LucasFilm’s “Strange Magic” is an animated musical, which is now playing.
The film takes place in a land where there is both a light and dark side. On the light side, magical fairies live in peace with each other. They love to sing very cheery and uplifting songs. On the dark side of the land, however, there are ugly trolls and goblins who hate everything. They especially hate the idea of love. It is on this land that magical flowers grow. When made with a secret formula, these flowers can be transformed into a love potion.
With this in mind, the film follows the story of a fairy princess named Marianne (Evan Rachel Wood) and how she deals with a broken heart when her fiancé Roland (Sam Palladio) cheats on her with another fairy. With his path to the crown broken, however, Roland manipulates a lovestruck elf to get him a love potion, so he can use it to make Marianne fall in love with him. Along the way though, the lord of the dark side, The Bog King, invades the light side and kidnaps Marianne’s sister, Dawn (Meredith Bull) and it is up to Marianne to go and save her sister. But when she sets out to save her sister she may find herself falling in love with this person.
The music is awesome in the film. “Strange Magic” exposes kids to a different genres and eras of music. One of our favorite songs was “Strange Magic.” You will walk out of the theater humming the tune or trying to remember all the lyrics so that you can sing your own rendition of it. We loved that this film is a musical. The song placement was amazing and really helped propel the story forward.
What is great about this film is that it’s not only a kid’s film but adults can enjoy it as well. The story’s main focus is on love and how you can find love in the most unexpected places. Marianne’s heart was broken by her self-centered ex fiancé Roland in the beginning of the film, but towards the end she finds herself able to love again which is a great lesson to teach kids at an early age.
Similarly, one of the major themes of the movie is it’s important to love someone for who they are on the inside. It teaches kids to embrace themselves and to love the things that make them unique. Love is the main theme in the movie but unlike a lot of other movies that talk about love so loosely, “Strange Magic” does a phenomenal job of really digging deeper when it comes to the concept of loving yourself and someone else.
-Vinesh Vora
