Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Thunder and the House of Magic 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Cat Trick?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 22, 2014

In one of the supplements included on the Blu-ray release of Thunder and the House of Magic, the film’s co-director Ben Stassen details how the film’s original title was designed to play on two English words, combining them as Enchaunted. When marketing gurus expressed concern that this whimsical mishmash wouldn’t pass muster in the film’s global markets, the decision was made to switch it to The House of Magic, which somehow morphed into Thunder and the House of Magic for the film’s home video release. Enchaunted may have only made “sense” to English speaking audiences, but it may have also misled prospective ticket purchasers into thinking they were going to see something fresh and new. The House of Magic may not be overly inspired (to say the least), but it at least forewarns viewers that they’re in for a fairly generic entertainment, albeit one with a completely enjoyable design aesthetic that does help some of the hoary story clichés to go down at least a bit more easily. The film follows the (mis)adventures of little kitty Thunder, who, as the film opens, is summarily deposited at a bus stop bench by an unseen family that is evidently moving to a new location and which doesn’t want the added stress of a tiny pet included in their trek. Thunder is dismayed and confused (and still nameless at this point), but through a series of chance encounters, he ends up at a frightening looking Gothic mansion which is rumored to be haunted. The little cat throws caution to the wind and manages to get inside the place, way up in an isolated attic, where he soon creates absolute chaos by clumsily tripping over every imaginable piece of junk left up there. He also comes into contact with an officious mouse and the mouse’s protector, an English accented bunny, who inform the little cat in no uncertain terms that this is a closed society and that he’s not welcome. A number of other intervening factors occur, and ultimately the orange tabby finally meets the house’s human occupant, an elderly magician named Lawrence who has surrounded himself with all sorts of automata he’s built over the years, and who occasionally forays out into the world to perform for sick children at a nearby hospital. Lawrence is thrilled to have a new member of his “family” in Thunder (whom Lawrence names), but Maggie the mouse and Jack the rabbit (get it?) are less than excited to have some competition around the place. In the meantime, the magician’s scheming realtor nephew Daniel is trying to get his uncle into a retirement home so that Daniel can unload the impressive if somewhat dilapidated manse Lawrence lives in (for a tidy profit, of course). Will Jack and Maggie learn to overcome their objections to work with Thunder to help Lawrence save his house? If you even need one guess (let alone three) to solve this conundrum, you’ve never seen an animated film of this ilk before.

Thunder turns out to be just the latest incarnation in the well worn animated film cliché of the fish (and/or cat) out of water (and/or place to live), desperately searching for his place in life and a family to call his own. Thunder and the House of Magic wastes some of this set up by having Thunder find the supposedly haunted mansion pretty much right out of the gate, and then diminishing the malicious intent of Jack and Maggie by having sweet elderly Lawrence take the tabby under his somewhat withered wing. But once Jack’s schemes to permanently get rid of Thunder seriously backfire, leaving Lawrence laid up in the nearby hospital where he performed occasionally, the real villain of the piece starts hatching his schemes. That turns out to be Lawrence’s wily nephew Danny, who has dreams of untold fortunes crossing his palm if he can unload the stately if unkempt estate his uncle unwittingly hands over control of while in a drugged stupor at the hospital.

When the various creatures (both living and manufactured by Lawrence himself) figure out their security is at stake, they start to develop a strategy for keeping Danny from selling the property, though Jack and Maggie are at best bystanders in the early going, preferring to let Thunder do all the heavy lifting while obviously hoping he’ll fail miserably. Thunder is aided initially by the very fact that Danny is hideously alergic to cats and can’t even stand to set foot inside the house for more than a second or two. Still, the avid realtor manages to book a few showings, all of which go horribly, albeit comedically, wrong.

Things get a bit hyperbolic in the film’s closing act, as Danny pretty much goes off the deep end and the various creatures’ actual lives rather than merely their domicile are put in danger. Thunder and the House of Magic has an incredibly enjoyable design aesthetic and a genial enough ambience, but it’s too unfocused and underdeveloped to ever achieve much emotional resonance. The whole subplot with Jack and Maggie is bypassed so much of the time that the expected rapprochement at the film’s close just seems rote and almost meaningless. The real magic in this film comes courtesy of the whimsical inventions Lawrence has come up with to keep himself company and to help with little tasks around the house. This aspect might remind some of Nick Park’s iconic Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection. For all of Park’s design genius, though, he has never forsaken the emotional component of his stories, and that unfortunately is one trick Thunder and the House of Magic doesn’t quite pull off.

Thunder and the House of Magic 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Thunder and the House of Magic is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with both MVC (3D) AVC (2D) encoded 1080p transfers in 1.78:1. For the record, this disc is authored so that your equipment will be automatically detected and the appropriate version will play automatically when "Play" is selected from the Main Menu. What this means is that there's now way for those with 3D equipment to watch the 2D version. One way or the other, Thunder and the House of Magic is a real delight from a purely visual standpoint. Characters are extremely well rendered, with elements like Jack's bristly fur looking crisp and extremely well delineated in high definition. Colors are bright and appealing, and contrast is very strong and stable.

The film opts for its fair share of 3D "gimmicks" with things like point of view shots, looming objects and various items being thrown directly at the camera serving up a nice amount of visual immersion. Some of the best moments, however, come courtesy of simpler techniques like foreground objects offering a good sense of depth back into the frame. The characters all are nicely rounded and have appropriate heft, making their emergence out of the frame toward the viewer in the more obvious 3D moments a lot of fun.

It's interesting to note that Thunder and the House of Magic is being granted a 3D Blu-ray release. Some of its Gallic animated kin (Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart) is being released only in 2D versions.

Thunder and the House of Magic 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Thunder and the House of Magic is presented with its original French language track as well as an English dub, both available in either DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Voice work is uniformly fine in both versions (the English language version features no recognizable name stars), and the 5.1 mixes offer a wealth of nice immersion with both a glut of great sound effects (some tied to the fun little inventions Lawrence surrounds himself with) and the film's playful score. (Perhaps a bit misleadingly, the Blu-ray cover advertises music by Selena Gomez, but her "Hit the Lights" is simply used as part of the closing credits underscore.) Fidelity is excellent, and dynamic range is quite wide as well.

Thunder and the House of Magic 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Featurettes include:

  Origins (1080p; 4:07) looks into the genesis of the feature film.

  Character Animation (1080p; 4:40) is an interesting review of everything from early sketches to the rendering process.

  Soundtrack (1080p; 3:45) details Ramin Rijawdi's contributions to the film.

• Teaser (1080p; 1:36)


• Trailer (1080p; 2:05)

Thunder and the House of Magic 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If Thunder and the House of Magic had devoted just a bit more time to fleshing out the conflict between Jack, Maggie and Thunder, overall the dramatic momentum of Thunder's predicament may have tugged at the heartstrings a bit more forcefully. As it stands, this film offers an abundance of visual delights that will probably distract adults more than enough while keeping the kiddies relatively entranced. Technical merits are very strong, and Thunder and the House of Magic comes Recommended.