Geheimes Magieaufsichtsamt

The animation was good but not perfect but the message that delivers to the people was very important.

God, I know, it's a bland title isn't it?

We get a lot of these movies marketed to families with young children and at their worst they're horrendous and at best they're usually just passable.

This one is actually a fair bit better than average. Not a classic but there is something distinctly charming in its characters and its handling as it tries to wring more material from that very old concept of the fairytale pastiche.

So he's a rascal illusionist and she's basically the magic police. Obviously I try not to think of her as a cop but she makes it hard. You know Gina from Paradise PD? Imagine a more grandma-friendly version of that. They make a pretty pleasing odd couple as they are conscripted to work together even though they "Can't stand each other!" (as the trailers were kind enough to point out).

I really liked how they really conveyed a sense of history between these siblings and used their respective skill sets (one is street smart, the other is academic smart) in a complementary fashion.

The plot is nothing too original and their journey often feels like a child's video game in how they simply move from place to place to face a new local challenge like progressive levels but at no point did this feel anything close to as excruciating or dumb as so many others like it. This movie was someone's baby and I can respect hat.

There's just too much going on animation-wise for me. It's so busy and bright and I wish they went with the 'less is more' concept to drive the film. I loved the idea though and my kids and I enjoyed watching it. We were definitely entertained. There were also a few annoying scenes where even though on the journey they should've hit a dead end, something totally impossible unconnected to the story would magically get them out of trouble. But hey, it was a decent movie to watch on Netflix.

Thought it was a great entertaining movie with little details that made me laugh.

This is one of the best animated movies I've ever seen. It's Pixar Level CGI. Can't believe it's a Netflix original.

Really fun movie with a nice story and ending. It's great a palette cleanser when you don't know what to watch. I liked it more than I expected to!