An elephant drops out of the sky by magic. I always wonder when I see stuff like this in the movies if we’re acknowledging the presence of God-like powers in the hands of mortals? Think about it: what is the origin of the elephant? Do you see what I’m getting at? Was the elephant summoned (if so, from where, and how?) or spontaneously created, in which case is it a real elephant? How does a magician get a blueprint for creating a real life elephant spontaneously? Spontaneous a-sexual creation of life seems like a power only a God might have. Some might consider that spontaneous transportation of an elephant from wherever one might summon an elephant to be God-like as well.
So this crappy titular magician … is it God? Given the profound mediocrity imbedded within this character and the magician’s complete inability to reach a desired outcome using magic, well, that would explain a few things, no? What God would create a scenario by which Donald Trump becomes President? Is God evil? Why, no! God is just all-powerful, but incompetent! Ah. It all makes sense now.
Today’s film is less about an elephant than about the boy who needs to believe in elephants and magic and, eventually, that he can find his kid sister. Peter (voice of Noah Jupe) is something of a war orphan. He and his constantly uniformed grandfather live a life of restraint and anxiety … except for the part where Peter is groomed by gramps to ignore that anxiety. Soldiers gonna be soldiers, y’know? So they live in a one-room sheetless attic playing marching games and always choosing “the smallest fish” the monger has to sell. Anything bigger would lead to flab and decadence.
The –I want to say vaguely European, but deliberately unaffiliated- town/kingdom used to live in Skittles-world, now it’s all just kinda blasé, ike when the Blue Meanies take over Pepperland. Years ago, Peter knew he had a baby sister, and now gramps is gaslighting that baby sis died in the war. So one day, Peter
goes to buy the daily minnow and instead spends the food allowance on a fortune teller; the teller knows what’s going to happen long before it does which makes me a little embarrassed that she needs payment, but, hey, commerce is commerce. Maybe she just wanted the kid to make the conscious choice to go hungry in exchange for the knowledge that his sister lives, all he has to do is follow the elephant.
Except there are no elephants. That is, there were no elephants until the crappy magician accidentally plays God. The Magician’s Elephant suddenly becomes not only the focal point for Peter, but for the town, nay, the kingdom. There are adventures to be had for Peter to win his prize.
The Magician’s Element is serviceable entertainment. In the right mood, you’ll be able to laugh, cry, and gasp at the doings on screen. It’s not elephant-sized entertainment, but Peter is likeable if unspectacular and his cause is pure if globally banal. Well, hey, I’ve been pushing of late for plots that don’t involve the destruction of the world, what, then, could be better than searching for your baby sister? There are better family films out there, but one requires, ironically, little magic to make it enjoyable.
There once was a boy name Peter
Whose goal no one else could detour
An elephant, it’s said
Would bring sis thought dead
Which is great, so long as it didn’t eat her
Rated PG, 99 Minutes
Director: Wendy Rogers
Writer: Martin Hynes
Genre: Tales we don’t believe, but like to see anyway
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Orphans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Elephants
