A Magia dos Duendes

A nice story of Leprechauns and Fairies. It stars Randy Quaid in probably his most subtle role to date, which is fitting and appreciated. Colm Meaney is excellent as the leprechaun, Seamus Muldoon. This movie falls a little short of being a classic in the fantasy genre, but it's a decent enough tale for the St. Patrick's Day season. It was made for television, so it lacks a little of the bigger production but the costumes are good and the special effects aren't bad. Probably the biggest fault of this movie is it's running time at nearly 3 hours. It has a fair bit of romance thrown in along with the battles in the forest, Irish song & dance, and other bits of merriment. I think the wee ones might be more patient with this epic length movie, while older folks may grow a bit weary waiting for it to play out.

**1/2 (Out of 4)

While I watched this I kept thinking about William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", which is very similar to this movie right down to the warring families. There are however many differences which make this better than just another adaption to the play. I enjoyed watching this mini series as I love magic and anything to do with it.

So there weren't very many big name movie stars in it, but who cares? Zoe Wanamaker was great and so were quite a few others. If you have no imagination and enjoy stunting the growth of creative minds, you probably won't like this movie. The storyline did have some throwbacks to classic themes, but it was done in such a way that it wasn't tiresome. The scenery was beautiful and anyone that loves Ireland will enjoy seeing the blue skies and rolling green hills. Whomever designed the costumes for the characters must have had fun. The were very pretty and fit the personalities of the respective wearers. Anyone that enjoys a little magic will enjoy this movie.

Although this does begin slowly, it picks up nicely and proceeds at a fair pace.

This is basically set as a commentary on the idiocy of war, having set the Leprechauns against the Faeries over nothing more consequential than race. Although forbidden by the Grand Banshee (Whoopie Golodberg), the fighting continues, as the Troopoing Faeries are the "natural enemies" of the Solitary Faeries. They have no pause to battle one another, as Fae Folk cannot die. Having no consequence to war, war seems a trivial thing to these folks. It is discussed with great dramatics, for to these wee ones, it is but a game of acting and playing, regardless of the caustic cause of the war. Once war is taken seriously, they still engage one another to a surprising effect, via the Grand Banshee, who is attempting to teach them to value their lives via reward and punishment.

Too bad humans do not learn from such drastic consequences.

Actually, this was quite enjoyable; featuring some great performances, an interesting story, and decent execution. The story is fashioned after a Romeo and Juliet setting, with good contrast between the two opposing sides, and a clearly defined relationship between the involved couple. Additionally, there is a simultaneous romance involving the humans Jack (Randy Quaid) and Kathleen (Orla Brady).

Endearing characters, enchanting story with solid morals, and magical execution make this a near-classic.

If you like this, you should try Disney's "Darby O'Gill and the Little People," "FairyTale, A True Story," or "Legend: The Ultimate Edition."

This rates an 8.4/10 from...

the Fiend :.

It is the old story of a boy and a girl in love who are forbidden to love each other because they come from two different worlds who hate each other. Yes, it's "Romeo and Juliet", it's "West Side Story" and I even would go so far to say that there'S a little bit Rose and Jack in it but never before has this story been told in such a charming way.

Here, it's a story within the story. An American businessman comes to Ireland in order to check the location and prepare everything for his American company who wants to build a golf territory in Western Ireland. At his second day of Arrival, the businessman by chance saves the life of a Leperchaun which means that the Leperchaun is devoted to him for the rest of his life. Through this incident the businessman gets to know another, magical parallel world that exists in the real human world. The parallel world has mainly two groups of human-like beings in it, the Leperchauns and the Fairys. The Leperchauns are lazy, always playing tricks on somebody and always in trouble. The Fairys on the other hand, are royal, prissy and always trying to make the world beautiful - they are responsible for the appearance of flowers and trees, e.g. for the perfect shape of the leaves and so on. Now, the son of the Leperchaun whose life the businessman saved, Mickey, falls for Jessica, a fairy and the daughter of the Fairy king. Of course this leads to trouble and you can guess how the story will go on, but it's still a pleasure to watch.

The movie is a feast of colours, nature and music, always with a bit magic in the air. Besides, the cast is brilliant. We've got Colm Meany as the Leperchaun dad, Daniel Betts as his charming son Mickey, Caroline Carver as Princess Jessica and - watch out - Whoopie Goldberg as the Big Banshee, a goddesslike creature observing all that goes on in the magical work. The movie might not be a big piece of cinema, but is really charming and a pleasure to see. It is crowned by a great music score and the title song "Fly away" performed by Emma Townsend.