Review: Spellbound is not quite spellbinding

A lot of hubbub was made when John Lasseter -- one of the forces that made Pixar such an animation powerhouse, who left the studio in disgrace during Hollywood #MeToo reckoning -- was brought onboard at fledgling studio Skydance Animation. It felt like a win for both parties. Lasseter got a job, the studio got an ace up their sleeve. It certainly made me expect a certain level of quality from Skydance's films. 

Then the studio's first movie, Luck, hit Apple TV+. The story of a unlucky young woman who finds herself magically transported to the world where luck is made and managed, the movie was just horrible. It felt like a cheap imitation of the kind of movies Lasseter helped bring to the screen at Pixar, like a DVD you find in the dollar bin at Walmart titled Nemo is Missing. The concept was solid. The execution was anything but. 

So I came into Spellbound feeling a bit worried. And, sadly, those worries were well-founded. While it isn't the out-and-out disaster that Luck was, Spellbound still feels like a studio trying to figure out what they're doing, who they are. It's a step in the right direction, but such a small step that I feel quite unsure about Skydance Animation's future.

Helmed by Vicky Jenson (Shrek, Shark Tale), Spellbound follows teenaged princess Ellian (Rachel Zegler, she of the golden pipes) as she attempts to undo a monstrous curse placed on her parents (Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem). A literally monstrous curse. The film's opening song does a nice job of revealing that Ellian's parents have been turned into actual monsters, and are now wreaking havoc around the castle, unable to talk, unwilling to listen. It's a fun number that ably lays the stage for the tale to come, and is performed wonderfully by Zegler and some of the starry supporting players.

Ellian and her two advisors, Bolinar (John Lithgow) and Nazara (Jennifer Lewis), come to an agreement. Ellian will try to break the curse, with a little help from a couple of gay oracles (Nathan Lane and Tituss Burgess, who are clearly having a blast), and if she fails, she'll assume the throne. I was pleasantly surprised that they all just agree on this. Bolinar and Nazara's scheming number ("Step By Step") had me wondering if they were going to be surprise villains (or at least antagonists), but then Ellian joins in at the end and they're all on the same page. 

However, this does reflect one of my big issues with this movie, which is the lack of a villain, or even a compelling antagonist. Sure, the guards are after Ellian and the monsters as they go on their quest, but that's more or less just a way to keep the plot gears cranking away. This is one of those movies where the real villain is thematic. Most viewers will figure it out by the halfway point, but it's a bit of a swing a miss. I'll avoid spoiling it outright, but I'll just say this movie will probably become a crutch for certain people in certain situations when they need to have certain conversations with their kids. Yeah.

The world Ellian must quest through feels like a bit of a kitchen sink approach to fantasy. There's so much random stuff throughout, some of it really fun or cool, some of it kind of shruggable, but it doesn't feel coherent. There's a random log tunnel the gang walks through where noises are given shape (kind noises make friendly blue blobs, mean noises make painful red bolts). A (weirdly small) desert has sand that remains firm in the light but starts shifting in the shade. Most of the ideas on display are solid, but a lot of them also feel like they were just conjured for the sake of needing an obstacle, of adding a couple minutes to the runtime. That's a fine reason to add an obstacle, to add a scene, but there has to be more to it than that. And while you can squint and find thematic echoes in these and other scenes, if the story isn't compelling, if the world doesn't feel well thought-out, it doesn't really matter in the end.

One of Spellbound's biggest selling points is bringing Alan Menken on for the music. He re-teams with lyricist Glenn Slater, and the results are solid but a bit unmemorable. I'm sitting here trying to remember the songs and see if I can hum any of the melodies, and I think there's one where I can at least get close (John Lithgow's fun "I Could Get Used to This"). I'll probably give the soundtrack a couple listens to see if any of them can worm their way into my brain, but on first watch, the songs do the job without going the extra mile. Like, I was wondering which song Netflix would campaign for awards, and I genuinely have no idea.

The songs fare a lot better than the script, though, which often throws in random modern-sounding slang ("chill", "caszh", "mother-loving") and humor (upgrading a wand for a multi-functional fob) that hit my ear with a resounding thud. It's the kind of stuff that I think really makes a movie feel cheap, of-its-time (derogatory), and limp. Then there's the requisite mass of cute creatures, one of which is Ellian's pet. Nondescript fuzzy things, you know the drill. And the "Point A to Point B to Point C" plotting itself, which feels arbitrary and boring.

But there are also some moments and scenes that really shine. An early encounter with a mailman had me actually howling with laughter, it's so perfectly-written, -paced, and -performed. Some of the most action-y scenes are quite fun, and look great. There's an old woman who works in the castle who repeatedly made me laugh with her shenanigans. And kudos to the writers for having a well-played punchline that is simply "Colonoscopies."

On the whole, I'm glad to see another studio wade into Disney's well-staked territory of a fairy tale musical. I think it's weird we don't get more studios taking a swing, considering how often such movies are massive hits for the House of Mouse. Spellbound is sadly more Wish than Frozen, but it feels like Skydance Animation might manage to get their shit together one of these days. Even if it takes a while, I'll be seated until they do.