What is with all the kissing and touching and sensuality? Love potions coming and going. Lovers here and there. Wedding arrangements. This is a good theme for Adults or teenagers and Valentine's Day! But not for younger children...
I can't stand watching this film more than once! I'm giving it a 5 because I don't want to watch this film again and because I wish I had not taken my 10 year old daughter to see it.
At about 45 minutes into a dragging and boring film, finally the adventure began. But for the first 45 minutes my eyes were just watching. My brain was processing but nothing relayed to my heart. No laughs. No tears. No cheers. I wondered, Where is this stunning and weird animation with no-clear story going to?
I couldn't connect with the characters. Only the bad guy--Bog King had an interesting personality and some depth. He is the best "actor" of the movie. Also, I found many of the characters quite repulsive. Even the fairies with their lifelike skin were creepy.
Some of the animation was certainly fascinating: amazing life-like arthropods and realistically-rendered inhabitants of the fantastical forest floor world. The butterfly and moth wings were so detailed—with scales and velvet textures. And the ferns, wow! The myriad of strange creatures and fairies with the pretty wings fluttering around is all quite entertaining to watch. I particularly loved the Yoda-looking squeaky critter.
Overall, I found the fairies quite annoying—and their singing even worse. Ughh!! The loud and chaotic bursts of old songs mixed with opera-style rock were hard to tolerate. The film does have an eclectic selection of music, but the arranging of the parts is inelegant and distasteful.
At times, Strange Magic mixed bits of Fantasia (old school Disney), bits of Shrek, and bits of Epic.
The movie does have one message (which is hardly relevant to children): "...Real love is more powerful than love potions..." Is a love potion a metaphor for something else? Perhaps it's a metaphor for all the things people do to force love. Love cannot be forced. It must come from the heart. Love is honest. Adults are the ones that manipulate love, children are honest. I read that George Lucas' idea behind the film was to show that true love can happen between the beautiful and the ugly: because what matters is the beauty inside. By the end of the film, we learn this. But the negative message with the pervasive "love potion" and "dating" taint G. Lucas' good intention.
The movie does have some action scenes with striking visuals, good acting (the villain and the fairy). Bog King (the villain) gives a great performance and has a character arc--he changes. The main character fairy changes too.
Watch with caution.
Cheers!
I can't stand watching this film more than once! I'm giving it a 5 because I don't want to watch this film again and because I wish I had not taken my 10 year old daughter to see it.
At about 45 minutes into a dragging and boring film, finally the adventure began. But for the first 45 minutes my eyes were just watching. My brain was processing but nothing relayed to my heart. No laughs. No tears. No cheers. I wondered, Where is this stunning and weird animation with no-clear story going to?
I couldn't connect with the characters. Only the bad guy--Bog King had an interesting personality and some depth. He is the best "actor" of the movie. Also, I found many of the characters quite repulsive. Even the fairies with their lifelike skin were creepy.
Some of the animation was certainly fascinating: amazing life-like arthropods and realistically-rendered inhabitants of the fantastical forest floor world. The butterfly and moth wings were so detailed—with scales and velvet textures. And the ferns, wow! The myriad of strange creatures and fairies with the pretty wings fluttering around is all quite entertaining to watch. I particularly loved the Yoda-looking squeaky critter.
Overall, I found the fairies quite annoying—and their singing even worse. Ughh!! The loud and chaotic bursts of old songs mixed with opera-style rock were hard to tolerate. The film does have an eclectic selection of music, but the arranging of the parts is inelegant and distasteful.
At times, Strange Magic mixed bits of Fantasia (old school Disney), bits of Shrek, and bits of Epic.
The movie does have one message (which is hardly relevant to children): "...Real love is more powerful than love potions..." Is a love potion a metaphor for something else? Perhaps it's a metaphor for all the things people do to force love. Love cannot be forced. It must come from the heart. Love is honest. Adults are the ones that manipulate love, children are honest. I read that George Lucas' idea behind the film was to show that true love can happen between the beautiful and the ugly: because what matters is the beauty inside. By the end of the film, we learn this. But the negative message with the pervasive "love potion" and "dating" taint G. Lucas' good intention.
The movie does have some action scenes with striking visuals, good acting (the villain and the fairy). Bog King (the villain) gives a great performance and has a character arc--he changes. The main character fairy changes too.
Watch with caution.
Cheers!