"Strange Magic" Movie Review

For my next couple of reviews I'm going to pay attention to one of the greatest playwrights and poets of all time; William Shakespeare. His words have transcended not only the ages, but also into different parts of our classic and contemporary culture. It's no surprise that The Bard's works would eventually wind up on the Silver Screen either in faithful adaptation or as inspiration for other stories to flourish. "Strange Magic" is one such story that is roughly based on "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

"Strange Magic" was originally a story George Lucas came up with as a romantic girl-friendly version of Star Wars for his daughters. The film itself is a Shakespearean-inspired fairy tale that is also a musical, with all of its songs being made up of different pop and classic rock songs. Think "A Knight's Tale" with added enchantment. Back in 2012 when Lucas sold Lucas Film LTD to Disney, his animation studio was included in the deal. "Strange Magic" was in the middle of production, so Disney also inherited the movie.

The film opens up with a little prologue introducing the land the story will be taking place in. There's the Fairy Kingdom, and The Dark Forest; both are separated by a line of primroses that grow along the borders of the two lands. The leader of the Dark Forest, The Bog King (played by the amazing Alan Cumming), routinely orders the destruction of the primroses as they are a key ingredient needed to make love potions and love is something he detests. In his quest to snuff out love, he has also taken the Sugar Plum Fairy (Kristen Chenoweth) prisoner, as she is the only one who can make love potions.

We're then introduced to the main character of the story, the fairy princess Marianne (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood) who is engaged to be married to a fairy knight Roland (Sam Palladio).

Marianne [found on Google Images]

After Marianne discovers her knight in shining armor isn't who she thought he was, she calls off the wedding and rejects the idea of finding love and turns her focus to being independent and self reliant, while at the same time trying to keep her younger boy-crazy sister Dawn (Meredith Anne Bull) from making the same mistake she had made when it came to love. Dawn's best friend Sunny (Elijah Kelly) is an elf, who is in unrequited love with her, gets tricked by Roland into going into the Bog King's lair and getting a love potion from the Sugar Plum Fairy. The Bog King finds out a love potion was created and was smuggled out of his lair and into the Fairy Kingdom, and he goes to hunt it down, and in the process kidnaps Dawn and holds her ransom until the potion is returned to him. This leads Marianne, Sunny, and Roland and others on a mission to bring back Dawn, but in true "A Midsummer Night's Dream" fashion, hi jinx involving a misplaced love potion arise and add extra chaos to the quest.



It was released in January 2015 from Touchstone Pictures and the film did not do well at the box office and received lukewarm response from audiences and critics alike. While the main focus of the film is love, many felt that this film had little to no heart. All of the romantic tropes presented in the story line really aren't fully explored and in some cases they become more like

Dawn defending the Bog King [found on
Google Images]

stereotypes; which is a missed opportunity because the characters and the story did indeed have a lot of potential. Also, a lot of movie goers weren't too thrilled with the music in the film; all of the songs were covers of different famous songs such as Mistreated, C'mon Marianne, Three Little Birds, etc, and many said that the songs' arrangements were lacking in originality. On top of all of that, this type of story has been done to death in cinema and it really doesn't bring anything new to the playing field that sets it apart from similar stories. All of these complaints are valid; but I do feel there are some really good points to this film that are actually worth checking out.

I feel that while this movie really is a pretty simple love story and an even simpler fairy tale, it's no where near as terrible as a lot of critics make it sound. The animation, for one, is absolutely beautiful. As with any George Lucas movie or story, the world he creates is not only simple in concept (light and dark) but it's really rich and interesting to look at while the characters traverse through it. The character designs are also pretty impressive; while the fairy characters are the most visually grabbing due to their pretty colors, the movie also plays around with cool, psychedelic wing tricks from the characters which is well worth checking out alone, if just for the sake of seeing interesting animation. Also, the best design, character and performance award all goes to the Bog King. Visually, he is so unappealing he's appealing; you can tell the animation team really went to great lengths for coming up with his design. Also, Alan Cumming

not only brings a hard and harsh air to the character, but he also adds a complexity to him that's pretty fun to watch; and as an added bonus, the man can sing and he probably has the best lines in the movie. While the rest of the characters are pretty fun, hands down, I think the Bog King is the best in the film. If anything, you should check out the film just for him. Also, I thought the songs were rather enjoyable. They were a bit like Glee musical numbers, but I don't think that's a bad thing, as the songs add a little more storytelling to the film, in true musical fashion. 

In final prospective, I would give "Strange Magic" a 3.5/5 rating; while it's really not the most original story we've heard before, it's still worth looking into. While it's no where near the level of "Shrek", "Beauty and the Beast" or even "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for that matter, it's also still not bad enough to be lumped together with horrid animated films like"Delgo", "Norm of the North", "Chicken Little", or "Mars Needs Moms". THOSE movies have a special place in animated movie hell. At worst "Strange Magic" could be in limbo.

"Into The Woods" Movie Review

[Originally posted Jan. 19th, 2015]

"Into the Woods" is the newest musical romp brought to the big screen by Disney. This stage-to-screen adaptation is directed by Rob Marshall, the Oscar award winning director of "Chicago", and the producers of the Tony Award winning musical "Wicked". "Into the Woods" follows the interweaving stories of a baker and his wife, as well as various fairy tale characters who are all on a quest to get the things they want.

The story of "Into the Woods" stays true to a lot of the original source material (by that I mean it stays true to the Brothers' Grimm stories), which I personally feel was a bold move for Disney to take since they've basically been responsible for pioneering and monopolizing what we all know when it comes to fairy tales. For those who don't know, fairy tales were originally created to be used as a way of teaching kids about the harsh realities of the world around them. The Broadway production of "Into the Woods" embraced that form of story telling through lyrical songs and an interweaving story lines that bring each of the stories' perspectives into one cohesive web of wisdom, I guess you could say.

THE PLOT:

The story, as I mentioned, follows the stories of multiple different fairy tale characters. The movie starts with Cinderella wishing she could go to the king's festival, Jack and his mother discussing selling their cow, Red Riding Hood getting ready to go see her granny in the woods, and a baker and his wife wishing they had a child. As the baker and his wife are working in the bakery, their neighbor who just so happens to be a witch, busts in the door, and tells them that there is a curse that was placed on their household that will prevent them from ever having children. The witch, however, says that if they can gather different items for her in 3 days time before the Blue Moon, she will reverse the curse and they can get a child. The items consist of a cape as red as blood, a cow as white as milk, a slipper as pure as gold, and hair as yellow as corn.

So yeah, basically the story is an A-typical magical scavenger hunt, and the movie seems to give every character an arch, and everyone gets their wish at the end. Seems, being the key word there.

The first half of the movie is the whimsical, fun and fairy-taleish portion of the story. The second half however is when most of the symbolism comes into play and shit gets real. Upon doing

The Baker and his Wife meet Jack in the woods
[found on Google Images]

some research into the history of the play I learned that while it has been a Broadway success and he been taken to different theatres around the world, as well as been a production for local drama troups and high schools alike, sometimes the 2nd act is never preformed- a lot of people just cut it off at the conclusion of the first because the dreary and destructive tone of the 2nd act would be a "buzzkill" or a "downer" for the audience to sit through. True, the 2nd half is a lot more serious than the first, I believe that is where a lot of the symbolism comes into play in the story, as well as showing the audience that yes, good things happen and wishes come true. But, you need to be careful what you wish for, because sometimes it can bring about unforeseen consequences. And even if everything seems bleak there is always, always, ALWAYS hope.

Now, I'm not saying that the rest of the story isn't chock full of symbolism, however. For example, let's look at the story of Red Riding Hood. The originally story was used as an allegory of a girl becoming sexually mature (red cape- hello!) and losing her virginity to a stanger. Back in the day, this wasn't proper behavior, but it used story telling to prepare girls for this very real experience that is something they would have to face in their adult lives. Now, normally the story is portrayed as purely metaphorical. In "Into The Woods" they do NOT beat around the bush with that shit. The wolf, who is played by a zoot suit wearing Johnny Depp, is BARELY subtle with his performance. Great and totally enjoyable, but it's clear what he's wanting Red for. Eating, of course! *cough cough* And in the musical number "I Know Things Now" Red recounts her experience with the wolf to the Baker who rescued her by describing it as exciting and scary. I'm pretty sure we can all say that about our first times getting sexual, amiright?

The other characters are also just as allegorical in concept. Let's look at Cinderella for example. Over the course of the story, she starts off as a wishful girl who is stuck in a situation

Rapunzel [found on Google Images]

that is less desirable. She gets a chance to experience something much better than she had before, but can't decide if that's what she really wants. By the end of the story, she learns who she is, what her boundaries are, and finds peace with that instead of being a wishy-washy type of girl.

Jack represents the essence of all little boys- adventurous, curious, and again, daydreamie and wishful. However, he doesn't exactly think about the repercussions of his actions, and actually gets into huge trouble because of his actions. So his character arch really revolves around taking accountability with his actions.

The baker's wife also sees an important shift of her character as she is probably the most morally questionable character of the story, as she will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Which is something we've all been taught to root for when it comes to fairy tales, but as she learns, sometimes you will be able to get what you want, but sometimes you don't realize what blessings you have and take them for granted because you just keep wanting more and more. Emily Blunt brings this character to life, and you just can't help but sympathize with her character.

And my personal favorite character would have to be the witch played by the amazing Meryl Streep. This character not only works as a ticking clock, the comedic relief, but she also has a lot of the more emotional moments in the movie. I'm not one to cry in a movie, but I really teared up during her performance of "Stay With Me", where she's basically telling her daughter (Rapunzel) who is getting older and wanting to see the world, that she loves her and that she doesn't want her to leave the comfort of home and her loving embrace. True, she doesn't go about parenting the best way, but in reality, what parent doesn't make mistakes? What parent

Meryl Streep as The Witch and James Corden as The Baker
[found on Google Images]

doesn't try their hardest to make sure their kids are safe and away from harm? True, she goes to an extreme about it, but really, what parent can honestly say that taking their child's protection to an extreme hasn't crossed their minds at least once?

And while I'm on the subject of parenting, there is an almost universal theme with this musical when it comes to mothers. Each character whether they themselves are mothers, or they are have mothers, they miss their mothers, whatever- there is a deep maternal feeling to the movie. In the second act of the play when death and destruction are everywhere, the motherly characters we were introduced to in the 1st half of the play all die. But it's when they leave, they also pave the way for the other characters to step up and become mature, and sometimes motherly figures themselves.


Ultimately, I've got to give this movie 5 stars. It's brilliantly written, brilliantly acted, brilliantly performed- it was great. A lot of people have been fairly split when it comes to this movie, and I don't want to come across as snooty or whatever, but they clearly didn't see the movie for what it was supposed to be. It's not a story about specific characters- if you want that, stick with the Disney versions of the fairy tales. Not that there's anything wrong with the Disney fairy tales- they took the base material of the story, and added relatable characters that you can see grow in the course of the film. While "Into the Woods" does have characters, they're more figurative and not so much actual. While Disney's Cinderella is a relatable CHARACTER, the "Into the Woods" Cinderella is a relatable SITUATION. Each of the characters aren't so much a character, just a personification of a situation or lesson everyone has to learn. Of course, this is all my opinion so feel free to take it or leave it.

All in all, great movie- well worth checking out.