In what used to be the most magical place on Earth, at some point in time, all the magic just suddenly disappeared. And it took the script's magic along with it. There is some magic buried underneath both the town and the script just begging to come out... but it never really did...
First off, the world needed some more expanding upon. We know next to nothing about the world. We don't know how it got its magic, how it lost its magic, how it got back its magic, how the elephant connects to the magic, what the point of the fortune teller was, how the elephant ended up here in the first place. Everything just happens just to happen. Instead, the story is more focused on the boy solving 99% impossible tasks to obtain the elephant to use to help find his long-lost sister. But, we don't ever see how the elephant connects between the boy and the sister in the first place. The sister gets some dreams about the elephant, but that's about it. It feels random that that is what prompts the sister to find the elephant in the first place and even worse, she somehow knows where it's at. The elephant has a nice bond with the boy, but the elephant does nothing throughout the entire film.
The tasks are pretty generic and are often solved with cop-outs. It would've been more interesting to see how our average joe main character solves more magical tasks instead of realistic tasks.
As for characters, I do think the fortune teller has a witty but weirdly mysterious personality and the king has a fun personality, but the fact that he is willing to endanger a child for no reason does not make him a good villain in my eyes. And everyone else just feels like cliches. From precocious children to magic negros to a depressed woman who never smiles. Oh yeah, and we also get some repetitive scenes of the amateur magician and an old woman arguing a couple times throughout the film.
For the animation, the backgrounds look pretty. You do get the feeling that this is a magical town and when it loses its magic, it does become drab. However, some of the character designs look a bit off for me for some reason. Like the hair and Peter's face looking like Eggs from the Boxtrolls or something. I guess it kinda fits its Victorian setting, but I think The Boxtrolls had much better designs all-around. I would say the little sister is cute, though.
Overall, it's as average as average gets for the most part. It's a fine and wholesome movie to pass the time, but don't expect a lot.
First off, the world needed some more expanding upon. We know next to nothing about the world. We don't know how it got its magic, how it lost its magic, how it got back its magic, how the elephant connects to the magic, what the point of the fortune teller was, how the elephant ended up here in the first place. Everything just happens just to happen. Instead, the story is more focused on the boy solving 99% impossible tasks to obtain the elephant to use to help find his long-lost sister. But, we don't ever see how the elephant connects between the boy and the sister in the first place. The sister gets some dreams about the elephant, but that's about it. It feels random that that is what prompts the sister to find the elephant in the first place and even worse, she somehow knows where it's at. The elephant has a nice bond with the boy, but the elephant does nothing throughout the entire film.
The tasks are pretty generic and are often solved with cop-outs. It would've been more interesting to see how our average joe main character solves more magical tasks instead of realistic tasks.
As for characters, I do think the fortune teller has a witty but weirdly mysterious personality and the king has a fun personality, but the fact that he is willing to endanger a child for no reason does not make him a good villain in my eyes. And everyone else just feels like cliches. From precocious children to magic negros to a depressed woman who never smiles. Oh yeah, and we also get some repetitive scenes of the amateur magician and an old woman arguing a couple times throughout the film.
For the animation, the backgrounds look pretty. You do get the feeling that this is a magical town and when it loses its magic, it does become drab. However, some of the character designs look a bit off for me for some reason. Like the hair and Peter's face looking like Eggs from the Boxtrolls or something. I guess it kinda fits its Victorian setting, but I think The Boxtrolls had much better designs all-around. I would say the little sister is cute, though.
Overall, it's as average as average gets for the most part. It's a fine and wholesome movie to pass the time, but don't expect a lot.