As Ida Kronenberg (Emilia Maier) navigates the hostile terrain of her new school, a school in which exists thieves and a series of bullies, she finds that the school’s newest teacher, Mary Cornfield (Nadja Uhl), has a few tricks up her sleeve for making this place of learning more bearable. This School of Magical Animals, as it’s come to be known, is now home to, you guessed it, magical animals that seemingly have the answers to all of life’s troubles. Ida and her new friends are now on a mission, and with all the magic bestowed upon them, they may just find what they’re looking for.
I think at this point, after the great success of J.K. Rowling’s magical universe, you’d be hard pressed to find someone that doesn’t associate magical animals with her Harry Potter films and their preceding books. It would be no surprise if anyone and everyone watching School of Magical Animals compares it to the aforementioned series–and that’s incredible company to be a part of. In some ways School of Magical Animals is something of a prerequisite to those other magical films as it covers a lot of the same content. It’s a far more juvenile approach to that magical content, but that’s a good thing, making it more accessible with a more efforted approach toward educating.
The score is reminiscent of John Williams’ score from the Harry Potter films. It may seem a little unfair to keep comparing School of Magical Animals to that beloved series, but I honestly mean nothing but respect (and Ida even mentions Hogwarts within the first twenty minutes of the film). The fact that it can be mentioned in the same conversation is incredible–but what’s even more impressive is the fact that while it’s easy to see similarities between the two, it still exists on its own, separate from everything else. It certainly has its own identity, and it plays with the established and the new, blending the two through the visuals, the narrative, and the score, creating something magnificent.
I’m not sure that the animation fits with the rest of the film, because I can’t figure out if the team was going for realism or full-on animation. Regardless, however, the animation is crisp–looking beautiful from beginning to end. If the special effects and animation had failed, there’s a good chance that School of Magical Animals would have failed with it. It would have been challenging to accept the very premise of the film, and I believe that anyone other than children would have looked at the film in disgust. Fortunately, School of Magical Animals employs a series of beautiful, captivating images that resonate with the imagination of even the most mature viewers.
There are a series of teachable moments present throughout the course of School of Magical Animals, and there’s no doubt in my mind that parents watching this film with their children will find a plethora of opportunities to explain the many niceties present in the film. I don’t have children, and I’m watching School of Magical Animals by myself (and I’m not even mad about it)–but I’m a teacher, and I can understand the importance of these moments. School of Magical Animals is full of them, and they are presented in ways that I believe parents and guardians will be able to effectively approach them without having to deal with awkwardness and uncomfortability. In many ways the messages are presented in a way that little minds may even be able to decipher them on their own–and that’s simply wonderful.
School of Magical Animals is most certainly a film made for children and their parents/guardians. The humor, messages, and colorful aesthetic will appeal to a younger audience, but will present adults the opportunity to appreciate what is being said and done as well. Looking at the poster for School of Magical Animals, or even hearing about the basics of the film before watching, it seems apparent that the film will be ineffective, that it will fail to muster up any form of emotion–but this film is the perfect example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Directed by Gregor Schnitzler.
Written by Viola Schmidt, John Chambers, Margit Auer, Arne Nolting, & Alexander Dydyna.
Starring Emilia Maier, Leonard Conrads, Loris Sichrovsky, Nadja Uhl, Justus von Dohnányi, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
