THE HOUSE OF MAGIC 3D [2013 / 2014] [3D Blu-ray + 2D Blu-ray] [UK Release]
A Lost Cat Is About To Go On A Magical Adventure!
Seeking shelter from a storm, abandoned young cat Thunder sneaks into a mysterious mansion owned by retired magician Lawrence. Lawrence shares his fairy-tale world with many animals and a dazzling array of automatons and gizmos capable of whipping up breakfast while rolling out a spectacular song-and-dance routine.
Lawrence soon makes Thunder feel welcome, but Jack the rabbit and Maggie the mouse start plotting to get him kicked out. When Lawrence ends up in the hospital, his nephew tries to trick him into selling the house. But its ragtag inhabitants develop a spooky strategy to defend their home. Our young hero Thunder is determined to earn his place and so he enlists the help of some wacky magician’s assistants to protect his magical new home. They turn their house into a haunted mansion, using Thunder as their secret weapon...
FIM FACT: Awards and Nominations: 2014 Seattle International Film Festival: Nominated: Films4Families Youth Jury Award for Ben Stassen and Jeremy Degruson.
Voice Cast: Cinda Adams (Nurse Baxter), George Babbit (Jack / Carlo /Zoltar), Murray Blue (Thunder / Dylan), Kathleen Browers (Carla), Joey Camen (Chihiuahua), Grant George (Daniel), Shanelle Gray (Maggie), Nina Grillo (Audrey), Kyle Hebert (Mark Mathews), Goldie Jonsie (Old Lady), Kendra Leif (Lasondra), Joey Lotsko (Mr. Eames), Millie Mup (Mrs. Eames), Will Parks (Mike Mathews), Sage Sommer (Izzy), Michael Sorich (Crane Operator), Doug Stone (Lawrence), Joey D'Auria (Reggie Willis), Ella Rouhier (Additional Voices), Noah Ray Strauss (Additional Voices), Isabella Tatone (Additional Voices) and Keegan Thomas (Additional Voices)
Directors: Ben Stassen, Jeremy Degruson and Mimi Maynard (voice director)
Producers: Adrian Politowski, Ben Stassen, Caroline Van Iseghem, Domonic Paris, Eric Dillens, Gilles Waterkeyn, Gina Gallo, Jeremy Burdek, Mimi Maynard, Nadia Khamlichi, Olivier Courson and Vincent Philbert
Screenplay: Ben Stassen (story/screenplay), Dominic Paris (screenplay) and James Flynn (screenplay)
Composer: Ramin Djawadi
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 85 minutes
Number of discs: 1
Region: Region B/2
Studio: nWave Pictures / STUDIOCANAL
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: There is something to be said for having a heart; especially with this 3D animation film ‘THE HOUSE OF MAGIC’ is brimming with excitement and can make one instantly look past all else and fall in love with it. No more is this the case than with animation, think of PIXAR’s best output or the incomparable work of Studio Ghibli, those studios deal in films with heart, warmth and emotion beneath their animated sparkle. Indeed animated features nowadays are expected to look fantastic but the competition dictates that the characters and plot be almost as polished. However, as we said at the start, heart can mean a great deal and whilst Belgian-American-French production ‘THE HOUSE OF MAGIC’ 3D is also known as ‘Thunder and the House of Magic’ outside the UK, and boasts a simplistic narrative, it comes with a rare amount of genuine joy that will please all ages.
The plot sees a ginger cat [later named Thunder is voiced by Murray Blue] abandoned at the side of the road; scared and lost he looks for a home and finds a rather dark looking old house. This house belongs to a rather eccentric but kind-hearted old magician named Lawrence [Doug Stone], who is surrounded by all manner of magical toys, critters and trinkets. But all is not well when Lawrence’s calculating estate agent nephew Daniel [Grant George] comes snooping. The plot is pretty standard in set-up and many may notice similarities to films like Bolt. There is also the usual sub-plot of the newcomer Thunder being given a hard time by locals the grouchy rabbit Jack and his friend Maggie the Mouse in not wanting to be out shadowed as in Toy Story. That being said, in spite of a few clichés, this film is directed towards a pure family market and when it comes to magical moments, it offers plenty of its own. The 3D animation is what carries ‘THE HOUSE OF MAGIC.’ The camera glides and swoops as Thunder slides down a banister, birds fly through the air and all kinds of objects are lobbed towards the viewer including pancakes, donuts and gobstoppers.
The film’s cast of characters are not the deepest but each one is eminently likable and kids may have a hard time choosing their favourite, although the speechless little light bulb man, Edison, has to be a top choice. Thunder is voiced well but sparingly by Blue and mostly it is the smoothly lovely animation that does a lot of the talking. Thunder makes a fine lead to the film and despite some meaner moments, watching Jack [George Babbit] and Maggie [Shanelle Gray] change their opinion of Thunder is surprisingly effective. Lawrence is a brilliant human centre to the story and thinks the zaniness of Doc Emmett Brown meets the happiness of Mister Geppetto and while his estate agent nephew is not the most memorable villain, he has his crazed moments. The characters, like the plot, don’t reinvent the wheel but they work well in a very sweet and colourful film.
From a brilliant Halloween-esque haunting scene to some excellent and amazing 3D thrills, this house is visually majestic. There are nice messages of old school entertainment being timeless and an idea of embracing your childlike delight. There are a few touching moments in the film pertaining to finding a real family and even when the film feels familiar it doesn’t hammer home its points or rely on lazy humour. Ramin Djawadi’s generous film music score backs a rather nostalgic little film that is littered with some surprising and older popular music. ‘The House of Magic’ 3D reminds one of ‘A Monster in Paris’ 3D, in that it is not anything that pushes animated boundaries but offers a great big warm centre that will make it an absolute winner with children and adults of all ages will be smiling along with them and that is why this is a really lovely 3D animation and thoroughly entertaining.
There is a freewheeling exhilaration in the way co-directors Ben Stassen and Jeremy Degruson embraces the technology that becomes irresistible and sustains interest as the predictable story starts to drag and grow repetitive. A soundtrack of vintage hits from the likes of Madness and Shakin’ Stevens adds to the high spirits and should bring a smile of recognition to an adult audience.
THE HOUSE OF MAGIC MUSIC TRACK LIST
AM I WRONG (Written by William Wiik Larsen, Nicolay Sereba and Vincent Dery) [Performed by Nico & Vinz]
MAYBE IT’S MAGIC [Performed by Blake Healy]
HOUSE OF FUN (Written by Mike Barson and Lee Thompson) [Performed by Madness]
THE LOVE CATS (Written by Robert Smith) [Performed by The Cure]
THIS OLE HOUSE (Written by Stuart Hamblen) [Performed by Shakin' Stevens]
HIT THE LIGHTS (Written by Leah Haywood, Daniel James and Tony Nilsson) [Performed by Selena Gomez]
3D Blu-ray Image Quality – ‘THE HOUSE OF MAGIC’ 3D is crisp clean animation featuring details down to the hair of Thunder himself and gets 10 out of 10 for the stunning 3D 1080p encoded image. While the image is sharp and well manufactured, there is a sense of it seeming reserved. The image feels like it is almost to the point of being pretty vibrant. That’s just a personal observation. The picture is pretty grand though, and displays the animation as I’m sure it was intended. This is a 3D animation film, so of course the depth is well above average. There are many stunning in your face scenes that follow things like a rail or rope that are the big highlights of this transfer. There’s also plenty of good depth revolving around the staircase in the foyer of the old house. Blacks are solid and do a real good job of shading. Not much detail is hidden by the black levels on the transfer. Colours stick out plenty and real good and give the feel of Technicolor. They seem to be based on a more simplified palette, making it pretty easy to put all the focus into this simplified colour scheme. But most important, there is no artefacts. The film opts for its fair share of 3D "gimmicks" with things like point of view shots, looming objects and various items being thrown directly at the camera serving up a nice amount of visual immersion. Some of the best moments, however, come courtesy of simpler techniques like foreground objects offering a good sense of depth back into the frame. The characters all are nicely rounded and have appropriate heft, making their emergence out of the frame toward the viewer in the more obvious 3D moments with a lot of fun. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
3D Blu-ray Audio Quality – The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is a pretty solid track. It doesn’t do anything outstanding, but it more than gets the job done. The surround sound effects like the crashing of the wrecking ball machine and thunder are some of the things in the film enhanced by the subwoofer. The Surround Sound Presentation has light usage in the rear speakers, mainly ambient noise and muted score. There is some solid left and right interplay though. But most important the Dialogue Reproduction is clear, clean and front heavy, which really enhances this beautiful 3D animation film. The 5.1 mixes offer a wealth of nice immersion with some really great sound effects, some tied to the fun with the little inventions Lawrence surrounds himself with, and the film's playful score. Perhaps a bit misleadingly, some Blu-ray covers advertise music by Selena Gomez, but her "Hit the Lights" is simply used as part of the closing credits underscore. Fidelity is excellent, and dynamic range is quite wide as well. Ramin Djawadi’s busy background score, along with some pop tunes and some classical pieces worked into the mix, get nice spread through the fronts and rears. One terrific effect with a fiery paper dragon gets some neat panning effects across the sound field, but one wishes more opportunities had been found for that kind of sweeping sound effect.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Theatrical Trailer [1080p] [1.78:1] [1:55] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the animated film ‘THE HOUSE OF MAGIC’ and is quite stunning and as good as the actual animation film, but sadly it is not in 3D. But the added bonus is that it is heard in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio.
Finally, this energetic animated family adventure film may be short on exposition, but it makes up for it with its playful attitude, exceptional use of 3D effects, and good-natured main character and I know children will fall in love with this 3D animation film and I bet they will pester their parents to put it on far too many times. No matter what your format preference is and STUDIOCANAL has brought out something truly special. Sadly the only Extra with this particular Blu-ray is the Original Theatrical Trailer, but as an added bonus it is still stunning, especially being presented in the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Although this 3D animation film is mainly aimed at children than a general all audience affair, but hey, it is also aimed at the older generation, as there is a lot of adult humour, that will go over the beads of the younger audience. Anyway I really think everyone will enjoy the 3D magic of ‘The House of Magic’ and I know you will want to view this several times, as there is far too much action going on with just one viewing. Technical merits are very strong, and ‘THE HOUSE OF MAGIC’ 3D comes with a great pedigree. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
