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Starting over in a new town can be stressful. And when a colorful little girl struggles to settle into a new school in the English-dubbed German adventure School of Magical Animals (Die Schule der magischen Tiere), she gets some help from a couple of classmates and a magical furry friend.
School of Magical Animals follows Ida (Emilia Maier) as she begins a new life in a new town. Though she’s nervous about her first day at the Winterstein School, it turns out to be even worse than she feared. Everyone there is mean—except for mild-mannered classmate Benni (Leonard Conrads) and eccentric new teacher Miss Cornfield (Nadja Uhl). Ida is determined to fit in and make new friends—and when Miss Cornfield introduces the children to her magical animal friends, Ida and her new animal companion set out to solve a mystery that’s troubling the school.
Based on the popular children’s book series by author Margit Auer, School of Magical Animals is playful and colorful, set in a bright and fanciful Bavarian setting and filled with magic and music. The characters here all have big personalities—from the mean girls to the cool boys to lovable Miss Cornfield. Nadja Uhl’s performance feels like what you might get if Helena Bonham Carter played Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus—and Milan Peschel plays her brother, Mortimer, with all of the cross-eyed wackiness of Steve Buscemi in an Adam Sandler movie.
Add in a couple of magical animals, a little bit of preteen friendship drama, and the mystery of a thief who’s stealing items from around the school, and you’ve got a vibrant adventure that feels like a mix of all of your kids’ favorite magical fantasies.
Admittedly, this isn’t a brilliant, original family film. Everything here seems strangely familiar, and the story is rather random and chaotic, bouncing from the investigation into the school’s super thief to the experiences of the magical animals to Ida’s struggle to fit in with her new classmates—and that’s just the beginning. It certainly doesn’t offer a solid, cohesive story, but young viewers will enjoy the color and the magic and the fun characters nonetheless.
School of Magical Animals may not be a dazzling family film, but it is a fun one—a bright and imaginative albeit rather chaotic fantasy about friendship and magical animals and accepting each other’s differences.
You can take the family to see School of Magical Animals when it arrives in select theaters on March 24, 2023.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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