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Description
Characters copyright: Lucasfilm Ltd. and Touchtone Pictures. Warning: Spoilers!

So I finally got around to watching "Strange Magic." I consider myself someone with good taste in animations, yet even if I suspect a movie isn't going to be a good one, I still get around to watching it eventually. I suspected the movie wouldn't be very good plotwise. It seemed to be throwing all the "popular" elements into its plot in hopes that something would stick. Fairytale movies, especially featuring tiny people, had gone moderately well, via "The Secret World of Arietty" and "Epic." Plus, musicals seemed to be very "in." (aka "Frozen") as well as a sound track featuring golden oldies "Guardians of the Galaxy." However, the movie ends up with a mish-mosh of too much of gimmick and not enough STORY. The animation and world creation of this world is visually stunning. Sadly, the movie tends to be an ongoing sing-along with the characters singing classic songs forced to fit the scene. Songs are supposed to be used where narration isn't enough. To capture a big moment and take us to the heart of the character. Here, it's like... you almost could sing about anything. "Hey! I'm standing on this rock!" There's no original score and I really can't identify with the characters very well.

Nonetheless, I did get quite a few laughs from this movie. It's almost so hyped up it's ridiculous. The love potion's effects are very comedic. Bog King was almost, to me too much of a sympathetic character. Or trying too hard? I'm not sure. But it was fun watching him react to the fairy under the love potion and ripping up his mom's love decorations. He made a great straight guy to the chaos around him. His "what?" "is this really happening?" are what cheered the movie up for me.

It's almost like the fairy people get power from their songs. It would be weird and somewhat cool if every time I started singing, background music would pop out of nowhere. That's kind of what I feel actually HAPPENS in this world, and the most powerful song (or the louder song) wins. Like when "Come on Maryanne" is beaten out by "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" or "I'm evil" (is that even a song?) is beaten by "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch." And if you're both of equal power, you'll start a duet and end up together?

Nonetheless the visuals ARE stunning. I thought I'd try my hand at drawing two of the background characters. Here's a typical guard. Don't you love the detail of vines and leaves on the silver armor? Come to think of it, why is it silver? Where do they even mine silver from? Everything else is plant based. It seems so out of place. And why do they have almost pure white-wings? I get how that provides a good contrast with the more colourful main characters, but for an army this is terrible. They're so target-worthy.

This is one of the ladies seen in the first ball scene. She was so subdued a character, and then I noticed that her eyes had this beautiful luminescence. There's a story here, I mean look at her! Her hair is obviously dyed blonde with even blonder highlights (maybe to be more like the younger princess?) but she's clearly a brunette as both the under-hair and eyebrows are dark brown. Her dress is very drab--looks like it was made out of a blade of grass. And her wings are this very dark green. That was the other thing I noticed--almost all the fairy folk have moth wings rather than butterfly wings. The triplets seen helping the "anti" prince charming have Luna Moth wings and are the most colourful of the lot. Actually, I like their armor a lot more too. It's acorn and wood design and fits with the decor. Why couldn't all the soldiers have that armor instead?

Back to these two. I think this fairy has some self-confidence issues--trying to be something she's not. She's not super colourful, but she tries to brighten up. Maybe no one actually notices her efforts at the ball due to "royal drama" and a kind guard offers to escort her home. I don't know. What do you think?

Description
Characters copyright: Lucasfilm Ltd. and Touchtone Pictures. Warning: Spoilers!

So I finally got around to watching "Strange Magic." I consider myself someone with good taste in animations, yet even if I suspect a movie isn't going to be a good one, I still get around to watching it eventually. I suspected the movie wouldn't be very good plotwise. It seemed to be throwing all the "popular" elements into its plot in hopes that something would stick. Fairytale movies, especially featuring tiny people, had gone moderately well, via "The Secret World of Arietty" and "Epic." Plus, musicals seemed to be very "in." (aka "Frozen") as well as a sound track featuring golden oldies "Guardians of the Galaxy." However, the movie ends up with a mish-mosh of too much of gimmick and not enough STORY. The animation and world creation of this world is visually stunning. Sadly, the movie tends to be an ongoing sing-along with the characters singing classic songs forced to fit the scene. Songs are supposed to be used where narration isn't enough. To capture a big moment and take us to the heart of the character. Here, it's like... you almost could sing about anything. "Hey! I'm standing on this rock!" There's no original score and I really can't identify with the characters very well.

Nonetheless, I did get quite a few laughs from this movie. It's almost so hyped up it's ridiculous. The love potion's effects are very comedic. Bog King was almost, to me too much of a sympathetic character. Or trying too hard? I'm not sure. But it was fun watching him react to the fairy under the love potion and ripping up his mom's love decorations. He made a great straight guy to the chaos around him. His "what?" "is this really happening?" are what cheered the movie up for me.

It's almost like the fairy people get power from their songs. It would be weird and somewhat cool if every time I started singing, background music would pop out of nowhere. That's kind of what I feel actually HAPPENS in this world, and the most powerful song (or the louder song) wins. Like when "Come on Maryanne" is beaten out by "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" or "I'm evil" (is that even a song?) is beaten by "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch." And if you're both of equal power, you'll start a duet and end up together?

Nonetheless the visuals ARE stunning. I thought I'd try my hand at drawing two of the background characters. Here's a typical guard. Don't you love the detail of vines and leaves on the silver armor? Come to think of it, why is it silver? Where do they even mine silver from? Everything else is plant based. It seems so out of place. And why do they have almost pure white-wings? I get how that provides a good contrast with the more colourful main characters, but for an army this is terrible. They're so target-worthy.

This is one of the ladies seen in the first ball scene. She was so subdued a character, and then I noticed that her eyes had this beautiful luminescence. There's a story here, I mean look at her! Her hair is obviously dyed blonde with even blonder highlights (maybe to be more like the younger princess?) but she's clearly a brunette as both the under-hair and eyebrows are dark brown. Her dress is very drab--looks like it was made out of a blade of grass. And her wings are this very dark green. That was the other thing I noticed--almost all the fairy folk have moth wings rather than butterfly wings. The triplets seen helping the "anti" prince charming have Luna Moth wings and are the most colourful of the lot. Actually, I like their armor a lot more too. It's acorn and wood design and fits with the decor. Why couldn't all the soldiers have that armor instead?

Back to these two. I think this fairy has some self-confidence issues--trying to be something she's not. She's not super colourful, but she tries to brighten up. Maybe no one actually notices her efforts at the ball due to "royal drama" and a kind guard offers to escort her home. I don't know. What do you think?