Why 'Strange Magic' Is Such an Underrated Film

At first glance, Strange Magic is your everyday starcrossed lovers trope. Two opposing groups coming together because of two people. It’s much more than that. It’s more like a beauty and the beast type story, without the Stockholm syndrome. The story is fun, the characters are relatable and it uses a variety of songs in a really engaging way.

Marianne is a fairy princess and the heir to the fairy kingdom. The film starts where most fairy tales end, with her preparing for her wedding. She’s head over heels in love with a guy who looks like your stereotypical Prince Charming. Blonde hair, green eyes, and broad facial features. Then she discovers that he’s been cheating on her. The wedding is officially off and she swears off loving anyone ever again.

I have to say that’s one of my favourite things about her character. She doesn’t sulk and cry over him like you might expect. She uses her hurt and pain to make herself stronger. This causes her father to worry about her, thinking that she’s closing herself off too much. He’s also convinced that she’ll be a better ruler if she has a king by her side. This doesn’t go over well with Marianne, but she concedes that if a guy takes her hand and she doesn’t want to punch him, she’ll consider it. I think that has to be one of the most relatable moments for me.

The Bog King is interesting, because he starts out looking like the villain. There are special flowers growing along the border of the fairy kingdom and the dark forest. They can be used to make love potions. The first thing we learn about the Bog King is that he wants all of these flowers destroyed. Early on, it seems like he just has some sort of vendetta against love. As the story progresses though, we discover that there’s more to his anger and hatred than simply being evil or mean spirited.

Without giving away too much of what actually happens, he is an antihero. He’s not just a one dimensional evil character that needs to be defeated. The same can be said of Marianne. She’s not just a lovesick, passive princess either. To create fairy tale characters that actually have depth and develop over the course of a story is hard. It’s becoming more common, but still feels too straight forward in most cases. This story does a great job of constantly exceeding our expectations of what this type of story can be.

This has to be one of the best uses of songs in a musical. None of the songs are original to the film, but they all perfectly capture the feeling of what’s going on in the story at that moment. It’s also a great selection of songs from a variety of different decades. There’s some modern music as well as great songs from the 60s and 70s. Some of them I find are even better than the originals. They are arranged differently and given a new context by the characters that are singing them.

All of these elements come together to make a great film in any genre, not just animation. When I first saw this film, I was skeptical in the beginning. By the time Marianne was getting over Roland, I was completely on board with these characters. I liked them, they broke the traditional clichés I was expecting, and unlike most fairy tales, I never knew where this one was going next. I’m not a fan of most romantic comedies or love stories. It’s all the same thing over and over, to the point that the middle is unnecessary because I know how it’s going to end. I’m a fan of love stories that either break the mould of rom coms, or at least change them enough to keep me guessing. This film does that.

For anyone looking for a different sort of fairy tale, this is the movie for you.