Let's just get this off the bat. Love animation, some are among my favourite films ever. Love fairy tales and have done since childhood. Loved the idea of mixing fairy tale characters together. Love musicals, always have done despite it being a maligned genre on IMDb.
So part of me really wanted 'The Magic Riddle' to be good, with all that being considered. Wanted it to be one of those underseen, underrated gems that were easy to defend. Sadly, 'The Magic Riddle' didn't do it for me, didn't care for it much as a child and care for it even less through adult eyes. Just for the record, this is coming from somebody who has been known to defend poorly received films, animated or not while understanding why most would find fault with them, and have gone against the grain more than once, though usually critics and me are on similar pages.
'The Magic Riddle' is not a terrible film, it just isn't a particularly good one either. Loved the idea of mixing fairy tales/popular stories and their characters (who doesn't), but it is not exactly a fresh idea and has been done far better with much more wit, charm and magic in Sondheim's 'Into the Woods' and the 'Shrek' films.
A few things in 'The Magic Riddle's' favour. There are a few good songs, the beautiful, tear-jerking "Ordinary Miracles" and Cindy's song to the ugly duckling faring the best.
Cindy is a very likable protagonist, the best animated character (which is saying a lot) and the most interesting.
The ugly duckling is adorable and the grandmother is endearingly befuddled and luckily doesn't over-explain all that goes on.
However, while marginally more polished than some of Yoram Gross' other work the animation is too often rather ugly to look at, constantly looking like it was made in haste with the character designs and very flatly coloured. Only with Cindy and some nicely detailed backgrounds does it become above serviceable.
"Ordinary Miracles" and Cindy's song to the ugly duckling aside, as well as a suitably whimsical and sometimes atmospheric incidental score, the rest of the songs are filled with cheese, basic rhymes and are either forgettable but also derivative. This is including one of the most blatantly obvious and poorly written villain songs in all animation.
Cindy aside, the characters don't really engage. Phillippe has very little personality, Pinocchio is very annoying and the villain, generically named as The Widow, couldn't be less menacing or hideously animated if she tried. The other fairy tale characters are fun to spot but feel underused.
Parts of the writing are funny, too much of it is cheesy and chaotic and highly suggestive due to the inconsistent and muddled nature of more than one writer being involved. The story is confusingly messy and feels very over-stretched, complete with plot strands that either feel underdeveloped or pointless.
While one admires that only two or three people were involved with the voice acting, it is a very mixed bag, Cindy is good but other voices really don't fit the characters or grate, especially Pinocchio.
All in all, less than magical and didn't do much for me. 4/10 Bethany Cox
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