Spellbound is the second feature length-film from Skydance Animation, the up-and-coming studio to which John Lasseter moved after his abrupt departure from Disney. While the studio’s first film, Luck, left theatergoers expecting and wanting more, will Spellbound be able break the spell and be Skydance’s first big hit?
Spellbound tells the story of princess Ellian (Rachel Zegler) whose parents—King Solon (Javier Bardem) and Queen Ellsmere (Nicole Kidman)—have mysteriously transformed into monsters. In order to protect the kingdom, Ellian and a close group of confidants have concealed this secret from the Lumbrian denizens and military forces for over a year. Crushed by what her parents have become, Ellian enlists the help of two mystical oracles—Sunny (Tituss Bergess) and Luno (Nathan Lane)—to break the spell. However, all comes crashing down as the captain of the guard discovers the truth and chases after Ellian and her parents. Will she be able to free her parents from the spell before it’s too late?
With animation music legends Alan Menken and Glenn Slater (the songwriting duo from Tangled) as part of the Spellbound team, you’d think the songs would be a slam dunk. Unfortunately, the music is bland and generic. The best song is the Zegler’s opening song “This Is Me,” which is catchy and has sparks of greatness, but all the other songs are easily forgotten as soon as they begin.
Speaking of Rachel Zegler, despite being currently steeped in controversy, she does a great job as the princess. Her voice is vibrant and youthful and she’s a talented singer reminiscent of Mandy Moore in Tangled. Though Ellian‘s age is ambiguous (Is she 12? 16? 18?), Zegler nonetheless aptly portrays the young girl very well. If you didn’t know anything about the controversy surrounding her, you wouldn’t bat an eye at this perfectly princessy performance.
A paper-thin plot and one-dimensional characters are weak points of Spellbound. Nothing feels deep, as everything is surface level. At first glance, this fantasy world seems new and very interesting: Ellian and her friends flying on massive winged catlike beasts, the spiral set designs, the angular Asian-inspired court clothing. But it’s not cohesive. Likewise, the magic in this world is thin really doesn’t make sense when you sit back and think about it. The film conveniently moves from plot point to plot point, ultimately pushing Ellian to the end where the big reveal about the parents occurs.
Spellbound‘s big monster in the room is the reveal that the reason the parents became monsters is because…they fight. And by “fight”, it’s just that they mildly quarrel. They realize that this is something that they’re unable to overcome so they decide that it’s best to separate and divorce. Divorce is an incredibly tough topic to handle and, while I applaud Skydance for trying, they don’t stick the landing on this one.
Other films like Mrs. Doubtfire and The Santa Clause have shown that you can tactfully handle this sensitive issue in a children’s movies. However, this film you left with more questions and answers. For example, when we see flashbacks of the parents fighting, the fights are so mild that it’s almost laughable. It’s understandable why they didn’t want to push the boundaries and really show the parents going at it, or even as far as physical abuse (which would unequivocally be justified reason for divorce); however, because what we are shown is so bland and tepid, it makes you angry at the parents for their ultimate decision.
Divorce is always a travesty, especially for children. A child’s world is shredded to pieces. And the message that Spellbound leaves you with is, “It’s OK! Mom still loves you, Dad still loves you, and because of that, everything’s just the same.” And they’ll even sing a happy little divorce song to convince you about it. But that simply not true. It will never be the same and we need to quit pretending that divorce is the same as two as a stable family unit with two parents that love each other. Spellbound‘s message sugarcoats divorce and doesn’t go far enough.
The Oracles are one of the highlights of the film. Their design, representing the Sun and the Moon, and voice actors are memorable, in a film where almost nothing is. They were very clever, jovial, and pleasant. We see them for a decent amount of time in the film; however, at the end of the day, they really just feel like a check box to get us to our final destination.
The film attempts to tell a classic whimsical musical fairytale with an unexpected plot twist. At first glance, it checks off all the boxes needed to make an animated hit and even has some of the key players that have been so crucial in doing so in the past. Is Lasseter the mastermind? Is it Menken and Slater? Is it the princess tale in fairytale setting? Whatever it is, these ingredients didn’t break the magic spell.
Spellbound flounders about and ultimately gets stuck trying to tell a meaningful message about divorce. It puts the message before the story and that’s never a recipe for success. And because it’s such a muddled mess, most parents will just prefer to pass on this one entirely.
Spellbound is available exclusively on Netflix on November 29, 2024.
★1/2
