkness, living in the dark forest. Primrose flowers, which are a crucial ingredient to love potions, mark the border between the lands. Marianne is a fairy princess and heir to the throne of the Fairy Kingdom, and is engaged to be married to Roland, a handsome warrior who breaks her heart when she discovers him kissing another fairy on their wedding day.
Scorned, Marianne vows to never fall in love again. Sometime later, her sister Dawn, who frequently says she is in love, is distraught regarding the upcoming Spring Ball over which boy she could meet there. Her best friend Sunny, an elf who has a crush on Dawn, tries to cheer her up with a song, but they are nearly devoured by a giant lizard before a hardened Marianne rescues them. Sunny, having fallen through the border of the dark forest, finds a Primrose petal, which he subsequently hides when fleeing the forest.
At the ball, Roland tries to assert his intention to marry Marianne, who refuses and humiliates him out of the dance. He encounters Sunny and tricks him into returning to the dark forest to convince the Sugar Plum Fairy, who had been captured years ago by the Bog King, to create the love potion. Sunny acquires the petal he had hidden and with the help of a curious imp, ventures into Bog's castle, eventually finding the fairy and promising to free her in exchange for the love potion.
Their escape rouses Bog, who manages to recapture the Sugar Plum Fairy while Sunny escapes, followed by the imp, and Bog is enraged when he learns that Sunny has a vial of love potion. Sunny returns to the ball and tries to hit Dawn with the love potion during his musical number. Bog interrupts the celebrations and captures Dawn just as she is sprayed by the love potion and the imp steals it in order to spread it throughout the forest. Bog orders them to deliver the potion to him by moondown or he would harm Dawn. Defying her father's order, Marianne flies off after her sister while he grants Roland a small army to head off on foot to Bog's castle.
Meanwhile, Dawn falls in love with him due to the potion, and Bog has her imprisoned for his own sanity. Marianne arrives and fights with Bog to return her sister. When she realizes the severity of the situation, the two of them begin to find common interests. When they consult the Sugar Plum Fairy for an antidote, she explains that true love will negate the effects of the potion, recounting a time where Bog fell in love with another female in the forest who left him despite his use of the love potion on her, as she was in love with someone else at the time he used the potion on her. A mutual attraction begins to develop between Marianne and Bog, but it is only Bog's mother who sees it.
Sunny recovers the potion from the imp and gives it to Roland as they march on to the castle. Bog sees this and suspects that Marianne had set him up, breaking his heart again as he leaves her stranded in a spider web. She escapes and joins in the battle taking place at the castle. Sunny frees the Sugar Plum Fairy, Dawn, and (at the Sugar Plum Fairy's insistence) the love-stricken forest creatures that imp had hit with the love potion.
In the escape, Bog seemingly sacrifices himself by holding the mouth of his den open long enough for everyone to escape. He survives, to Marianne's relief, and Sunny reveals his true feelings to Dawn, who then reciprocates them, breaking the love potion's spell over her and they kiss, to her father's surprise. Roland sprays Marianne with the love potion, who pretends to fall in love with him, only to suddenly punch him and send him off the chasm, being hit by the love potion in the process.
Marianne and Bog, at the insistence of Dawn and his mother, finally admit their feelings for each other and kiss.

Review: 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....
No, it's definitely not going to sit well with people who hate musicals and a little sappiness, but overall it's a pretty likable movie that isn't anywhere near deserving the amount of hate that it is getting.
I love the originality of this film even though in some places it does look a bit like 'Epic' however the story line is unique.
It's a little bit of a love story with a twist that my kids definitely thought was different..
For sure not the Disney uber techno whatever that most people expect from animation these days but I enjoyed it and was not disappointed at letting my 8,10, aw yr olds watch this.
I haven't seen any in between, but the story pulls one in and for those who've experienced anything like the main characters went through then this is a story you'll definitely want to watch.
I like the animation, the characters were fun and gosh the songs are so good (some of them are great classics)!!
I love the songs they sing in the movie ..I really do recommend it .....you might find it very entertaining even for an adult and I'm 30 by the way P.s. I think it's really dumb I'm not allowed to shout in my summery If I feel like shouting how much I liked this movie, I think I should be allowed to shout it out lol.
Because the movie is packed with innovative arrangements (and I must say some wonderful performances) of popular songs old and new, the story must remain simple, but it is not only solid, it incorporates some very funny as well as some sparkling and simultaneously touching moments.
I was NOT expecting this to be a Musical (you barely get to be familiar with the characters and setting animation when its one song after another)and I was about halfway through the movie and mentally writing a scathing review for IMDb, when the Storyline grabbed me in and swept me through until the predictable end.
Why don't you guys actually watch it and say what you honestly think...and why don't you go to the movie planning to like it, and try to have a good time like most movie goers would and unlike the critics who clearly decided to hate it before they saw it?
I know a lot of people have said bad things about this movie, but if you haven't given it an honest chance and watched it with an open mind, it's your loss.Wonderful movie full of adventure and fantasy.
I know a lot of people have said bad things about this movie, but if you haven't given it an honest chance and watched it with an open mind, it's your loss.Yep. My review is so nice, I said it twice!
The initial negative critical reception of "Strange Magic" is a perfect example of how such mismatched critical expectation can wreak havoc on a perfectly entertaining movie.With a colorful, over-the-top cast of characters with ticklish absurdity, and seamlessly integrated pop-rock karaoke performances, "Strange Magic" is an entertaining oddball sketch of the early millennial spirit wrapped into "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The film is a crowd pleasing cult classic in the spirit of "Willow.".
There is something incredibly beautiful, fun and spiritual going on with this movie that has been a pet project of George Lucas for 15 years, crafted as a storyteller's gift to his daughters, an ode to love in stark contrast to his career's fame for boy war fantasies.
If you want to watch Indiana Jones or Star Wars go watch those movies and leave this to people who like musicals.
Yeah, the poster tells us "Everyone Deserves to Be Loved" (to which I reply, "Here,Here!"), but if you're going to make your point by placing only the ugly characters in your movie on the poster and putting the ugliest of the ugly (even if they have only minor roles in the actual film) front and center, expect to turn some people off.
The animation is so good that I often felt like I was watching a 3-D movie!
It is a very beautiful movie to watch, the characters and colors are wonderful and they do a nice job with the various creatures.
Plenty for the younger ones to enjoy with bright beautiful animation, fairies, fantastic songs, and a scene stealing bad guy in the Bog King.
Great vocals, fun soundtrack, beautiful visuals, and a love story that isn't cut- and- paste from every other princess movie you've ever seen...
It has beautiful animation and it's a great music; I really love their version of "Three Little Birds" and "I Can't Help Myself ".
I understand why they did it from a business point of view, because of the popularity of things like Glee, but I feel it's lazy not writing your own songs and I hope this is not a new trend for animated films, Especially in animated films which, thanks to the Disney formula, we expect original content with the music composition instead of ripping off contemporary songs.
Something that could have been better achieved with smoother transitions and more character building.as it stands there is no emotional link to the characters from scene to scene because they are ether paper flat or emotionally all over the map with little to no reason.this is just a grab at trying to make something like Brave or Frozen, with no consideration to what actually made those movies work.because of this the plot looks something written in a mental patient's journal, has no closure, and ends up doing nothing well.The actors voices are fine, the art is great, but I would scrap the script and re-voice the whole thing..
Didn't expect much, seeing as the trailer did look absolutely awful, but when babysitting a family friend's four children (aged 15, 13, 11 and 9) while their parents went away they opted to watch the recently released on DVD Strange Magic.
The verdict from all of us was while it was not as bad as the trailer looked or quite the abomination that critics made out, it was not a good film and had a lot of faults.Strange Magic did have some redeeming merits.
Kelly Clarkson's song and the song sung by Roland at the ball are the only songs that come off well, at least they didn't sound butchered and the singing was quite decent for both, and Alan Cumming and Evan Rachel Wood are the ones that come off best in the voice cast, both give their all are very good in this film and their chemistry is actually enjoyable to watch.Unfortunately, while the voice cast are incredibly talented and give their all (most of them don't come off too badly), their talents are not very well used in this film with most of them saddled with very limp and not particularly funny dialogue that is likely to go over children's heads, very forced and stale jokes (apart from Griselda's wanting a wedding but instead getting a funeral line) and dull and annoying characters that are difficult to connect with.
The problems are the ghastly arrangements, that change some of them beyond recognition and strip them of their initial charm (instead making them little more than constant chaotic noise, the slower songs are so self-indulgently show they could induce boredom), and their placement, most of them misplaced, coming out of nowhere and grind the film to a screeching halt, often feeling like too much music (almost like a music video) and not enough story or characterisation.The story is far too muddled as a result of trying to do too much, Marianne's quest is at odds with everything else and lacks emotional impact or heart, the themes and characterisation are far too disconnected, a lot of half-baked ideas with abrupt transitions and the busier, noisier parts feel too frenetic for their good.
You get caught up in "how did they know this music?" and it really takes your mind out of the moment, that's not a good thing when you want to keep your audience focused on the story.
Most of the creatures were decent enough as you sort of expect "ugly" to be what you see when you think of trolls or goblins or any manner of strange thing that isn't human.The story itself was good, but it did seem to drag on a bit, there are points where you will be thinking "oh, they're gonna wrap this up pretty quick" and then find out that you're only half way through the movie.
Overall, it's just a basic love story, nothing really new or exciting except it's fairies and creatures.Not a terrible movie, not the best either, it does fall somewhere in between.
The animation is great and the realistic textures makes the sceneries really wonderful to watch,Only two things stop me from really loving this movie: 1.
Especially the shadows on their face around their mouth looks weird.Over all it's still a good movie, but you can tell these choices leave both kids and adults alike uninterested and not actually paying attention, which is unfortunate..
The movie opens with Marianne (Evan Rachel Wood), a fairy princess, flying around on her wedding day in jovial bliss singing Elvis Presley's "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You." She briefly wanders into the wrong part of the forest so we can meet the antagonist, The Bog King (Alan Cummings), only to return to her rightful place and continue the song in a duet with her groom-to-be Roland (Sam Palladio).
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.
A case in point is "Strange Magic," a decidedly low-grade entry in the genre that is as leaden as it is uninvolving, as earthbound as it is unmemorable.The story is loosely based on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," a tale of two lands - one good, one evil - filled with fairies and imps and all sorts of other fantastic creatures falling in love and doing battle with one another.Probably the most distinctive aspect of the movie is that, rather than spending money on a score of its own, the makers of "Strange Magic" have instead opted to fork out the royalty fees for a dozen or so recognizable pop tunes from the 1950s to the present day (including, of course, ELO's "Strange Magic").
Beyond the score, the mise-en-scene is dark, dank and claustrophobic, and the screenplay, based on an idea by none other than George Lucas himself, is strangely lacking in originality and humor.The heavy emphasis on the love aspects of the tale, as well as the aforementioned over-abundance of musical sequences, will likely make the movie's target audience both listless and fidgety throughout..
However, when the love potion is stole from the forest, the Bog King (Alan Cumming), a despicable, ugly creature from the dark part of the forest, takes Dawn as a hostage until he gets the potion back to destroy the fabric of love in the kingdom, Marianne and her pal Sunny (Elijah Kelley) work to try and negotiate with the Bog King to get Marianne's sister back.George Lucas, who crafted the story for Strange Magic and allowed the film to be released on his Lucasfilm platform, has stated that Strange Magic serves as Star Wars for teenage girls.
Strange Magic rushes through all the development to focus on cookie-cutter characters and a hodgepodge of babble between them that it barely has time to work with what it has in any way that comes off as memorable.Another problem is the characters here, all of whom basic archetypes - fairies and grotesque-looking creatures, none of which ever breaking their mold into something worthwhile (or worth watching for that matter).
In an age where animated films are cast in a different light thanks to the progressive Pixar and DreamWorks in terms of storytelling and thematic weight, to focus yet another story on fairies and goblins and not provide them with any substance is like returning to the traditions of decades past that have proved to be defunct and unsuccessful.The characters are even more sacrificed in terms of substance when they have to break out in song, however, not songs written especially for the film - mainstream pop hits that are covered by the voice actors in the film, some multiple times throughout the course of the film.
Furthermore, the themes presented in Strange Magic about love find themselves having some merit (the idea that the idea of love shouldn't be discarded because of one mishap or shortcoming is a fairly original idea for an animated film), but are so muddled beneath layers of tiresome musical numbers and grotesque characters with little to say that it makes an hope of this film resonating on a deeper level completely hopeless.Voiced by: Evan Rachel Wood, Meredith Anne Bull, Elijah Kelley, Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph, Alfred Molina, and Sam Palladio.
But the music is unenjoyable, which is a big down side if your movie is basically a musicale.Its a pity cause I think the trailer was actually fun to watch, notable to mention the trailer almost have every moment when they not singing.
I am having trouble deciding whether it was intended that these fairies were making these songs up or if they'd heard them from humans (I don't recall any sign of humans in the film).However the animation was pretty and the character designs were cool.And I really liked the character of Sunny.
The film, for me, was enjoyable and entertaining from start to finish and I must admit I would have liked to have seen what happened next (although it did end at a good point).
It's as if this movie was tailor-made to annoy me.If you like character inconsistencies, plot holes, unfunny jokes, and uncanny valley faces, then this movie is for you.Sorry George, but your animated musical stinks..
Although my mood was completely killed by the constant musicals from dreadful pop songs -my boyfriend couldn't stand it after 8 minutes into the movie so I was left alone to watch it- the cheesiness and cliché plot, I really enjoyed the graphics, effects, colors, excellent effort put into the backgrounds and animation, all of the characters, the silly humor.
But if you're the kinda person that really likes musicals and cheesy plots, happy endings, love etc, you'll definitely like this movie!
The title gives it away, "Strange Magic." It's not called "Beautiful Magic" so enjoy the strange and unique quality of an entertaining movie that is filled with music from multiple eras and genres put together in a way that makes them all belong together.
And the soundtrack isn't bad, it's just a little annoying there being quite so many songs when a bit of dialogue here and there would give the viewer a break, help flesh the story out, and perhaps even make the musical interludes more enjoyable.
So aside from too many songs, basic plot, and some nice animation, is the film worth watching?
Beautiful graphics, but an excessive singing, characters which are too hideous or exaggerated, and a love story which is basically gross makes this movie unwatchable for adults and totally inappropriate for children.
So it starts off with singing and i'm like, "Ok, I can get into this and look at the HD Graphics!" But then, we went through 5 different songs from each different character (who couldn't apparently finish their sentences without getting interrupted in song) within the first 10 minutes of the movie!!
Unfortunately here, I couldn't really really root for any.On top of it all, a predictable plot plus too many loose ends.On the plus side, if you really enjoy animations, like me, forget about what's going on in the movie & just watch the immaculate animation.
I enjoyed most of it; parts of it are painful to watch but at least the music is good and it's an inspiring tale for kids.Wood stars as Marianne; a princess in the Fairy Kingdom, who's also next in line for the throne.
I'm a 90's kid so I'm used to music in movies but I thought this was a little too much, but somewhere along the way I completely fell in love with the movie.
While I'm in love with this movie I still would've liked to see some more action.
She just loved it and enjoyed it throughout.Great movie I'd like to see more of those!.
It is done elegantly and the music is not cheesy like most animated movies seem to be.