Strange Magic (film)

Strange Magic is a 2015 American computer-animated musical fantasy film directed by Gary Rydstrom and produced by Lucasfilm, with feature animation by Lucasfilm Animation and Industrial Light & Magic.[5] The film's screenplay was written by Rydstrom, David Berenbaum and Irene Mecchi, from a story by George Lucas inspired by William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The film stars Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph and Alfred Molina. The score was composed by Marius de Vries and includes contemporary songs, such as "Love Is Strange" and "Strange Magic".[6]

Strange Magic
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGary Rydstrom
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story byGeorge Lucas
Starring
Music byMarius de Vries
Edited byChris Plummer
Production
companies
Distributed byWalt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
Release date
  • January 23, 2015 (2015-01-23)
Running time
99 minutes[1][2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$70–100 million[3]
Box office$13.6 million[4]

Lucas had been working on developing the project for 15 years before production began.[7] It was his first writing credit since the 1994 film Radioland Murders that is not associated with the Star Wars or Indiana Jones franchises. The film was released in the United States on January 23, 2015 by Touchstone Pictures, making it the first Lucasfilm production to be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, following their parent company's acquisition of the studio in 2012.[5] The film received generally negative reviews from critics and was a box-office bomb, grossing $13.6 million worldwide and losing around $40–50 million.[8] To date, it is the only Lucasfilm Animation production that is not part of the Star Wars franchise.

Plot

A realm is divided between a land of fairies and light, and a land of bog creatures and darkness, living in the dark forest. Primrose flowers, which are a crucial ingredient to love potions, mark the border between the lands. Marianne is a fairy princess and heir to the throne of the Fairy Kingdom, and is engaged to be married to Roland, a handsome warrior who disappoints her when she discovers him kissing another fairy on their wedding day. Marianne vows to never fall in love again. In the dark forest, the Bog King also shares the same view on love, despite his caring mother Griselda's protests.

Sometime later, her sister Dawn, who frequently says she is in love, is desperate regarding the upcoming Spring Ball over which boy she could meet there. Her best friend Sunny, an elf who has a crush on Dawn, tries to cheer her up with a song, but they are nearly devoured by a giant lizard before a hardened Marianne rescues them. Sunny, having fallen through the border of the dark forest, finds a Primrose petal, which he subsequently hides when fleeing the forest.

At the ball, Roland tries to assert his intention to marry Marianne, who refuses and humiliates him out of the dance. He encounters Sunny and tricks him into returning to the dark forest to convince the Sugar Plum Fairy, who had been captured years ago by the Bog King, to create the love potion. Sunny acquires the petal he had hidden and with the help of a curious imp, ventures into Bog's castle, eventually finding the fairy and promising to free her in exchange for the love potion.

Their escape rouses Bog, who manages to recapture Sugar Plum while Sunny escapes, followed by the imp, and Bog is enraged when he learns that Sunny has a vial of love potion. Sunny returns to the ball and tries to hit Dawn with the love potion during his musical number. Bog interrupts the celebrations and captures Dawn just as she is sprayed by the love potion and the imp steals it in order to spread it throughout the forest. Bog orders them to deliver the potion to him by moondown or he'll harm Dawn. Defying her father's order, Marianne flies off after her sister while he grants Roland a small army to head off on foot to Bog's castle.

Meanwhile, Dawn falls in love with him due to the potion, and Bog has her imprisoned for his own sanity. Marianne arrives and fights with Bog to return her sister. When she realizes the severity of the situation, the two of them begin to find common interests. When they consult Sugar Plum for an antidote, she explains that true love will negate the effects of the potion, recounting a time where Bog fell in love with another female in the forest who left him despite his use of the love potion on her, as she was in love with someone else at the time he used the potion on her. A mutual attraction begins to develop between Marianne and Bog, but it is only Griselda who sees it.

Sunny recovers the potion from the imp and gives it to Roland as they march on to the castle. Bog sees this and suspects that Marianne had set him up, breaking his heart again as he leaves her stranded in a spider web. She escapes and joins in the battle taking place at the castle. Sunny frees Sugar Plum, Dawn, and (at Sugar Plum's insistence) the love-stricken forest creatures that the imp had hit with the love potion.

In the escape, Bog seemingly sacrifices himself by holding the mouth of his den open long enough for everyone to escape. He survives, to Marianne's relief, and Sunny reveals his true feelings to Dawn, who then reciprocates them, breaking the love potion's spell over her and they kiss, to her father's surprise. Roland sprays Marianne with the love potion, who pretends to fall in love with him, only to suddenly punch him and send him off the chasm, being hit by the love potion in the process.

Bog and Marianne, at the insistence of Dawn and Griselda, finally admit their feelings for each other and kiss.

In the last scene following the credits, Roland has apparently fallen in love with an ugly insect due to the potion, and two of Bog's servants are whispering, but one of them has horrible hearing, accidentally says 'Tea Blend.'

Cast

Production

George Lucas had long wanted to make a film for his three daughters, with the original idea for the movie being generated 15 years prior.[9] He described the film as Star Wars for a female audience stating "Star Wars was for 12-year-old boys; I figured I'd make one for 12-year-old girls."[10] On the film's plot, director Gary Rydstrom stated, "We pitched it as a Beauty and the Beast story where the Beast doesn't change." According to Rydstrom, Lucas "really wanted to make a beautiful fairy tale with goblins and elves, and do it in a way that only this company can do. He had been working on it for a long time." Rydstrom mentioned that Lucas emphasized that the story should be about "finding beauty in strange places". Rydstrom also stated "It was important for him to tell this story where you saw the beauty in something you didn't expect to see—that it looked ugly on the outside but you saw the beauty underneath." The film was in the works for 15 years including, at one point development alongside the Star Wars prequels.[10] Before The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in late 2012, production on Strange Magic was already well underway. Rydstrom and his crew screened the film for Disney executives. Rydstrom stated, "We're not Pixar or Disney Animation, so in some ways George was our John [Lasseter] on this one ... I like the fact—not that I don't like advice from all over—but this is our own thing, this is a Lucasfilm project ... I remember when Labyrinth came out and how exciting that was. There was a magic to that, this has the same vibe to me."[6]

One of the biggest inspirations for the film's soundtrack was another Lucasfilm production, American Graffiti (1973). For Strange Magic, Lucas revealed: "I had a lot of Beatles songs in there originally, but we couldn't afford them." Many of the songs that did make it into the film were tweaked to help tell the story such as "Bad Romance", which became a march for an invading army, and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", which was made into a warrior anthem for Marianne. According to Lucas, the main message of the film is that "A real relationship rests in a much deeper place, where you love somebody and you've thought through it carefully as you've been carrying on conversations and doing things. You fall in love with their mind and everything else more than just the way they look."[6][11] At one point during production the crew experimented with the idea of having the entirety of the dialogue sung.[10]

The hair design of sisters Marianne and Dawn went through several revisions. According to Meredith Anne Bull, the voice of Dawn, "[The sisters'] hair has changed a lot since the beginning, we used to have long, brown hair. It was red for a while and now it has ended up short and blonde! ... There's a lot of work that goes into creating the hair of an animated character. There are actually groups of people where that's their only job, to do the animation of hair! That was really cool, learning that." On the subject of voice recording, Bull stated, "There's just a lot of really cool stuff [that our director] would show us—tricks and stuff to do when we were recording: Special effects with our mouths, or by chewing stuff. One time I watched Peter Stormare chew an entire pack of gum while he was trying to record!" Bull also noted that while recording she did not have many visuals to reference, "For the first year of production, I really had no idea, sometimes they would have drawings, but other than that I just had to use my imagination of what was going on!"[12]

Release

Strange Magic was released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through its Touchstone Pictures banner on January 23, 2015. A trailer for the film was released on November 21, 2014.[13]

Home media

Strange Magic was released by Touchstone Home Entertainment on DVD and digital on May 19, 2015.[14][15]

Reception

Box office

In its opening weekend, Strange Magic opened at #7 and grossed $5.5 million.[16] It had the lowest ticket sales of any animated film released in over 3,000 theatres. The previous animated films with lowest opening weekend gross were The Wild Thornberrys Movie (2002) and Quest for Camelot (1998).[17] The film closed on April 16, 2015 and had earned $12,429,583 in the domestic box office, with $1,173,870 overseas for a worldwide total of $13,603,453.[4]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an approval rating of 17%, based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10, as of February 2019. The website's critical consensus states, "Like most modern animated movies, Strange Magic is lovely to look at; unfortunately, there isn't much going on beneath the surface."[18] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 25 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[19] According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[20]

Alonso Duralde of The Wrap gave a negative review, writing "That terrible character design, combined with a painful lack of laughs and a crushing plethora of ghastly songs, makes Strange Magic perhaps the worst animated feature ever to come out of Disney."[21] Conversely, Drew Taylor of Indiewire gave the film a B-, stating in his review "Strange Magic does manage to enchant you (mostly) with its oddball charm."[22] Justin Chang of Variety gave the film a negative review, saying "This noisy, unappealing children's fantasy fails to distinguish itself among January's many, many reasons to steer clear of the multiplex."[23] Alan Scherstuhl of The Village Voice described Strange Magic as "the best Lucas film in 25 years: funny, idiosyncratic, hippy-dippy, packed with creatures and visions worth beholding."[24] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "A shrill, garish hodgepodge of familiar elements from other animated vehicles (most evidently 2013's Epic), there's virtually nothing about this forced, fractured fairy tale that feels remotely fresh or involving."[25] Michael Ordoña of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film one out of four stars, saying "The plot movement feels very much like an unpleasant formality, shoved forward by tiresome devices."[26] Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film two out of four stars, saying "Strange Magic is strange all right, but hardly magical."[27] Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club gave the film a B, saying "The movie maintains its own level of oddball invention that at least feels pleasantly removed from the grind of big-studio cartoon manufacturing."[28] Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film one out of four stars, saying "A noxious cauldron of ingredients that shouldn't have been mixed: fairies, Shakespeare and classic rock."[29]

Lou Lumenick of the New York Post gave the film one out of four stars, saying "If Lucasfilm had bought Disney instead of the other way around, the smash hit Frozen might have turned out like Strange Magic, a jaw-droppingly terrible animated musical that mismatches George Lucas’ inane story about a pair of fairy princesses to an oddball selection of the Star Wars creator's favorite pop tunes."[30] Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a negative review, saying "Strange Magic, the new animated musical fairy tale from the mind and the mixtape of George Lucas, is indeed strange. What's missing is the magic."[31] Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, saying "Said to be inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream, the film plays more like Avatar scored to a karaoke competition."[32] Bilge Ebiri of New York Magazine gave the film a negative review, saying "The problem with Strange Magic isn't so much its derivative story as it is the odd, half-complete way it unfolds. You can sense the weird mixture of tones, influences, ideas—as if the whole thing were still in its planning stages."[33] Glenn Kenny of RogerEbert.com gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying "Strange Magic is essentially a jukebox musical so song-laden as to practically be an operetta, and the songs are so eclectic that they never quite fit into the movie’s flying-insect world, which is divided into dark and light forests."[34] Keith Phipps of The Dissolve gave the film one and a half stars out of five, saying "Strange Magic certainly isn’t an ordinary sort of mess, and the personal nature of the project is still evident in the finished film."[35]

Soundtrack
Strange Magic (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by
Various artists
ReleasedJanuary 20, 2015
StudioAir Lyndhurst Studios, London
Berry Drive Studios, Los Angeles
Downtown Recording Studios, NYC
Nightbird Studios, Los Angeles
MSR Studios, New York City
The Fan Club, London
GenreRock, pop, soul
Length38:04
LabelBuena Vista
Producer

The film's soundtrack includes cast performances of new versions of pop and classic rock songs which were chosen for the film by George Lucas.[6] The soundtrack was released by Buena Vista Records on January 20, 2015, followed by a physical release on February 17, 2015.[36]

No.TitlePerformer(s)Length
1."Can't Help Falling in Love"Evan Rachel Wood & Sam Palladio2:53
2."I'll Never Fall in Love Again"Evan Rachel Wood2:48
3."Three Little Birds"Elijah Kelley & Meredith Anne Bull2:46
4."I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)"Marius De Vries1:00
5."C'mon Marianne / Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)"Sam Palladio and Evan Rachel Wood3:32
6."Trouble"Alan Cumming2:32
7."Love Is Strange"Kristin Chenoweth2:53
8."Say Hey"Elijah Kelley3:04
9."Mistreated"Alan Cumming2:30
10."I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)"Meredith Anne Bull3:05
11."Straight On"Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming3:05
12."Strange Magic"Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming4:15
13."Tell Him / Wild Thing"Meredith Anne Bull, Maya Rudolph, Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming3:39
Total length:38:04

Additionally, the chorus from "Bad Romance" is used in the film, but is not on the album.

gollark: Which rolling consecutive sixes isn't.
gollark: You add probabilities for mutually exclusive events.
gollark: How would you have a chance of something happening which is *above* 1?
gollark: There are 8 of those, so multiply by 8.
gollark: Basically, with the (1/6) * (5/6)^7, you are calculating the probability of one particular outcome where you get one six and 7 notsixes.

References
  1. "STRANGE MAGIC (U)". British Board of Film Classification. June 24, 2015. Retrieved June 24, 2015.
  2. "AMC Theatres: Strange Magic". Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  3. "Review: Strange Magic, an underrated animated musical from Lucasfilm". ScreenAnarchy. January 10, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
  4. "Strange Magic (2015)". Box Office Mojo. IMDB. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  5. Graser, Marc (November 11, 2014). "Disney Dates Lucasfilm's Animated 'Strange Magic' for January 2015". variety.com. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  6. Zakarin, Jordan (November 21, 2014). "The Trailer for 'Strange Magic,' George Lucas's Next Big Movie". Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  7. Reaney, Patricia (January 22, 2015). "'Strange Magic' casts animated spell with pop tunes and fairies". Reuters. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  8. Jonathan McAloon (November 12, 2015). "2015's biggest box office flops". The Telegraph. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  9. Roper, Caitlin. "George Lucas on How His New Film Is Like Star Wars for Girls". Wired. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  10. Prigge, Matt. "Interview: George Lucas on why 'Strange Magic' is 'Star Wars' for girls". Metro. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  11. Truitt, Brian (January 12, 2015). "Love and music make Lucas' 'Strange Magic'". USA Today. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
  12. Osmanski, Stephanie (January 7, 2015). "EXCLUSIVE: Meredith Anne Bull from "Strange Magic" Spills Disney Movie Secrets". m-magazine.com. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  13. McMillan, Graeme (November 21, 2014). "First Trailer for Lucasfilm's 'Strange Magic' Released". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
  14. Neumyer, Scott (May 18, 2015). "Exclusive Clip: In the Studio with George Lucas and the Stars of Strange Magic". Parade. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
  15. Brokaw, Francine (May 18, 2015). "'Strange Magic' DVD is filled with music and magic". Daily Herald. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
  16. Ray Subers (January 25, 2015). "Weekend Report: 'Sniper' Scores Stunning $64 Million in Second Weekend". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
  17. "The Mind Of Lucas Fails Archived January 26, 2015, at Archive.today". blog.bcdb.com, January 25, 2015
  18. "Strange Magic (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  19. "Strange Magic Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
  20. "CinemaScore". CinemaScore. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
  21. Duralde, Alonso (January 21, 2015). "'Strange Magic' Review: George Lucas' Off-Key Kiddie Dud Will Make You Miss Jar Jar Binks (Video)". The Wrap. Retrieved January 23, 2015.
  22. Taylor, Drew (January 21, 2015). "Review: George Lucas-Produced Animated Musical Fairy Tale 'Strange Magic'". Indiewire. Retrieved January 23, 2015.
  23. "'Strange Magic' Review: George Lucas' Animated Fairy Tale - Variety". Variety. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  24. Scherstuhl, Alan (February 2, 2015). "Actually, Strange Magic Is the Best George Lucas Film in 25 Years". villagevoice.com. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  25. Michael Rechtshaffen. "'Strange Magic': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  26. "'Strange Magic' review: Music can't save a sprinkle of plot". SFGate. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  27. Claudia Puig (January 22, 2015). "'Strange Magic' falls flat in attempt to tune up fairy tales". USA Today. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  28. "Review: Lucasfilm's Strange Magic is the Moulin Rouge of animated features". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  29. "'Strange Magic' review: Strange, indeed, but not magical - Newsday". Newsday. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  30. "'Strange Magic' is jaw-droppingly terrible - New York Post". New York Post. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  31. Los Angeles Times (January 22, 2015). "Review: 'Strange Magic' casts musical spell, but the movie misses - LA Times". latimes.com. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  32. "Gary Rydstrom's 'Strange Magic,' From a George Lucas Story". The New York Times. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  33. Bilge Ebiri (January 23, 2015). "Movie Review: Strange Magic -- Vulture". Vulture. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  34. Glenn Kenny (January 23, 2015). "Strange Magic". rogerebert.com. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  35. "Strange Magic". The Dissolve. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  36. "Buena Vista Records Set To Release "Strange Magic" Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". PR Newswire. January 20, 2015. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
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