Grove City Messenger - March 26th, 2023

PAGE 16 - GROVE CITY MESSENGER - March 26, 2023
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In Entertainment
“e Magician’s Elephant” is warm and engaging
I do not often watch animated movies but when I do
I tell myself afterward that I really should watch more
animated movies. Not only do I find the art design
extremely pleasing to the eye, but they almost always
feature a story with an uplifting message that I need
to hear — or that I need to remember.
Because I do not usually heed my own advice, I
often neglect my vow to watch more animated movies
when I have the chance and I frequently pass over the
opportunity to review them in favor of a live-action
(read: more adult, allegedly) option. But I have to
admit that out of all of the new theatrical releases that
were presented to me this weekend, there was just
something about “The Magician’s Elephant” that I just
could not say no to.
As someone whose interaction with children is limited
to work assignments at libraries and schools, I
had not heard of the beloved 2009 novel by Kate
DiCamillo on which this film is based but the promotional
trailers attached to the material made it look
warm and inviting for people of all ages — even the
ones without little humans running around the house.
Although the tale within and the way it is written
and depicted on screen by scribe Martin Hynes and
director Wendy Rogers is quite simple, the movie as a
whole is enchantingly endearing and one cannot help
but fall under its spell of sweetness.
The film is set in a vaguely European town called
Baltese where the aftermath of a recent war has
brought despair and stagnation to a community and a
people that was once lively and robust and full of
promise and hope. Then one day, a young orphan boy
by the name of Peter (voiced by Noah Jupe) finds a
mysterious tent in the middle of the town square with
a sign attached that says it will give an honest answer
to a hard question for anyone who dares to ask. When
Peter enters the tent, he finds a fortune teller (voiced
by Natasia Demetriou, who also narrates the story)
who speaks in riddles but tells him that the sister he
thought to be dead is still alive. In order to find her,
she says, all he has to do is “follow the elephant and
she will lead you there.”
Since Baltese is a town without a zoo — it doesn’t
even have sunshine thanks to
strange and ominous clouds
that hang overhead — Peter is
not sure where exactly to begin
looking for this mythical elephant
but he recognizes that he
has started to feel something he
had not felt in quite some time;
pure, unadulterated hope.
As Peter’s guardian, a strict former soldier named
Vilna (Mandy Patinkin), tries to dissuade his charge
from living with such a dangerous emotion, a terrible
magician (voiced by Benedict Wong) performing across
town accidentally conjures an elephant out of thin air.
This disturbance in the force, if you will, not only takes
Peter on an adventure filled with once-thought impossible
tasks to find his long lost sister, but it also
inspires the people living in the town to start shedding
the hollowness that has been inside of them since the
start of the war.
Although the movie can sometimes feel a bit overbaked
with sentimentality, there is more mature content
within the tale — mostly revolving around the elephant
which had been pulled from its herd in a faraway
land — it manages to balance out the saccharine
message that sometimes tries to overtake “The
Magician’s Elephant.”
With a rich visual design that is brought to life with
dynamic and varied human characters and animals,
“The Magician’s Elephant” is a warm and engaging
movie about trying to believe in the impossible and
being brave enough to take a step forward to find
something that brings you happiness.
Grade: B+
The Reel Deal
Dedra Cordle
Dedra Cordle is a Messenger staff writer and
columnist.
Reading with Rover
Messenger photo by Dedra Cordle
On Tuesdays, the Westland
Area Library welcomes
dozens of children for their
popular program, Music and
Movement Storytime. For
close to 45 minutes, the
youth services librarian leads
the pre-school aged children
through a song and dance
routine and then reads a
number of interactive books
to spark their curiosity while
burning off some extra energy.
At the March 14 Music and
Movement Storytime, the
children and library staff welcomed
a 5-year-old black
Labrador Retriever named Mia and a 7-year-old
Newfoundland named Theo to their festivities. In
addition to encouraging the youngsters to read
books – especially the reading material about
them! – they also lapped up the affection and attention
everyone lavished upon them during their first
foray at the event. Here, Mia, the 5-year-old black
Labrador Retriever from Grove City, hangs out with
Hunter Jones, 4, and the awesome dog mask he
made after the program.