melskunk

I caught this on TV a few days ago, and as a long time magic fan, had to watch. Unfortunately, I found it painfully dated and uninteresting. Though apparently this "plot" was applied to a successful stage show Mr. Henning had done as well, it was exceedingly annoying and tiresome. And it was a musical, something that rarely works well, and certainly didn't here. And magic acts just don't work in film format.

What is spectacular and interesting in person (or arguably, live TV) feels like just another movie effect when placed in a film, which is unfortunate, because really the only reason to WATCH this is all the signature tricks performed in it. It takes all the mystery out of it.

It's sad that this is the only example of Mr. Henning's work available, because it sucks a lot of the life out of it. Doug's personality does shine, but I cannot imagine his bare-faced wonder and colourfulness would interest modern audiences. Even wanting to like and enjoy this movie, I just couldn't watch most of it.

The wonderful thing about a book is that you can sit down and linger over all your favorite parts of it. When I was not too much younger, I'd re-read my favorite scenes of children's books I loved over and over, savouring them. Here, it's all rushed. Sure, it's Harry Potter's greatest hits in complelation format, but I felt stunned, rushed and at the same time bored during the film. I wasn't awed. I wasn't thrilled. Except for a few brief moments, I generally sat there keeping up to pace and wondering how they'd do the scary scenes. (Those, and the Quiddich match, were wonderful and real movie savers) It's a nice little film, and perhaps if I was 14 or so I'd want to see it again, which is of course the point. But not now.

If you're planning on seeing the live action Lord of the Rings, this should be mandatory viewing, primarily because it is quite good at explaining all that back story the new movie crams into a 2 minute section of prologue.

Plus, it's beautifully animated and delightfully told. If I remember correctly, it's done by the same people who did "The Last Unicorn". It's really a fabulous little movie, if you're expecting the children's story the Hobbit was originally written to be.