The House of Magic

The House of Magic
Directed by
Produced by
  • Nadia Khamlichi
  • Adrian Politowski
  • Ben Stassen
  • Caroline Van Iseghem
  • Gilles Waterkeyn
Screenplay by
  • James Flynn
  • Dominic Paris
  • Ben Stassen
Story by Ben Stassen
Starring
Music by Ramin Djawadi
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • 25 December 2013 (2013-12-25)
Running time
 85 minutes
Country Belgium
France
Language English
French
German
Budget $34 million[1]
Box office $64.2 million[2]

The House of Magic (Thunder and The House of Magic in the United States) is a 2013 3D Belgian-French computer-animated fantasy-comedy film produced by Nadia Khamlichi, Adrian Politowski, Ben Stassen, Caroline Van Iseghem and Gilles Waterkeyn and directed by Jeremy Degruson and Ben Stassen. The film focuses on an abandoned young cat who seeks shelter in the home of an old, retired magician with his automatons and gizmos.

It will have spinoff TV series called School of Magic.[3]

Plot

While moving to a new home in Boston, a couple stops the car and the woman opens the door and throws a toy ball on the sidewalk so that their tabby ginger cat can chase after it. The kittenish cat, later realizes that he has been abandoned by his owners when they close the door and drive away without him and looks for a refuge. A tiny Chihuahua attempts to befriend him but is quickly dragged off by his leash. After various obstacles and near accidents, he's chased by a large Doberman until he comes to an old house with fame of being cursed in the neighborhood. Entering via an open attic window, the cat explores the strange contraptions about and tries to befriend a small mouse named Maggie, who's terrified of him despite the cat trying to convince her that he doesn't even eat mice. Soon, he is threatened by Jack, Maggie's rabbit friend, and Maggie; ordering him to leave the house before their owner sees him, afraid the cat will monopolize his love and attention since he loves cats. They throw the cat out but he finds his way back in through a cellar window, attempting to escape a thunderstorm, and explores more of the house. Then, he hides behind an urn as the house's owner, Mr. Lawrence, a kindly old magician, has a conversation with the various automatons and gizmos he created for his magic shows while fixing one named Edison (after Thomas Edison) and later having a visit from his materialist real estate agent nephew, Daniel. Afterwards, while Lawrence dozes off, Jack and Maggie locate the cat after he re-activates Edison and Jack pursues the kitten. Before Jack throws him out, Lawrence wakes up and picks up the kitten and decides to adopt him, naming him Thunder (after his fear of lightning).

Thunder learns more about the house, as well as the romantic pigeons named Carlo and Carla. Meanwhile, Jack and Maggie try by all ways to exile Thunder from the house, jealous and afraid of being substituted. The next day, after performing a magic show at a hospital for children and while riding on a bicycle, Jack tries poking Thunder with a crayon in order to get rid of him. However, during the ensuing mayhem, Lawrence suffers an accident and is sent to the hospital.

With Lawrence in the hospital, his nephew, Daniel, tricks him into putting his house of magic up for sale by having him sign a document which provides Daniel with the power of attorney. Discovering Daniel's trick, Thunder alerts Lawrence's toys. When Daniel comes home with two possible buyers, Thunder has Carlo and Carla poop on them in order to prevent the house from being sold. Daniel returns his uncle's magic trunk back home, Jack (who broke his leg in the accident) and Maggie convince Lawrence's automatons (except Edison) that Thunder was guilty in the accident despite Thunder trying to tell the truth. He hopes Carlo and Carla will prove his innocence, which fails when they are intimidated by Jack. However, Thunder manages to convince everyone that they need him to save the house since Daniel is proven to be allergic to cats. They allow him to stay but lock him in a cage. The next possible buyer, the Chihuahua's owner, is driven away after the Chihuahua rescues Thunder and she assumes that Daniel harmed her dog, who in fact, was trying to get rid of the cat after discovering his whereabouts. Later, Thunder goes to the hospital to see Lawrence only to discover that Lawrence was never mad at him for what happened as Jack and Maggie had led him and the automatons to believe. Thunder returns home and the inhabitants of the house drive two more buyers away. When Jack and Maggie again try to exile Thunder, he tells the truth about the accident to everyone and the birds stand up for him this time, as well as the automatons. Daniel attempts various increasingly aggressive and bizarre ways to get rid of Thunder, but is foiled at every turn. His latest attempt involves a gun and leads him to believe that he finally got rid of Thunder only to get kicked out of the house by his uncle's toys in retaliation for Thunder's supposed "death." Lawrence also discovers Daniel's deceit and tries to leave the hospital. Meanwhile, Thunder (revealed to have survived), Jack, Maggie, and the rest of Lawrence's toys are in a race against time to save the house before Daniel destroys it using a wrecking ball.

When Lawrence gets back from the hospital with the help of some of the children he met there and finds his nephew swinging a wrecking ball, he finally discovers Daniel's true colors. Meanwhile, Jack is stuck midway in the cat-flap of the front door, as Thunder attempts to save all the automatons from getting crushed. When he saves Maggie's life, Thunder finally earns the mouse's respect and friendship. They band together and use Daniel's cat-allergy against him until he ends up wrecking his own beloved car instead with the wrecking ball. Lawrence orders Daniel to make repairs on the house. Thunder is finally accepted as a member of the family by Jack and Maggie. When Lawrence recovers from his injuries, he returns to entertaining children with his magic shows, in which Thunder now has his own part alongside Jack and Maggie. Thunder is happy finally to have a family that appreciates him.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 71% based on reviews from 28 critics, with the consensus: "Thunder and the House of Magic lacks real narrative depth, but its visual splendor offers sufficient compensation for younger viewers."[5] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 47 based on 13 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[6]

Box office

The film grossed $64,193,114 overseas outside of North America as well as $4,091 within it for a combined gross of $64,197,205.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Wolfe, Jennifer (15 August 2014). "Shout! Releases U.S. Trailer for 'Thunder and the House of Magic'". Animation World Network. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 "The House of Magic (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "TeamTO, Nexus developing House of Magic spin-off". Kidscreen. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  4. ↑ "THUNDER AND THE HOUSE OF MAGIC". Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  5. ↑ "The House of Magic". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  6. ↑ "The House of Magic Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
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