by James Coulter

Sigh. Okay! Let’s address the animated elephant in the room. This movie was directed by John Lasseter, who was hired by Skydance Studios after being let go from Pixar due to allegations of sexual misconduct.

Skydance Studios, to date, has released two animated features. Its first movie was Luck, which did so poorly with views and reviews that Apple Studios broke ties with them. Now, they’re working with Netflix, and have released their second film: Spellbound.

So what of their second outing? Will their second attempt at an animated film prove better than the first? Or will this movie prove the new animation studio has quite an unlucky streak? (Which is quite ironic for a company whose first film was about bad luck.)

Spellbound takes place in the magical fantasy world of Lumbia, where lives the Princess Ellian. One year ago, her parents traveled into the Dark Forest, only to return transformed into monsters. For the past year, Princess Ellian has been forced to keep her parent’s monstrous transformation a secret from the rest of the kingdom until she finds a cure.

She is informed by two magical oracles that she and her monster parents must travel through the Dark Forest to a magical Lake of Light to transform them back into humans. Will Ellian succeed in her journey? Or are her parents doomed to remain monsters?

Spellbound is pretty…okay. Not great. Not even pretty good. Just okay. Pretty okay. The movie certainly ran the risk of being bad, and while it came close, there were a few good things about the film that redeemed it. So, let’s start by accentuating the positives.

The premise was certainly promising enough. Off the bat, the story begins with the parents transformed into monsters. No reason (outside of magic) is given why the parents were transformed this way, but through Ellian’s journey, the mystery behind their transformations slowly unfolds and reveals the movie’s not-so-subtle metaphor and message.

As the movie progresses, it soon becomes quite apparent that the parent’s monstrous transformation is a not-so-subtle metaphor for dysfunctional families, with each trial that Ellian and her parents faces delving deeper into this metaphor and teaching the family how to overcome their dysfunction.

For example, at the start, the reason given as to why Ellian’s parents were changed into monsters was because they had been overcome by darkness due to losing the light in their hearts…a not-so-subtle metaphor for how anger and resentment can make someone forget the love they have for their own loved ones.

One of the trials in the forest involves Ellian and her parents traveling through a giant hollow log, where sound transforms into magical energy. Positive sound turns into beautiful manifestations, while harsh and negative sounds turn into dangerous attacks. Again, a not-so-subtle metaphor for how our words can either help or harm others.

Another trial has the family traveling over a desert, where internal turmoil causes people to sink and can even create a dangerous sandstorm. Ellian discovers how their journey across the desert only increases in peril the more her two parents argue with each other. Again, a not-so-subtle metaphor for how arguments can make us lose our footing.

It’s quite clear the movie has a lot to say about familial relationships, how our hate and anger transform us into monsters, how we all need to rediscover the light of our own love, and how families ought to support each other with their words and actions. So, the movie comes pretty close to expressing a very profound message.

Unfortunately, while the movie has a good idea, where it fumbles is its overall execution. For starters, the visuals, while stunning and spectacular at times, do come across as rather generic and bland. Have you ever seen one of those AI-generated images that often plague Facebook feeds? Many of the character designs almost look like they were AI-generated.

This is quite a pity, as the overall world does look rather promising. I very much love the overall fantasy world aesthetic: flying beasts, waterfalls that serve as city gates, and buildings with fantastical architecture and design. It makes me wish the art style was equally as fantastical and not so generic-looking.

Perhaps even more generic are the songs. It’s quite apparent that the soundtrack wants to be as Broadway-style bombastic as a Disney movie, but all of the songs sound rather generic and unforgettable, to the point where you forget that a musical number even occurred. There are no songs that stand out, and for a movie that’s trying to ape off of Disney, that’s a shame.

The movie also suffers from pacing. Many times the film feels like it’s padded to maintain a feature-length runtime. This is egregiously apparent at the beginning. Princess Ellian has to consult two oracles from the forest. At first, she has to wait until they arrive for her birthday. But they’re quickly chased away by her monster parents. She has to then track them down in the forest, and only then is she told what to do. If this sounds like needless padding, that’s because it most certainly is.

Overall, while Spellbound had big potential with big ideas, the overall execution leaves a rather generic movie with a run-of-the-mill story, bland characters and design, and unmemorable music. It’s a decent enough film to keep your kids preoccupied. But this movie could have been better. Much better.