Strange Magic is one of those animated features that you look at and think, “WOW! The animation is great!” It also has a soundtrack that Baby Boomers will go gaga over. Elvis, Heart, The Troggs and a whole host of others 1950s thru 1970s classics have been adapted to make this flick the Rock of Ages of animation. Just like Rock of Ages, a couple of lines of each song are spoken or hummed before going into a full on musical number that does little to advance the story.
Here’s the gist. Pretty fairy gets cheated on by overly handsome fairy who is in love with being king more than her. She gets cheated on and swears off love forever. Jerk pretty boy fairy can’t take no for an answer, tricks an elf who’s in love with her sister to get the magic love potion from the Sugar Plum Fairy to use on the princess to gain power all the while she meets the Bug King who is even more jaded about love but who’s mother is pushing for him to get married.
George Lucas’ swan song is a dead duck. The story of the Bug King who falls in love with a beautiful fairy princess proves that no matter how ugly of a man you are, if you have money and power, you’ll always get the hot chick.
I did enjoy a couple of the adaptations from some of the classic tunes and the voice actors were impressive, but 10 minutes in I was ready to walk out. The Baby Boomer critics surrounding me seemed to enjoy it far more than the children, so if you’re a Gen-X’er and need a date nice while your parents complain that they don’t get to spend enough time with the grandchildren, this is your excuse to hand the kids off to mom and dad.
If you are looking for great animation with a strong soundtrack, Strange Magic is for you, but if you want a fun story to go along with it, Big Hero 6 comes out on Blu-Ray DVD Combo Pack comes out in a couple of weeks.
Strange Magic opens nationwide January 23, 2015.
” The story of the Bug King who falls in love with a beautiful fairy princess proves that no matter how ugly of a man you are, if you have money and power, you’ll always get the hot chick.”
THANK YOU for highlighting this — all the reviews that say “at least it has a good message of looking past appearances” ignore the fact that it is yet again a story of “schlubby nice guy gets the hot chick he deserves” (twice!) because of COURSE we can’t allow that unpretty women exist as anything but mean-spirited jokes in Hollywood. “Lower your standards, ladies!” is far from a revolutionary message, in any genre. (Now, if they’d only had her fall in love with a Bog QUEEN, who didn’t look like Angelina Jolie either…)