Strange Magic (2015)

2015 • 99 minutes

About this movie

A madcap fairy tale musical inspired by "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Popular songs from the past six decades help tell the tale of a colorful cast of goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their hilarious misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion. Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and Industrial Light & Magic, which created the CGI animation for 2011's Academy Award®-winning film "Rango," bring to life the fanciful forest turned upside down with world-class animation and visual effects.

Ratings and reviews

At the end when she sensually ran her fingers up Bog's spine from his tailbone to his shoulders, shortly before the rainbow barf kaleidoscope rock song sequence and Bog's PG-rating orgasm, I genuinely wanted to gouge my eyes out. This is, without a doubt, the most horrific abomination that I ever had the displeasure of seeing in my life, and I recommend it only to those who are like me and find entertainment in the cringe of watching painfully bad movies. If you are one of these people, then by all means, but you still might be in over your head. The cover songs are abysmal, similar in nature to a theoretical situation where Kidz Bop meets early 2000s Beyonce (and they DO sample Beyonce, by the way). There is very little character growth, and the most dramatic thing that happens to a character is a bad breakup after someone is caught kissing another, which sets in stone the villain of the movie only a couple minutes into the first act. One can correctly predict the absolute entirety of the movie after this, based on information from the first act and trailer alone. I'm not that bothered by the CGI. It would be a very beautiful movie if it weren't for the cringe antics of the characters and their ceaseless quest for love. Not to be too revealing of the ending, but I don't think it's feasible to have a main character girl who lectures everyone on the legitimacy of their romance when she falls in love with a locust man after knowing him for, quite literally, a few hours. Also, he kidnapped her sister. "Strange" doesn't even scratch the surface.

Had potential to be more. Great songs were taken and poorly utilized degrading them to less than they really are. The animation could have used more fine-tuning and the character designs seemed stiff at times when they could have included more fluidity. At best it was cute and my four year old neice likes that there are fairies making it alright to have rented, but I'm not sure if I'll be buying this one unless it goes on sale for $5 or less.

With visuals that will make any good CG artist cringe, but go unnoticed by the crowd of unknowing children (and some adults), comes an incredibly predictable story with some of the worst songs I've heard in a long time. With jokes that you can see coming as soon as they are set up, I only smiled once: When the movie was finally over. I am never watching it again. It's a harmless enough movie, and there where obviously some talented people involved in creating the visuals, but the direction and the design of the main characters went wrong somewhere. And the songs... **snore** are simple enough, with reasonable beats, but there is nothing exciting or thought-provoking about them. Some where definitely created just so they can sell a soundtrack. The story is dull and unexciting, and obviously cashing in on the designs and themes of Epic (2013). (which I had fewer problems with) For all you artists out there... This movie is the embodiment of both The Uncanny Valley, and bad character design. Excellent details, bad impression. All in all... Your kids will probably enjoy it the first time they watch it. RENT IT FIRST (or look for it online), you'll be happy you saved your money.