The Magician’s Elephant is a Netflix Original animated movie. I am liking what Netflix is doing with their original animated movies and this one here is pretty decent. It is not the kind of movie that will blow you away, but it has a lot of heart and it is entertaining while you watch it.
How to Download The Magician’s Elephant
You can download or stream the film from Netflix. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. Check out also other animated films that Netflix released over the years such as Back to the Outback, The Sea Beast, or Wendell & Wild.
The Movie Review
I did not find this out until after I had seen the movie, but The Magician’s Elephant is actually based on a kid’s book that was released in 2009 and a movie version of it has been in the works for quite some time. Netflix has a talented voice cast here with the likes of Benedict Wong, Mandy Patinkin, Miranda Richardson, and the talented young, Noah Jupe in the lead role.
The setting of the movie is a fictional place called Baltese which was once a magical city. Baltese after being involved in a horrible war has lost most of its magic and is not the magical and happy place that it once was. Many people suffered hardships in the war, including our main character a young boy called Peter who was orphaned as a result of the war.
Peter is taken in by a very interesting and somewhat eccentric soldier called Sgt. Vilna Lutz. Peter is a very likable character and one day he comes across a fortune teller that tells him that his sister who he thought died in the war is still alive. Now, that gets Peter excited and fills him with hope, but things are about to get strange.
You see, the fortune teller informs Peter that if he can find and follow an elephant he will find his sister. Well, wouldn’t you know it, a local magician has somehow caused an elephant to fall from the sky! This elephant is taken away by the authorities and when Peter hears about this, he sees it as a sign.
Peter wants that elephant, but he is given three tasks that he needs to complete before he can get it! Look, you can see where The Magician’s Elephant is going pretty much five minutes into the movie. However, just because it is predictable does not mean that it is not good!
This is a fun and charming story that has some very interesting and quirky characters that you will grow to like. Also, Netflix has been delivering big time when it comes to their animated movies looking great and that is the case here. I already touched on the voice cast, but they do a great job of making you care about these characters.
The thing with The Magician’s Elephant is that I enjoyed it while I was watching it and I looked at my wife after it ended and said it was pretty good. However, fast forward a couple of days and I had pretty much forgotten about the movie already. Still, every movie does not have to be an all-time classic. Sometimes a movie can be a great time, even if it does not stick with you forever and that is what I feel like we have here.
