There is a magical realm that is split up between
the
fairies of light and the bog creatures in the Dark
Forest. Marianne (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood), a
fairy princess and heir to the throne, finds out that her husband-to-be Roland
is a cheating and power hungry warrior and she calls off the wedding. She
vows never to love again while the Bog
King is determined to make sure no one uses the Primrose Flowers will grow on
the border between the two kingdoms are never used to make a love potion. On
the day of the Spring Ball, Sunny the elf
agrees to help Roland to make a love potion (which means sneaking into the Dark
Forest to visit the Sugar Plum
Fairy) as Roland wants the throne and his army badly. Sunny is hopelessly
in love with Marianne’s
sister Dawn (who wonders what boy she could meet at the Spring Ball). Sunny’s
actions leads to Dawn being
kidnapped by the Bog King as Roland and Marianne mount their own separate
rescue missions.
STRANGE MAGIC is an odd and delightful animated
musical. It is a Shakespearean animated
fairy tale musical. George Lucas wanted
a story where the parable of it is that everyone deserves to be loved no matter
how different they could be. The script
probably works since George Lucas collaborated with other writers to get the
vision of what he wanted (plus it has a better love story than the STAR
WARS prequel trilogy). It
is destined to be a cult film among teens
and adults where some of the love stuff might be over some the heads of some
children.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
CREATING THE MAGIC- a 5 ½ minute promotional
featurette that
has interviews with the voice cast and crew including George Lucas wanting to
do something different and fun
MAGICAL MASHUP- it is a mix of outtakes, animation
tests,
and footage from the music recording sessions
FINAL ANALYSIS: STRANGE MAGIC is a nice different
kind of
animation movie that some will enjoy as this will be a cult movie in years to
come.
This review is ©5-25-2015
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
to feedback@enterline-media.com