Strange Magic - C-

Rated PG, 99 minutes
Wes's Grade: C-

Visuals best thing about the disjointed, uneven animated Lucas-inspired romp "Strange Magic"

For a fairy tale about magic and love, the new animated musical "Strange Magic" is sure uninspired. It's an odd mixture of many things: Shakespeare, George Lucas, Shrek and some contemporary songs that try to tell this unusual fantasy story that winds up an incoherent mess, wasting a talented cast and crew who obviously worked diligently to put it together. "Strange Magic," a new animated film that is a madcap fairy tale musical inspired by "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Popular songs from the past six decades help tell the tale of a colorful cast of goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their hilarious misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion. Directed and co-written by Academy Award-winning sound technician Gary Rydstrom ("Saving Private Ryan" and "Jurassic Park" among others) and with a story from George Lucas himself, "Strange Magic" is lovely to look at but has little to offer in terms of an original story that makes much sense. It must've looked far better on paper when envisioned by Lucas, yet it ends up one of the, well, strangest and kookiest animated films I've seen in some time, and not in a good way. The movie has a strong, talented voice cast including Evan Rachel Wood, Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenowith, and Alfred Molina, and the clean animation and colorful visuals highlight the film, but it's simply a film whose odd, uneven story and characters may lose the young ones from the start (and yes, we get the message early on, everyone needs love, but we also need a good movie to go with it). In addition, and perhaps most important, as a musical it fails, with some awfully strange, distracting song selections - ELO's "Strange Magic" - for which the film is named - as well as Michael Franti and Spearhead's "Say Hey" (a good song that's just misused here) and Elvis' "Can't Help Falling in Love" - I mean, was nothing available from Elton John, Kenny Loggins or even Beyonce (whose "Crazy in Love" is briefly heard - another odd choice)? I just had trouble connecting with all of this and I can only imagine that the young ones would too, and I'm unsure if the end product is really what Lucas, who is brave having his name attached to a mess like this, initially conceived. "Strange Magic" is one strange film, and one film to avoid.