I saw this movie over the weekend, and was pleasantly surprised. It definitely feels to me like it will be a long-term sleeper hit, like Jay Baruchel's
How to Train a Dragon did earlier this year. I work in movie licensing/merchandising (not Disney
), and am also very surprised personally at the lack of follow up Disney did with this movie. The Dragon ring and/or as a statue would be a huge hit; I know I would love one. This movie has much more of a fun family-movie feel that caters more to teenagers and adults then to those with young children, which I'm particularly happy about. There's not many movies being made that appeal across gender/demographic lines or that parents and adults can enjoy with their older kids without flinching.
Spoiler warning!
What I loved
- The chemistry between Jay and Nick. Their Dave and Balthazar were pitch-perfect and they fed off of each other extremely well.
- Magic is and is not science. I liked the little throwaway bits that alluded to this like the shoes not being rubber soled, and the rings helped focus a sorcerer's electrical impulses from their body. The fact that it
wasn't over-explained for 15 minutes or mentioned over and over again like some other movies would do was wonderful too. Just a simple - "this is how it works" and then moved on to visual displays and small details (Balthazar hunting down the doll by displacing biometrical energy, Dave's climax scene with amplifying his power) that reinforced the idea behind it without beating it over our heads verbally. Show, don't tell!
- Drake Stone and Becky. Drake was a hilarious character, and perfect for a modern day entertainer, while Becky's character had the right tone of "incredulous but going along with this". Actually, all of the Morgannians were pretty good. They felt like individual characters, with stories behind them, which is a sign of really good storytelling as those characters had a minimum of screen time.
- The Tesla Coil music scenes. Beautiful, and with a purpose.
- The music and cinematography in the car/mirror scene. Loved that.
What I wanted to see:
- I would have loved to see more exasperated mentor scenes from Nick and some discovery scenes from Jay in which he plays with magic for the sake of it, like how he played around with the Tesla Coils to learn they played music. Something to segway into the fact that Jay's character is supposed to become a more powerful sorcerer than Balthazar. Speaking of..
- The Broom scene from the original Fantasia felt too forced and out of place. It makes you spend more time reminiscing on the brooms and the original segment than realizing the meaning behind it of how great Dave's power is and how easy it got out of control. Substituting in something similar in scope and tone but without the heavy-handed "look, we replicated the scene!" would have felt much more natural to the film and still could have been a homage. It could have helped give a smoother transition to the Sorcerer Dave of the finale in that we've seen that he is capable of magic that exceeds his Master's.
What I disliked. Mostly me just nitpicking.
- Prime Merlinian? Was it too hard to say "Merlin's heir"? I had a giggle-fit every time someone uttered the word. Also, the ring. If it's Merlin's dragon and it signifies the heir by liking that person that much.. what's the point of having that plot point if the goal is that the heir's goal is to do the magic without the ring anyway? If there is a sequel, I'd love for there to a better purpose for the dragon. Would it continue to change shape and interact with Dave as a familiar, rather than a useless piece of jewelry by the end?
- The first ten minutes aka the narration segment. I almost walked out that quickly. There was no need for that entire segment, as Balthazar tells Dave about what happened with Veronica, Horvath, Merlin, and Morganna anyway later in the movie. What I said earlier about being hit over the head by a movie is case in point here. It was sloppy and a waste of time that could have been better spent elsewhere to shore up the Balthazar, Veronica, and Horvath love triangle which isn't addressed in the narration, and yet is a key part of the backstory for the three apprentices and why Horvath turned on them in the first place.
End Spoilers!
Despite my nitpicking, I really did enjoy this movie, and I'm taking a friend to go back and see it later this week. Me going back to see a movie is pretty rare.
