User reviews

This movie is well done and the plot is unique. A teenage boy who attends the Mozart Academy of Music is magically transported to the world of The Magic Flute. There he actually performs in the opera. It's great to see F. Murray Abraham play the headmaster considering he played Antonio Salieri so well in the movie Amadeus. I do recommend that people see the original opera on stage to fully grasp the scope of the music and story, or as it is called the libretto in opera terms.

This movie is entertaining and puts this opera in a whole new light. It's great for Mozart fans and fans of a good love story. It introduces the magic of Mozart to the next generation.

There are so many great things going on in this movie that it's kind of sad that it has some big issues that keep it from being a great success. The concept is interesting, the cast is wonderful, and the story moves very quickly, although sometimes to its own detriment. Two major things could have saved this movie for me. It would have been a mini series, so it wouldn't have felt so rushed and the relationships between the characters could have felt more developed. Because there was so much underdevelopment in the characters and plot, I had a hard time understanding the parallels between the stories of the real and magical worlds. I'm still not sure if there's any more of a parallel other than the protagonist proving his worth. If that was all, then it was a pretty big "to do" for such a simple theme. Also, I didn't care for the production design for the magical world. I honestly feel that the real world setting of the school was so much more interesting and charming than the beigeness of the magical world which often resembles the desolate, depressing landscapes of Dune. One would expect the magical world to be more vibrant and exciting to visit than the real one. I found myself more enjoying the real world and its storylines, just not enough.

Teenager Tim Walker (Jack Wolfe) arrives at prestigious Austrian Mozart boarding school run by Dr. Longbow (F. Murray Abraham). He's fallen for fellow student Sophie (Niamh McCormack). He finds a portal to another world where he's given The Magic Flute.

This story should be more compelling. There are daddy issues. There's a puppy love blooming. There's a magical portal and there is a magical flute. It should be more compelling. Part of that is Tim who seems to pop in and out of the other world with ease. There needs to be stakes in that other world, but it never feels dangerous. Also, there's another girl there and I don't know what to do with that. It would be better if he goes to the other world with Sophie and they get stuck there. Then it becomes a journey to find the way home.

I am a musician, I play trumpet and sing with groups, but I am not particularly a fan of opera. I knew that Mozart wrote "The Magic Flute" but other than that had no idea what the story was about. Now I know! And this movie makes that journey fun. There is a key fantasy element here and that is a movie trait I generally enjoy. Think "Pleasantville" or "The Purple Rose of Cairo."

The movie begins with a young man by his sick dad's bedside. His dad was a singer and young Tim would go to the prestigious Mozart academy in Austria, shortly after his dad passed away.

Young Jack Wolfe, with his fine features and slight build looking 15, is Tim Walker. When he shows up mid-session learns that the school is auditioning for a stage performance of Mozart's Magic Flute. He might be a candidate for the lead role of Prince Tamino.

One fateful morning at precisely 3:00AM he is transported through a magic portal to the fictional land of the characters in 'The Magic Flute.' There he is Prince Tamino and he must figure out a way to save the Princess. At 6:00AM he is back in school, only to be repeated on next days.

Already with his connection to Mozart in the 1984 movie 'Amadeus', F. Murray Abraham plays the stern head of the music school, creating a character not too different from the stern teacher in the 2000 movie 'Finding Forrester.' He is excellent in these types of roles, as he is here.

I watched it at home on BluRay from my public library. With DTS surround sound it was like being in an auditorium when the Mozart symphonic music was playing. And the video is some of the best I have seen.

All in all a very fine and entertaining take on 'The Magic Flute'. My wife skipped the first time but joined me when I re-watched it 6 weeks later.

Since there is no review of this movie so far, I will try to do the first one. Unfortunately, it won't be a very nice review.

Let's start with the good parts: The look of the movie is quite okay. There are nice shots from Austria, and some parts I even know. Also the fantasy-sequences (i.e. The part where the plot of the opera is set) are nice to look at. Sure, it's not "Lord of the Rings", but the effects are okay and the sets are, well, not really lavish, but convincing. Also the connection between the parts in the reality and the fantasy-parts was well done, without giving away too much. Yes, there is a bit of cliché regarding the pupils in the 'Mozart-school', but that's okay; it's not more than usual in a High school movie, and to a certain degree this is a High school movie.

The parts I can live with: Not surprisingly, there is a lot of political correctness: Monostatos, who in the opera is a slave from Africa, is now some old white guy (very white indeed!); instead, Sarastro, 'the good guy', is now a person of colour. Okay, why not! Having a boarding school in an old castle is a big cliché: All important music schools in Austria are, of course, at places where you have ample opportunities to stay on stage, i.e. In the big cities, i.e. In Vienna and in Salzburg. But okay; the castle is a nice location.

The bad parts: Well, there is one thing which wasn't as bad as I thought: After having seen the trailer, I was afraid that they would try to 'update' Mozart's music somehow. Fortunately, they didn't: When we hear Mozart in this movie, it is the original, classical music. (Or more or less; I am no expert on that. The music we get is basically a 'Best Of' of the opera.) There is also some additional, modern score by Martin Stock, but separated from Mozart's music. So far, so good - as long as there is no singing! Because this is by far the biggest problem of this movie: The voices of the actors might be okay for a musical, but not for Mozart. Clearly, they are no trained singers, and this is a big issue for a movie which is mostly about classical music! The only exception seems to be Sabine Devieilhe, who is doing the Queen of the night; it is just impossible to do her part in an un-ridiculous way without some training. Otherwise, the singing is more or less embarrassing. Why haven't they chosen some young singers? There should be enough of them, who are also good looking, and probably even some, who also can act on the screen. Pity ...

Fresh from recent screenings of Michael Powell's "Tales of Hoffmann" (1951) and "Bluebeard's Castle" (1963) I thought I'd give this a go... No, in no way can anyone claim that the singing is to the same standard of Norman Foster or Robert Rounseville, but there is one similarity. This is not an opera, it's a filmed interpretation of one - and it's aimed fairly and squarely at younger folks who would no more want to sit through two hours of Mozart sang in German than they'd volunteer for dental surgery. I think that's what makes this worth indulging a bit more. Recruiting the handsome Jack Wolfe (anyone else think he looks a little bit like Thomas Sangster) is guaranteed to turns some heads. He is the seventeen year old "Tim" who takes up his place at the famous Mozart school high in the Alps. He knows nobody and is armed only with the tiniest amount of confidence and a book given to him by his now deceased dad. He gets a distinctly frosty welcome from the musical snobs - including the professor "Lomgbow" (the sparingly used F. Murray Abraham) - in the place, but his roommate "Paolo" (Ellie Courtiour) proves to be OK and he makes friends with "Sophie" (Niamh McCormack) over some "Jackson 5" music on their headphones. What he also discovers is that his book opens a long forgotten secret passageway into the very land in which "The Magic Flute" is set. So long as he goes through at 3 o'clock each night, he will be able to live out the story with "Papageno" (Iwan Rheon), "Pamina" (Asha Banks) as they face the "Queen of the Night" (Sabine Devieilhe). To help defend himself, he has been given a flute and now he must learn to use it to best effect. Yes, it's the "Janet and John" version, and the English language obsession with rhyme can limit the power of the libretto at times, but this is still an engaging mix of modern teen/hormonal drama interspersed through some of the darker, funnier and more sinister elements of the original story. The score is rousing and the cast - especially Devieilhe - deliver the songs adequately enough, I'd say, to encourage anyone interested in the production to take it to anther level - to see it on the stage even. It's not great, but it's a solid effort that might just make this marvellous form of entertainment become of interest to a new generation of Taylor Swift fans.

This is a straightforward movie - a framing story about our young protagonists in musical school, and the opera itself, played out simultaneously after the hero passes some magical gate every day for a few hours. The framing story seemed a bit cliché but never got the upper hand; the fantasy sequences are perfectly realised, with respect to the fairytale atmosphere of the libretto, so not too realistic but rather colourful and dreamlike.

As to the music, well, I'm not an opera gourmet; I rather liked how some of the arias were blared out with gusto and not too fine an intonation, but on the other hand, the queen's soprano really put goosebumps on my skin - it's quite an event hearing such a perfect and dramatic voice over a cinema sound system (pretty loud, too, in our case).

(I'm a sucker for choir movies, btw ... the human voice is the most beautiful of instruments!) The one thing I didn't understand about the music was the generic end-credits song, why not use Mozart again?

Overall, a hearty recommendation for all music lovers. We liked it very much, even though we're 50ish and the movie is clearly targeted at a younger audience - the school scenes, interior and exterior, are clearly inspired by Harry Potter, they even put in an Austrian railway viaduct similar to the one on the Mallaig line :)

I watched the trailer to this movie and was thinking this would be a fun fantasy, adventure, romance movie. It is, but it is also an opera. I would estimate about a third of the movie is Mozart's "The Magic Flute" opera, sung in English. Totally missed this was a musical, and more specifically, a classical opera. I think viewers should know that going in so you are not surprised. When Tim entered the fantasy world of "The Magic Flute", I was wondering, when are they going to stop singing opera? I would recommend turning on subtitles if you are not used to listening to opera. The lyrics can be hard to follow. Because so much time is spent doing a classical opera, the real-world plot does not have enough time to be fully developed.

My wife and I took my five year old daughter to go see this. I don't know much about Mozart or this particular opera but I knew there were fantasy elements and were all huge fantasy nerds. The first twenty minutes set up the main character of Tim and his relationship with his father, who was a famous singer of sorts (to what extent is never explained fully) and he gives his son a magic book. He's sent to attend the same music school as his father, one dedicated to Mozart. But soon we realize he's set to relive his fathers legacy by playing the lead in The Magic Flute. F. Murray Abraham is deviously wonderful as the strict headmaster, although he is drastically under used. Tim soon finds himself using the magic book and a magic portal behind a clock to transport himself to the world of The Magic Flute where he meets Iwan Rheon as Papagenu who absolutely steals the show. The resulting film is filled with fantastic music and visuals, including a giant snake, an evil Queen, and a daring rescue of a kidnapped princess by the unlikely heroes. The scenes at the school seemed to drag from time to time, but toward the end I was happy that they included as much of that storyline as they did because it was heartwarming at the conclusion. My 5 year old and I loved, my wife didn't like it at all unfortunately. But we will definitely be watching this again.

Not particularly interesting, even if it was born out of something interesting.

Always nice with F. Murray Abraham (in Amadeus, 1984) The film doen't reach up and falls into the a valiant attempt among quantitative movies and lowers itself with a mediocre contribution. "classic" music theme is always lovly tho.

I put it in the vaste-my-time category and don't recommend it to the picky viewer

Florian Sigl debut as a director? ...

Include this in your input of what I say: I am extremely critical and in need of very high quality in relation to today's standard in film in order to be satisfied.

Unfortunately a rather large dose of our time political correctness. Grades are prio set based on that.

I am not quite sure why this movie only scores 5.9 (as of today, April 2023). There maybe a few opera snobs around who think it cheapens the Mozart original, but they're wrong.

This movie should be taken for what it is: a good way of introducing opera to a younger generation who probably never hear such wonderful music otherwise.

The cast do a good job and the twin storylines, running in parallel, with the real life romance playing out while the Magic Flute story plays out in the world that Tim/Prince Tamino travels to through the magic clock.

Mozart's score is, as always, enchanting. And there's a nice cameo at the end from a rather well-known operatic tenor....

I just happened upon this movie while browsing. I had not heard of it and it sounded intriguing I'm a fan of Mozart so I decided to watch it. I'm very glad that I did. Refreshingly fun, poignant, and entertaining. Not to mention great music. Very nicely done adaptation of the opera. Is the singing fabulous? Those that are real opera singers are wonderful. Everyone else did a really nice job. It's nice to see a great composer get some screen time again and possibly introduce a new generation to Mozart. Forget the bad reviews. Just relax, turn the ringer off on you phone and enjoy it. You will be humming some of these tunes for a few days.

Sometimes it's hard to find a production that has a little something for everyone. This movie does. I am a fan of and sang opera professionally in my younger days (I'm over 70) I know the Magic Flute well. When I saw that this was being released, I had trepidations, I'll admit. However, I was delighted by the way this was handled. It's a little bit Harry Potter, a little C. S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), and a lot of Mozart. Except for two professional opera singers (Queen of the Night and Sarastro), the other singing members of the cast did not have the power in their voices to raise them to opera strength. Actually, the times that I have done this opera, I have always sung it in German. Hearing it in English was a bit of a shock, but all things considered, necessary. This to me was the only problem with the film, but then I remembered that this is part real world, part fantasy. Did they change the opera, of course, but they kept the best Arias, and spoke the dialogue that was sung in the Opera. All in all, this is a movie I would recommend highly, as long as the watcher is not expecting a faithful reiteration of the opera. . Enjoy it for what it is.

I've always liked opera and The Magic Flute is one of my favourites.

You don't have to love the opera The Magic Flute, but it helps. I got goosebumps every time I heard the arias. The cast was great.

Jack Wolfe was great as Tim Walker and, during one of the scenes, he really did an awesome job showing his emotional pain.

Of course, they had to modify the opera by taking out some parts, modifying the location, or adapting it to the main movie storyline, otherwise the movie would run close to 3 and a half hours. They did a great job otherwise.

If they decide to release this in more theaters, I will definitely see it again.

I hope that they release this in DVD or Blu-Ray so I can watch it again and again.

I enjoyed this. It was interesting to watch some extracts of the original opera on Youtube afterwards. Only the Neo version struck me as "fresh" and lively like this. I cannot understand German and was glad the singing was in English. It made it a lot easier to follow, although I'm very familiar with the music and listen to opera regularly. The story of the young people made it possible to link the plot to the lives ordinary people with ordinary feelings. It seemed less remote and the story less weird than in the original opera. It is true that the voices of this movie version lack strength when compared to a real operatic performance with professional singers. However, the comments about this presentation being able to bridge the gap and appeal to an audience of non-specialists or younger people is surely true. A bonus is that the move is visually attractive and Salzburg looked great, which brought back happy memories.

I don't know how this movie has gotten 50% favorable reviews but I had to make a profile just to write this, which I've never done before. I am certain that if you love the magic flute in a way that is not superficial and snobbish you will love the movie! So many terrific little Easter eggs throughout. The libretto is a fantastic translation. There is just the right amount of modernity in the singing styles to make it new, but the songs are on point. Yes the singing isn't like you'd heard at the Met but it's more than adequate. I mean the night queen aria is fantasy overload and All the visuals are wonderful plus you get F Murray Abraham as a pretentious headmaster of Mozart school! The movie is a faithfully joyous adaptation that is rooted in dee affection and understanding of what makes the opera timeless and monumental. I really really wish more people cared about this kind of music.

It's so sweet! The musical numbers are so fun and the actors are purely sweet. Felt like watching a stage show. Loved it loved it loved it.

Didn't quite knew what to expect when I started watching, seeing the present settings of the musical school, but as soon as they started singing I knew I'm in. Tim/Prince Tamino is lovely and his voice is beautiful. The other characters are fun and interesting, much better than you'd expect from a 2022 movie. If the quality wasn't so high I'd totally guess this was made in 1960s just like sound of music.

I wasn't even familiar with the story of the magic flute but still loved it so much.

This film is beautiful and so addictive. I never saw an ad or saw it come out. I found it in the DVD section and I have watched it many times. It was very well done by all concerned.

Jack Wolff will probably be one of those heart throbs who gets followed around. That can be hard for young actors but I hope he keeps acting in romances. He gives it just the right touch.

The setting was striking with contrasts, the monster was well done. I particularly liked the differences between the costumes in the fantasy compared to the reality.

I did see the opera years ago but this was more compelling and fun.