A groundbreaking $1.5 billion museum honoring George Lucas and narrative film will soon be able to have its groundbreaking in Los Angeles now that the city council has approved its construction. The futuristic spaceship looking design will find a home near the campus of USC,… Read More »George Lucas Museum gets go ahead from L.A. City Council
Whether you’ve been a fan of Star Wars from your first glimpse of a lightsaber in 1977 or are newly acquainted with the franchise thanks to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” you are now a part of a rich legacy of movie making lore. If… Read More »Review: How Star Wars Conquered the Universe – Expanded Edition
JJ Abrams had a Galaxy sized problem to solve in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” how to re-launch a cherished movie franchise in a way that respected the past while still being relevant to modern movie going audiences. Episode VII had to do all that… Read More »Star Wars: The Force Awakens – my spoiler-free review
Founded in May of 1975, when George Lucas realized he’d need a company to develop all the special effects he wanted for the original Star Wars movie, Industrial Light and Magic has changed the way we view movies over and over again. Since the purchase… Read More »Industrial Light & Magic Looks Back at 40 years of movie history
Not a lot of news around the Galaxy these days, but what it lacks in quantity, it certainly makes up for in quality. Recapping the news from Thursday, Star Wars Episode VIII has a release date. Bob Iger announced this week at the annual shareholders… Read More »Star Wars News Round Up
“Strange Magic” is a new children’s animated musical. The movie is filled with fairies and elves, bright colors and magic along with dozens of familiar songs. Another familiarity is the face that brought you Strange Magic, George Lucas. A face not exactly associated with musicals or fairies, though still the man behind the film.
The lack of association however is justified. Lucas stated that for Strange Magic he was hoping to return to a past film of his, American Graffiti. Despite his intention, Strange Magic is still not a film you would expect Lucas to have created, nor would you want him to attempt again.
Strange Magic relies heavily on the strange and little on the magic. The film itself is gorgeous, with detailed and elaborate animation that gives a surreal life like quality to the environments and the characters. Each location in the film has specific designs that make it uniquely their own within the film and for the genre in general. If only the rest of the film had received the same loving attention.
The film is a musical intended for children, so the expectations for the plot began low, and stayed low throughout the course of the film. There are lovely moments tied to the main plot of the film, such as minor character arcs or morals the film wishes to tell. Overall however, the plot is generic for a children’s movie and would have been decently pleasant.
Had it not been for all of the music.Read More »Lucasfilm’s Strange Magic Review – Heavy on the Strange, Light on the Magic
Disney kicks off it’s 2015 movie slate with a release of Lucasfilm’s “Strange Magic” via it’s Touchstone Pictures label. You know that label Disney keeps around for movies that just don’t quite fit the mold for the ‘Disney’ brand. Because of that, I’ve been cautious about the film’s potential.
That said, three clips from the film that were just released have left me a bit more confident in the animated musical from Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and, believe it or not, actually looking forward to seeing it.
First up is a clip called “ELf-Sized Serenade” and it gives an idea of how the modern music will be worked into the fairy-tale setting. Here Sunny (Elijah Kelley) and Dawn (Meredith Anne Bull) sing to each other in a musical moment from “Strange Magic”:
Another Strangely Magical music moment features “The Duel Duet” where Marianne (Evan Rachel Wood) and The Bog King (Alan Cumming) face-off in a duel. It’s obvious the film is very light-hearded, even in its darker moments. Read More »Three clips from “Strange Magic” put its magic on display
2015 will be a jam packed year at the box office for The Walt Disney Company. Among them are two Marvel films, two Pixar animated features, and a return to the galaxy far far away of Star Wars at the end of the year. The… Read More »Strange Magic – Meet the Creatures & Cast