Nicole Kidman in Netflix Animated Fantasy

Charges of beastly parents tackle a literal meaning in Spellbound, a moving if somewhat familiar animated fantasy musical from Skydance Animation. When protagonist Ellian (Rachel Zegler) describes her parents as monsters, she’s not echoing the clichéd allegation lodged by teens in every single place. She’s being dead serious. Nearly a 12 months ago, while ambling through the forest, her parents were changed into unruly behemoths. 

Few people of their kingdom of Lumbria are aware of this transformation, since, with the assistance of royal advisors Bolinar (John Lithgow) and Nazara (Jenifer Lewis), the princess has managed to maintain her parents hidden away for the higher a part of the 12 months. In a captivating early sequence, Ellian cites the very normal adolescent desire to spend more — not less — time with Mom and Dad as the explanation she will be able to’t hang around along with her friends. However the masquerade shouldn’t be sustainable, and on the eve of her fifteenth birthday, Ellian makes a breakthrough in her effort to interrupt the curse.

Helmed by Shrek co-director Vicky Jenson, Spellbound follows Ellian as she journeys across the land to avoid wasting her parents. The film flaunts vivid animation and a few pretty striking moments, captured with close-ups and unexpected angles — but much like Skydance Animation’s debut enterprise Luck, Spellbound inspires a way of déjà vu. Its give attention to the connection between a teen and a parent who’s been transmuted from human to animal form recalls the plots of Pixar’s Brave and Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away. 

Spellbound tries to distinguish itself early on. Lauren Hynek, Elizabeth Martin and Julia Miranda’s screenplay withholds the reason behind the parental transformation until quite near the top — a wise alternative that puts viewers within the throes of motion from the primary song, which Zegler belts with typical panache. The number (music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater) quickly establishes the undeniable fact that King Solon (Javier Bardem) and Queen Ellsmere (Nicole Kidman) are monsters, and explains how Ellian assumes the position of the country’s de facto leader.

It also gets to the emotional core of the narrative— the isolation Ellian feels as a teen forced to take care of her parents and maintain hope within the face of despair. (That nobody in Lumbria questions the suddenly reclusive nature of their monarchs requires some suspension of belief.)

Shenanigans ensue in Spellbound’s first act. Ellian meets the Oracles (voiced with humor by Nathan Lane and Tituss Burgess), who initially appear to have an answer to the monster problem. Unfortunately, they don’t grow to be very helpful, and when the citizenry eventually discover the reality about their royal leaders, panic sets in. Forced to provide you with a plan, Bolinar and Nazar determine to crown Ellian as ruler and take the monster king and queen elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Ellian, propelled by a renewed desperation to guard her misunderstood family, seeks out the Oracles again for advice. The plot zigs and zags like this for some time, sometimes confusingly, before heading in a more straightforward direction.

Once Ellian, her monster parents and her pet rat leave the court, Spellbound largely conforms to the everyday beats of a road narrative, albeit sprinkled with some surprising moments. Most striking are the visuals, rendered with vivacity and poignancy. There are wide shots that help us appreciate the dominion’s picturesque and herbaceous landscape and close-ups that prove these monsters have an inner life. 

Memorable scenes include when Ellian and her parents are in a cave, where their echoes turn out to be radiant orbs. The 2 monsters humorously mimic their daughter, whose melodic voice reverberates through the dark corridor. It’s the primary time we hear Kidman and Bardem’s voices, and there’s an emotional weight to the moment as Ellian realizes that her parents, after a 12 months of grunts and incoherent sounds, can understand her. The trek is suffering from moments like these, by which Ellian finally gets to reconnect along with her mother and father, after being deprived of their material and psychic support for thus long. Kidman and Bardem also get a likelihood to sing, in a mostly moving tune about memory and their past lives as humans.

The closer Ellian and her parents get to their solution, nevertheless, the more Spellbound edges into forgettable territory. When the film widens its scope, turning its attention away from the parents, it sags from familiarity. The forest, its creatures and the challenges posed by the landscape begin to feel like things we’ve seen before. Even the songs, while assured, seem more ephemeral. 

But revelations about life for Ellian and her parents before they were changed into monsters revive the stakes of the film. The third act, which I won’t spoil here, does offer something truly different by way of lessons about children, their parents and the chasm of confusion that widens with each conflict. The closer Spellbound sticks this message, the more it packs an emotional punch.