Movie: Strange Magic

[thewayne]

This just released this weekend, it's an animated film from Lucasfilm produced by Georgie boy himself. The director said the story is based on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and also on the movie Labyrinth, featuring a girl going in to enemy territory to rescue a sibling.

It was pretty good. The thing that the trailer didn't show, and I think I've only seen one, is that there's a lot of musical numbers in it. I'm talking animated characters doing song and dance numbers to rock music. I'm not sure how recent some of the music is as I didn't recognize it, but I did recognize an instrumental version of The Doors' When You're Strange, there's Elvis, Queen, and obviously Electric Light Orchestra's title song.

Lots of fun, definitely recommended.

[edit to add] And it has a left-handed swordsman in it! I didn't notice if he was consistently a lefty, but still....

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Ah! Very pleased to hear it's lived up to its earlier promise. Certainly, the visual style looked remarkably lush, and for once, not a Pixar retread.

It's actually something of a musical? Mm, I don't think that'll serve to deter me in the least. ^_^ Mostly known tracks, though, rather than original works?

FWIW, Lucasfilm might still have a very nifty short up on their site, literally "Work in Progress" - well worth viewing. And some choice voice acting.. !

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, all of the music is classic/modern rock. There might be an original, but I didn't recognize it if there was.

I didn't mention The Uncanny Valley. They did a good job of avoiding it. The characters are not human, even if they have strong human features. The landscapes were quite lush, and the action scenes were quite impressive.

My wife was surprised at some of my tastes when we started dating, things like Kevin Kline's Pirates of Penzance, etc. It's always good to keep them surprised.

Yeah, I was very disappointed when Disney bought Pixar. Take a company not known for making sequels and join it to a company that makes their bread and butter from sequels. Not a marriage made in heaven.