Spellbound

Children’s movies have been just delightful the last few years. And one of my favorite young actresses is Rachel Zegler, so when I found out that she was in an animated film, I knew that I was going to have to check it out. Spellbound actually has an incredibly stacked cast and I know no one hires Rachel unless they are going to let her sing. So I am super excited to dive into this animated musical adventure.

We are breaking the fourth wall, a very difficult device to use well. Doing it in the opening, context song is fine I guess but then never doing it again feels a little weird.

It's a very interesting premise, I love coming of age stories, especially those that center around little girls. This little princess having to grow up to fast because some kind of spell was cast on her parents and turned them into monsters.

The songs are pretty well placed thus far. The song quality is a different story, step by step was pretty good. I kinda hated the opening song but the vocals are so good that I don’t care that much.

This journey is this princess trying to get her parents changed back. They have to make their way through the forest of darkness, a little on the nose but it's a kids movie. My guess is the whole reason they were changed into monsters was because they were arguing in the forest. Apparently dark thoughts feed the darkness of the forest. So every time her parents argue or fight the darkness comes for them like a tornado. Ellian’s positivity and kindness seems to balance them out really well.

They realize that their fighting is what caused them to turn into monsters, and they realize that they don’t want to be together anymore. Ellian finally has some dark thoughts and the darkness starts to come for her. She has been strong through her parents fighting, and then them turning into monsters. I think this is a pretty good visual representation of how children of divorce feel, and children of people who stay together “for the kids”, cause that always ends well.

Some of these songs are just straight up unnecessary, friendly reminder that if you writing a musical the music needs to aid the plot, that is like the whole point. And some of the songs serve a purpose and others don’t and that just feels a little underdeveloped, or poorly thought out.

The visual of the storm made of darkness to reflect how she feels in sign is undeniably good though. And then it starts turning her into a monster, such a great visual representation for how your actions as parents affect your children. I think a lot of parents need to see this movie.

We do break the fourth wall again at the end using it as a bookend isn’t a bad idea.

It most certainly is not the best kids film released this year but honestly it's still pretty good. I think the message is really really important. Everyone is fucked up by their parents, but no ones parents actually acknowledge that. I think this film would be really healing to kids of divorce and I think any couple going through some shit would benefit from seeing this. Kids need to know that they come first, and parents need to remember that their kids come first. Rachel obviously has a gorgeous voice and her performance was the best part of the music. 7/10 feels about right, any higher would be dishonest but it genuinely was not a bad movie.