The Magician’s Elephant is the first collaborative effort between Netflix and Animation studio Animal Logic, the same team behind the visuals for The Lego Movie. It's based on the 2009 novel of the same name and initially written by Kate DiCamillo. The movie premiered on Netflix in early 2023, and after a few weeks, most people forget its existence. I went into the film with optimism to see if it was an overlooked gem. What transpired, though, was a very messy and safe film that could have been something special, but it turned into a very forgettable feature even though some areas of the film were working in their own right.
Peter (Noah Jupe) is an orphan who cares for his old caregiver/soldier, Vilna Lutz (Mandy Patinkin). However, Peter believes his real family is still alive, but Vilna claims they are dead. One day, Peter comes across a fourtune teller (Natasia Demetriou) who tells him that he must follow the elephant to find his family. Suddenly, without warning, an elephant pops out of thin air. Peter wants to use him to see his family. However, The King (Aasif Mandvi) challenges Peter to three impossible tasks. If he wins, he can keep the elephant. However, there may be a bigger story involving the elephant that may also lead to how a magican (Benedict Wong) made him appear on stage without warning.
The Story had good intentions, and the overall heart is in the right place, seeing as the original narrative is based on a book of the same name as the movie. However, the execution is what ultimately brought this film down. It's not painfully bad, but it's boring, which doesn’t make it awful but makes it more generic. The tone bounces between being over-the-top funny and timeless fairytale storytelling. Still, it can never decide if it wants to be childishly dated or a fantastic fairytale. The movie’s story would’ve been better if it was just about Peter and the elephant going on a crazy adventure to find the truth about Peter’s past. Instead, random challenges seem to pop up constantly to keep Peter and the audience from getting into the real heart and conflicts the storytelling seems to present at first. To the film's credit, the bond between Peter and The Elephant is cute and charming. At the same time, their bond isn’t unique from many other movies where a child and an animal bond with each other. The story is also very formulaic and doesn’t do much to make things fresh or exciting. Some situations, like Peter and his long-lost sister bumping into each other during different times in the film without knowing they are family, left me frustrated. Again, I felt the team behind this story had good intentions. Unfortunately, it did not work out, as the story felt like it could have been so much more than it already is.
The Characters lack depth or interesting arcs that are new or refreshing. None of them could break free of being more than what they started with initially. Peter, played by Noah Jupe, is every protagonist with a heart of gold, always set to do the right thing in their unique way. I wanted to root for him, but his personality lacks any exciting flaws or quirks. He becomes like every other protagonist I’d see in any other animated film. Natasia Demetriou plays the fortune teller/narrator of the story, who is honestly more awkwardly annoying than immensely charming. I know Demetriou can be a decent voice actor, as she has been in many other animated roles in better movies than this one. The way she’s portrayed here feels stilted and sometimes uncomfortable, which I’m sure was not the filmmakers' intention. Mandy Patinkin plays Vilina, the soldier who saved Peter from being killed in war. He could have been an interesting, complex character, but his personality often flip-flops from stern and severe to goofy and giddy at the turn of a dime. How he goes from one emotion to another is also poorly executed, making it hard to determine whether to relate to this character. Benedict Wong, known for being Wong in the MCU, seems wasted as The Magician as he does not come to help in the central conflict until the end. The one character who annoyed me the most was The King, played by Aasif Mandvi, who is trying to be like the grandmaster from Thor Rangnork but without any of the intelligent comedy to back him up as being fun as opposed to being grating. The movie might have had a chance if these characters had a better direction. As it stands, I felt like these characters needed better execution to make the journey more enjoyable.
The Animation is alright, but it could be more impressive. In some ways, it's disappointing, seeing as the animation group Animal Logic is the same division responsible for the visuals in movies such as Happy Feet and The Lego Movie. Animal Logics' first collaborative effort with Netflix did seem promising initially. Still, it ultimately didn’t reach the wow factor that the previous films they have worked on in the past did. Human designs are not terrible but very plain and generic. To the credit of the film, the emotions the characters are supposed to feel in any given scene work and convey clearly to the audience what a character is feeling, whether sad or happy. The backgrounds try to go for a very painterly and storybook-like feel. While an impressive array of colors or unique visuals can happen from time to time, for the most part, the CGI feels very generic, like you’d see in any other CGI animated film. There is impressive attention to detail in the textures of buildings and on the character’s skin, but it is standard stuff that doesn’t push beyond to create visuals that will stay with the audience by the film's end. I did like a few visuals, and sometimes there are exciting color choices. Still, the animation is sadly generic, and I expected something more impressive from the same animation studio behind The Lego Movie.
The Music was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, who is most well known as the composer for animated hits such as “The Mitchells vs the Machines,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” and even The Lego Movie. Even though the rest of the film lacks, I'll credit Mothersbaugh with a decent enough job creating an enjoyable music score. It's not memorble, and I’ve seen Motersbaugh create more exciting music compositions than this one. For what it's worth, though, it does a good enough job for me to say it was somewhat intriguing.
Unfortunately, this movie has been forgotten for a reason. It's not impressively bad, but it's not good, either. This is a very “meh” type of film; I will give credit that sometimes the animation can be impressive in a few scenes and the overall heart is in the right place. Still, this movie suffers from bland storytelling, one-dimensional characters acting like they are more than they already are, and a confusing tone that can never decide what direction the story wants to take. Animal Logic is set to create other animated movies in the future. The studio’s first outing with Netflix didn’t go so well for me and for many audiences across the globe. This is far from an awful film, and I still would encourage Animal Logic to keep moving forward to create bigger and better films like they did in the past. Sadly, The Magician’s Elephant isn’t one of their greatest.
(Final Grade: C)