Last week, Netflix released the trailer for a new animated film, in which they boasted about the creative team behind the film. At first glance, it’s no wonder, since this is a film that has been created by creators of huge classics of the genre such as Shrek, Cars, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story and The Little Mermaid.
Produced by Skydance Animation, ‘Spellbound’ will be a musical film that is expected to arrive on the platform on November 22. Its plot and proposal, for the moment, seem interesting and encourage us to mark the date on our calendars.
Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman are involved in the voice acting in this film that promises to follow an original plot, while still adhering to the canons of the family genre. The plot? The parents of a young princess become monsters, and she must figure out how to return them to normal. Toy Story director John Lasseter produces this film with Skydance Animation, and it is directed by Vicky Jenson, director of the iconic Shrek. Its soundtrack is also noteworthy, as the film’s music is provided by Alan Menken, author of songs that we hear in The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.
Giving voice to the protagonist, we have Rachel Zegler, a very young actress who the public already knows from the musical West Side Story (2021) and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, both films in which Zegler already demonstrated her great vocal gifts.
We have, therefore, a stellar cast of authors and directors, who promise to score a point for Netflix with this new animation project that has generated great interest: its trailer already has more than 5 million views on YouTube.
However, despite the fact that the story promises to give an original twist to a common plot, such as the conflict or misunderstanding between parents and children, many viewers have criticized the trailer for two reasons: on the one hand, they regret that this preview, as has happened with other recent films, tries to hide or omit the fact that it is a musical.
The producers seem to be afraid of appealing to a smaller audience if it is known from the start that it is a musical, despite the fact that they have a loyal audience of lovers of the genre. On the other hand, the use of the already saturated song ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey in the trailer has also annoyed many, who do not understand why this song continues to be used, which, although iconic, is already tiring due to having been used in too many films.
Deserves a chance
Even so, everything points to Spellbound becoming a hit for the streaming platform next November, being one of those films that both children and adults like because of the funny metaphors or winks included in them. We must not forget that behind the Skydance studio there are decent animated films such as Planet 51 or the most recent Luck, which we can see on Apple TV.
Of course, there is also room for disappointment, as for example Luck, although entertaining, was not memorable either. About Spellbound, the user @APPictures9 X rightly points out that while the film promises to blend the best of Pixar and DreamWorks, the end result can be somewhat bizarre if not executed properly. “You have the character acting like a ‘cute’ Disney princess mixed with DreamWorks’ use of comedy and pop songs,” he notes. We’ll have to wait until November to see how that plays out.
