Strange Magic (January 23, 2015)

This is Lucasfilm Animation’s first and only film. It was not well received by critics and did abysmal at the box office. Knowing this, I did not have high expectations. The movie begins with a pop song number (a very common theme) with little exposition or world building beforehand. The plot of the movie is about a fairy queen named Marianne who finds out she was being cheated on right before her wedding and so has sworn off all men. In contrast, her sister, Dawn, is searching for her soulmate. Her sister’s friend, Sunny (who is an elf) is in love with her, but his love is not reciprocated. Marianne’s ex-fiancé only wanted to marry her to become king and thus hatches a plot to force her to fall back in love with him. He decides to create a love potion and deceives Sunny into venturing into the Dark Forest, ruled by the Bog King, to procure a forbidden flower which is used to make the potion. If it sounds like this plot is convoluted that is because it is, unnecessarily. It is hard to keep track of all of these characters and moving parts and I had no desire to except for the purpose of writing this review. Moving on, the animation design is ugly and low quality. The editing and cinematography are akin to a low-quality music video. The movie fails to make me care about the characters as they are all simplistic and as interesting as white bread (and just as intelligent!) A strange romance develops between Marianne and the Bog King and it is more unsettling than sweet. But the singing... oh, the singing. It is horrendous. You cannot escape it as it permeates every facet of this movie. The singing is not even good, and the song choice is even worse, overplayed, and cliqued. The budget must have been used on licensing songs because it clearly was not used elsewhere. The aesthetic reminds me of the movie, Epic, which was released two years earlier, albeit a bargain bin rip off of it. It is not worth watching Strange Magic for any reason; it is an unenjoyable train wreck and the easily worst movie I have had the unfortunate pleasure of watching during this disney marathon.

Final Rating: 0/10