The Stream: Takes a bit to get going

The Big Screen: The metaphor as a whole and the animation of such

The Final Bill: A nice family movie to help kids understand parental relationships

– S2S: Movie Review
Director: Vicky Jenson
Writers: Vicky Jenson, Lauren Hynek, Elizabeth Martin
Stars: Rachel Zegler, John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Musical
Rating: PG for thematic elements and some action/peril
Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes
Production Companies: Ilion Animation Studios, Netflix Animation, Skydance Animation
Platform: Released on Netflix November 22, 2024

Welcome to Christmas Eve Eve Eve, Streamers! So, obviously, this weekend we took the time to watch a movie that had nothing to do with Christmas at all, Spellbound. Full disclosure, we watched this one weeks ago and just forgot to post it. Oh well! Spellbound follows Ellian, a tenacious princess who is tasked with running the kingdom in her parents’ absence. But, are her parents absent; or have they just been turned into giant monsters?! I think the latter and Ellian tries one last time to change her parents back before she must officially take over. Monster family emotional hijinks ensue.

Let’s not waste any more time. This is a family movie with a modern-day message for kids and parents on how to handle a difficult marital situation. That’s the best way of explaining what the movie is about without spoilers. This animated movie does a really great job of displaying the different stages of lack of communication, absence, anger, and eventually resolution. Not knowing what the movie was about going in, I completely understood exactly the purpose of the movie and I’d recommend this movie to any parents in this situation. I’m not exactly certain that there are other animated movies that touch this topic for the pre-teens. Either way, the movie looks crisp, and the evil spell animation reminds me of the Inside Out 2 anxiety depiction. Outside of the storyline, the cast does pretty well with their voicework. There are a couple nice songs that won’t make mainstream but are still nice. The movie is a quick watch.

Long story short, Spellbound is a very nice family story that can definitely help parents teach their children what’s going on in their marital situation. Strife in the home is never great but Spellbound depicts just how much the parents affect the kid even when they aren’t there. Grab a bowl of popcorn and check out Spellbound.