MAGIC IN THE MIRROR

My official VHS videocassette of Magic in the Mirror (© Ted Nicolaou/CIC Video – reproduced here in a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 1 May 2020, I watched yet another movie in my collection of hitherto-unwatched (by me) and totally obscure/forgotten family-friendly fantasies from the 1980s/90s in VHS videocassette format. This time it was the turn of Magic in the Mirror to entertain me.

I can still recall seeing and purchasing the videocassette of this strange little oddity of a film in a charity shop in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, more than a decade ago, having never seen nor heard of it before (and I've never seen it anywhere since either). Nor has it apparently been officially released in DVD format.

Directed by Ted Nicolaou, and first released in 1996, Magic in the Mirror stars a cast of non-famous American thespians supported by mainly Romanian-surnamed technical specialists. As its title indicates, the plot follows the tried and trusted theme of a fantasy world existing on the other side of a very large, old and ornate looking-glass.

In this particular movie, the looking-glass world is accessed accidentally by a girl named Mary-Margaret, where she is befriended by two mirror minders, whose job it is to ensure that no people ever cross into their world from ours. But having clearly failed to do so, as M-M is now here, they decide to take her to their decidedly imperious queen, Hysop, and fervently hope that in doing so she will not punish them by having them planted, i.e. turned into living humanoid plants (I told you it was strange!).

In order to travel to the queen, however, they run the risk of being confronted en route by the Drakes. These are a fearsome race of human-sized anthropomorphic talking ducks who have a major tea-drinking fetish that involves capturing this mirror world's unfortunate humans, sealing them inside giant teabags, and then steeping them in boiling water for 10 seconds to give the tea the required taste that they love (I TOLD you it was strange!!).

Needless to say, the Drakes' teabag-imprisoned victims do not survive this hideous process, but as it is after all a family film their grim fate is represented on-screen by nothing more disturbing than a couple of very muted shrieks emanating from inside the opaque teabags. However, the favourite tea taste of the Drakes' female leader, Dragora, is the one that is only obtained on that exceedingly rare occasion when a human from our world is captured, sealed inside a giant teabag, and steeped in boiling water for a full minute, which does not bode well for M-M's longterm prospects (I TOLD YOU IT WAS...okay, you get the message!).

Thanks in part, however, to our feisty little heroine's hitherto-distant, over-achieving physicist mother and her under-achieving but loving artist father (who always calls her Daisy, yet for no perceivable reason), her duck adversaries are well and truly roasted...

I'd say that this film is totally quackers, but I already said that earlier this month when reviewing here on Shuker In Movieland Howard the Duck (which truly was!). Or I could say that it is absolutely fowl, but in reality it's simply quirky (plus a sequel was released in 1997 with the actual subtitle Fowl Play). So what I shall do is sign off here by saying that if you're watching a movie whose villains look like ducks, sound like ducks, walk like ducks, and fly like ducks, it's clearly time to watch Deadpool instead...

But if you choose not to heed my words and remain curious to see more, click here to access a trailer for Magic in the Mirror – and may the fates be merciful to you!

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!

 

HOWARD THE DUCK

Publicity poster for Howard the Duck (© Willard Huyck/Lucasfilm Ltd/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

If I were to ask you which Marvel Comics character was the first to receive major big-screen Hollywood cinematic starring-role treatment, unless you're a super-hero geek like me you'd probably suggest Spider-Man, Hulk, one of the X-Men, Thor, or Captain America – but, if so, you'd be wrong. Believe it or not, the correct answer is (wait for it!) - Howard the Duck!

I'd long heard of this Steve Gerber-created character's critically-mauled monstrosity of an eponymously-entitled movie, directed by Willard Huyck and originally released back in 1986. Yet in view of how with iconoclastic glee I almost invariably love the films that critics hate, I fully expected to do the same with this one too. How wrong could I be?!

I finally got around to watching Howard the Duck on DVD during the evening of 6 February 2020, but after reaching the halfway mark I could take no more, freeze-framed it on my DVD player, went to bed, and left it well alone until the folowing night when, against my better judgement, I watched the second half. To be fair, that half was somewhat better, but its 109-min total running time should have been cut to no more than 90 min, removing some of the seemingly endless repetition and decidedly unfunny 'jokey' dialogue.

For those who have never watched this cinematic travesty, it is based upon a popular Marvel comic book (thus demonstrating that not all comic books successfully make the transition from printed page into movie form), telling the tale of how on a parallel planet far far away the dominant species is not human but anatine (duck). One day, an anthropomorphic duck named Howard (played predominantly by Ed Gale, augmented by a number of suit performers, puppeteers, and Chip Zien supplying his voice) is accidentally sucked out of his Duckworld planet and dropped unceremoniously into ours, landing in Cleveland, Ohio, where much is made of how he doesn't fit in before he eventually makes some human friends. These include feisty rock singer Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson) and aptly-named bumbling if well-meaning scientist Phil Blumburtt (Tim Robbins), who try to help him return home - until Earth is invaded by a Dark Overlord of the Universe, that is, who plans for his evil race of hideous monsters to take over and enslave our planet.

The only way to save our world is to destroy the one device that can return Howard to his. This means that Howard has to make a massive decision - return home to Duckworld and abandon his Earth friends and their world to a horrible fate, or save Earth but in so doing lose forever his chance of going home. Does he make the ultimate sacrifice? Does anybody care?

Quite frankly, despite suspending disbelief like there's no tomorrow, I still found the whole storyline so preposterous and Howard so obnoxious at times that for me the movie was as doomed as our planet, even when the web-footed wonder does finally come through and even though it does co-star the wonderful Tim Robbins. Apparently, this film was originally planned as an animated feature but for contractual reasons was made as a live-action movie instead, which is a great shame, because I feel that having originated as a comic book, the character and storyline would have transferred to the screen far more effectively via a cartoon format.

All in all, I'm sorry but imho Howard the Duck is totally quackers! Having said that, don't take my word for it – click here to watch the following trailer and make up your own mind.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

Howard the Duck (© Willard Huyck/Lucasfilm Ltd/Universal Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)