Pixar's latest animated film,2 Magic," received a lot of attention long before its release.
Both have Pixar's golden signboard, produced by the gold team of Toy Story 4, The Incredibles and Dream Quest.
There is also a publicity gimmick, "Dutch brother" Tom Holland and "Star Lord" Chris Pratt are the two protagonists in the film, respectively, and even the image is like a copy of two people.
However, the two releases of the film were unlucky, the box office was dismal, and the half-hanging magic could not be used.
When it was released in North America in March, it won the first week of the title with nearly $40 million, but it became the lowest-grossing film in the first week of Pixar North America.
Turned to the Chinese market, released for three days after the resumption of work in domestic theaters, the box office was only more than 5 million.
Word-of-mouth is also far less than Pixar's previous "gods", IMDb score 7.4, Douban score 7.7, for Pixar, this performance is really not ideal.
Did Pixar's magic really not work this time?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >01 Anti-otherworldly setting: When technology replaces magic</h1>
The wizarding world is always full of fantastic fantasies, but 1/2 of Magic does the opposite, allowing advanced modern technology to replace ancient magic.
As a result, the magical world in the movie becomes like this:
Wizards throw away their wands and use electrical appliances skillfully; centaurs give up running and drive cars; elves stop flapping their wings and ride on harley motorcycles; scorpion-tailed lions open restaurants in a disciplined manner and have to fix stereos for their guests; mermaids soak in the pool to enjoy the summer, wandering unicorns rummaging through street trash cans for food...
These magical creatures even lived the same life as ordinary modern people, who forgot the existence of magic and even degenerated their instincts.
Sure enough, only "1/2 of the magic" remained.
The protagonist Ian has a timid and cowardly personality, is bullied at school and does not dare to fight back, and is even ashamed to invite his classmates to a birthday party.
At home, he also didn't know how to get along with his brother Barry, who spent all day yelling about going on adventures.
Ian often felt lonely and out of place with the outside world, so he made his father, who had never been masked, the object of his conversation.
His dad died of illness long before Ian was born, and he could only look for his shadow in old photographs, tapes, or through sporadic descriptions of his mom and brother.
On Ian's 16th birthday, a surprise appeared.
It turned out that Dad had already prepared him with a 16-year-old coming-of-age ceremony — a magic wand, a phoenix gem, and a "visiting charm" that would keep Dad coming back for 24 hours.
Barry exerted all his strength, but to no avail, Ian inadvertently recited a few incantations and suddenly appeared.
However, the magic was cast only one-half, summoning a father who only had a lower body.
Within 24 hours, a new Phoenix Gem must be found to be reunited with Dad.
In this way, the two brothers embarked on an adventure.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >02 The real core behind "Get Daddy Back"</h1>
On the surface, 1/2 of Magic is about Ian and Barry's adventures to retrieve their father's upper body, but in reality, that's not the real core of the story.
In the end, Ian did not really meet his father.
But in the dangerous experience along the way, he has already harvested something more valuable.
Find your own talent and self-confidence
Ian's inferiority stems from the fact that he thinks he is useless, is not good at making friends, and does not dare to merge into the traffic when practicing driving.
He pinned his hopes on the "half dad", thinking that if he had the company of his dad, he would be able to do these things well.
During the adventure, he gradually discovered his innate talent for magic, becoming more and more proficient in mastering magic, and exploding with great power in times of crisis.
When he used magic to build the "Bridge of Trust", he thought that he had a rope tied to his body before he dared to go forward, but in fact, the rope had already fallen off halfway.
It turned out that he didn't need his father to be around, nor did he need the rope as an insurance, and Ian had been able to overcome the difficulties on his own.
He wasn't a waste of wood that couldn't do anything, he just lacked that bit of self-confidence.
Trust and understanding are reached between brothers
Prior to this adventure, the relationship between Ian and his brother Barry was somewhat distant.
Ian was tired of his brother's whim to take risks, embarrassed him in front of his classmates, and even jealous that he had enjoyed his father's favor.
In order to evade police questioning, the brothers use magic to transform into their stepfather, the Centaur Officer, and once they tell a lie, the magic will be ineffective.
The police officer opposite said that Barry was "difficult to discipline and a shit-stirrer", and Ian said "I don't agree", but his legs immediately appeared in their original shape.
Only then did Bally realize that in his brother's eyes, he was this image.
Misunderstandings and quarrels ensued.
When they go through the hardships but return to the original point, Ian thinks that the previous achievements have been abandoned, and he hurts Barry with the harshest words.
However, when he faced the dying sunset and tearfully crossed out the planned items, he suddenly found that in fact, all these things were completed.
I have a picture of growing up with my brother, learning to swim, learning to ride, playing and playing together...
Ian suddenly realized that it was his brother who had always accompanied him, always giving him encouragement and confidence, allowing him to constantly surpass himself.
It's okay not to see Dad, "but you've always been by my side".
Regain the courage to take risks
In a world where magic is abandoned, safety and security have replaced the courage to take risks, and people hide in the comfort zone of comfort, not daring to take a half-step into the unknown.
Scorpion Lion opened a restaurant and honestly did business, refusing to give the brothers a map to find gems, and the so-called magic and adventure legends became decorations on the walls, and even she herself forgot the rhetoric of the past:
"A vigorous adventure must gamble everything."
In a letter left by dad to the brothers, he wrote: I hope there is still a little magic left in them.
What exactly is "magic"?
It is a natural personality bound by modern society, a stifled curiosity, an adventurous spirit masked by the idea of pursuing stability.
Ian and Barry find not only half of their father, but also let the "magic" be accepted and confronted.
"If you can have a little magic in your life, you can do anything."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right">03</h1>
To say that the shortcomings of the movie are of course many, some plots obviously fall into the cliché, and you can immediately guess what will happen in the next second.
The first step Ian takes on the Bridge of Trust, you can guess that the rope will definitely fall halfway through, and Ian will definitely continue to move forward without knowing it.
The brothers circled around looking for the gem, only to return to the school gate, Ian angrily left, and you could guess that the Phoenix Gem was actually near the school.
Even without the "curse" revealed by the Scorpion-tailed Lion, I would have thought that taking down the gem would definitely trigger some kind of mechanism.
In terms of plot, "1/2 of magic" does not bring a lot of surprises, and it lacks the amazing spectacle of "The World of the Dead" in "Dream Quest", and the brothers' magical adventures seem a bit "pediatric".
In addition, other characters, such as the mother, the scorpion tail lion and the stepfather centaur police officer, etc., have not left a deep memory point, and there is no strong conflict between them and the protagonist.
I feel that Pixar only used "1/2" of the power this time, and the overall standard is decent.
Still, the moment I saw Ian looking through the cracks in the masonry at his father and brother embracing each other, I was still touched when Barry relayed that hug to Ian again.
Keep looking forward to the next Pixar production, which will cast all the magic!