When Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, they were clearly after Star Wars. In the past ten years, Willow and Indiana Jones are the only other Lucasfilm properties to get so much as a mention. There was, however, one non-Star Wars movie that got released and everyone promptly forgot about, Strange Magic.

Strange Magic is a children’s, fantasy, romance, and jukebox musical. It was released on January 23, 2015, and was a huge flop. It only grossed about $13 million with a budget of over $50 million. The only reason I saw it was because my daughter was four at the time and it’s a kid’s movie. She absolutely loved it. It was her favorite movie for quite a while, and I have now seen it many times. I like it, too. It’s far better than most of the kid’s movies that get released. It’s a bit of a mystery why it was so hated on and neglected.

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The story sounds convoluted in the description, but it was easy enough for my four-year-old to understand. As a kid’s movie, there is no need to worry about spoilers. The realm is split in two, a light side and a dark side (sound familiar?). Maryann is a princess and heir to the throne of the Fairy Kingdom. She is engaged to Roland but discovers on their wedding day that he’s been cheating. She calls off the wedding and starts training herself to become completely independent. Meanwhile, Sunny the elf is in love with Maryann’s sister, Dawn. But Dawn is so busy flirting with other guys that she doesn’t notice. Roland, because he’s an ambitious jerk determined to be king, tries to come up with a plan to marry Maryann anyway. He manipulates Sunny into getting a love potion.

The only problem is the Sugar Plum Fairy is the only one who can make the potion and she is a captive of the Bog King in the Dark Forest because the Bog King wants to banish love after having his heart broken. Sunny manages to get the potion, but things go awry. The Bog King marches to the fairy kingdom to retrieve and destroy the potion only Dawn gets a dose and falls in love with the Bog King and then an imp steals the potion and starts sprinkling it on everyone she can find in both realms. The Bog King says the fairies will never see Dawn again unless they deliver the love potion to him. Maryann goes to rescue her sister and while she’s fighting/talking with the Bog King, realizes how much they have in common, and they develop feelings for each other. Finally, they learn that true love is the antidote to the love potion and Sunny is able to cure Dawn and Maryann and the Bog King express their feelings for one another.

See? It sounds like a lot, but it flows very easily. The animation is gorgeous. The characters are drawn in the string-puppet style that Lucasfilm favored at the time, like in The Clone Wars. The voice acting is great. The themes range from the difference between love and infatuation to anti-racism. And then there’s the music. The songs are all pop hits ranging from Elvis Presley to Beyonce and they are very cleverly arranged and fit seamlessly into the movie. They move the story along instead of being musical interludes. Put that all together and Strange Magic is a lot of fun.

The movie was a bit of a passion project for George Lucas. He spent fifteen years developing it. He hoped to have it be his last feature before retiring. Unfortunately, Disney wasn’t interested in such things. They gave the movie a January release which everyone knows is reserved as a dumping ground for movies the studios don’t like. There was almost no marketing done. It wasn’t even released everywhere. And all of those factors primed the critics against it. It’s a small miracle it made the $13 million it did.

If Disney had just treated Strange Magic like any other movie, I’m sure it would have found its audience. It’s too bad it was never given a chance. I encourage everyone reading this to give it a real, honest chance. It might have failed in its initial release, but it has cult classic written all over it. Strange Magic can be streamed now on Disney+.

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