journal features

movie review - Secret Magic Control Agency

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Kokubunji, 2021.07.03

This is an animated flick that re-purposes twenty-something Hansel and Gretel as investigators for the society of magicians that maintains order by tracking down missing peoples of all types. This time it's the king who's been kidnapped. It's full-on suspension of disbelief time because the plot is pretty uneven, spending way too much time on the strained relationship between the sister and brother. Since it's not really clear why anyone cares about the king, I can't say that the stakes are all that high. The thing looks good, though, and there's enough humor and action to pave over that dragging plot. The characters develop to some extent through the course of the thing, but even that's not enough of a payoff.

Recommended. For those nights when you need something to share with the kids. And that is it.

rand()m quote

The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov