It seems that the popularity of magics and magicians in movies is still growing. But as it usually happens, the quality of the copies or clones can't be expected to be close to originals. When Boorman's Excalibur was made it was the unique masterpiece of a genius, and nobody tried to imitate it seriously. But now having Harry Potter a top hit for completely different audience, thousands find themselves capable of doing something like that.
A TV movie for kids is often considered to be something unimportant, just to fill some time in program scheme. And the results are adequate. Sometimes I wonder shouldn't an age limit be founded (a kind of MPAA) so nobody elder would be permitted to watch. And a movie like this would be hard to rate.
Good first: The kid actors are above the quality of the movie. Maybe they don't look enough frightened and worried when expected because of the troubles they are in (the director made that situations enough funny so it doesn't bother) but they look as if they were enjoying movie work all the time. The idea had some freshness and some stereotyped characters are not annoying as they would be in movies for older audience.
* some spoilers *
But: This film is further from logic than you can believe any movie could be. And it's not because of magic: if you watch a movie with a magician among main characters, you don't expect reality (especially if you know what it is about). But even magic and magicians must have it's own logic. Just some examples: a talking turtle (!), as slow as a turtle is, leads the magician in the school to find a stolen book. He runs through classrooms, up and down the stairs, but it's the turtle who appears first on the right place. Or, he can't transfer the golden medal from one house to another (a simple task for an experienced magician), but he can make a bad swimmer win the championship to get a new medal!
One biggest remark, and not only to this movie. Why has it become natural (it's nothing new, but it's more often in movies as years go by) that somebody who has no talent, who never tried to do a certain thing, in few days can make success with almost no exercising - dance, sport, music, school exams... A person who never played a music instrument wins the contest, if he never played basketball becomes a star of winning team, or (as in this movie) someone who almost can't swim wins the local championship where most competitors train twice a day for years. And it's always a dramatic finish when he/she scores a goal, plays or sings a winning song etc. Dramatic? No, only boring! Question: what are the others doing if they can be beaten, why are they practicing for years if it's so simple, or what fantastic results could such a person (kid or grown-up, all the same) make if they had trained, lets say, half a year? Sorry, I can cope with it in a Zucker-Abrahams or Mel Brooks movie, but it often happens in a "realistic" movies that don't expect only kindergarten audience.
A TV movie for kids is often considered to be something unimportant, just to fill some time in program scheme. And the results are adequate. Sometimes I wonder shouldn't an age limit be founded (a kind of MPAA) so nobody elder would be permitted to watch. And a movie like this would be hard to rate.
Good first: The kid actors are above the quality of the movie. Maybe they don't look enough frightened and worried when expected because of the troubles they are in (the director made that situations enough funny so it doesn't bother) but they look as if they were enjoying movie work all the time. The idea had some freshness and some stereotyped characters are not annoying as they would be in movies for older audience.
* some spoilers *
But: This film is further from logic than you can believe any movie could be. And it's not because of magic: if you watch a movie with a magician among main characters, you don't expect reality (especially if you know what it is about). But even magic and magicians must have it's own logic. Just some examples: a talking turtle (!), as slow as a turtle is, leads the magician in the school to find a stolen book. He runs through classrooms, up and down the stairs, but it's the turtle who appears first on the right place. Or, he can't transfer the golden medal from one house to another (a simple task for an experienced magician), but he can make a bad swimmer win the championship to get a new medal!
One biggest remark, and not only to this movie. Why has it become natural (it's nothing new, but it's more often in movies as years go by) that somebody who has no talent, who never tried to do a certain thing, in few days can make success with almost no exercising - dance, sport, music, school exams... A person who never played a music instrument wins the contest, if he never played basketball becomes a star of winning team, or (as in this movie) someone who almost can't swim wins the local championship where most competitors train twice a day for years. And it's always a dramatic finish when he/she scores a goal, plays or sings a winning song etc. Dramatic? No, only boring! Question: what are the others doing if they can be beaten, why are they practicing for years if it's so simple, or what fantastic results could such a person (kid or grown-up, all the same) make if they had trained, lets say, half a year? Sorry, I can cope with it in a Zucker-Abrahams or Mel Brooks movie, but it often happens in a "realistic" movies that don't expect only kindergarten audience.