Strange Magic rehashes familiar tales

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      Featuring the voices of Evan Rachel Wood, Alan Cumming, and Elijah Kelley. Rated G.

      Strange Magic is an animated feature that revolves around a group of enchanted fairies with pointy ears and oversized butterfly wings. Led by a feisty warrior queen named Marianne (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood), the fairies live on the edge of a dark forest inhabited by cranky swamp creatures.

      The crankiest swamp creature of all is the Bog King (voiced by Alan Cumming). Marianne dreams of a day when everyone can live in harmony. But a goofy elf named Sunny (the voice of Elijah Kelley) has other ideas. When Sunny decides to go into the dark side of the forest to steal the forbidden ingredients for a love potion, he sets off a chain of events that brings about chaos.

      Although Strange Magic is directed by veteran sound designer Gary Rydstrom, the film’s ad campaign proudly states that Strange Magic springs from “the mind of George Lucas”. Lucas—who gets a story credit here, while three other screenwriters do most of the heavy lifting—serves up the kind of plot that, while inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, feels like it’s been ripped off from a Saturday-morning rerun of The Smurfs.

      To be fair, the animation is topnotch, and one or two characters—like Sunny—are genuinely memorable. And Lucas’s production company has spared little expense when it comes to the film’s musical score.

      The problem? The score isn’t original. It’s a mixed bag of reworked pop classics (and not so classics) from the ’50s up to the present that includes everything from Elvis to Burt Bacharach to Michael Franti & Spearhead. On the surface, this may seem like a wise choice. Why not throw in something familiar for the grandparents when they take the kids to the movies? After all, the songs are going to seem brand-new to the core audience of preteens.

      Such reasoning may work in theory. But ask yourself this: do you really want to hear a big-eyed fairy belt out a sugary version of a Four Tops classic? I don’t mean to sound too grumpy here, but for all of the effort and talent put into this, there’s precious little magic. Strange or otherwise.

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