My family saw it on Thursday. It sucked in every way possible. It was SO boring. Dustin Hoffmans accent was ridiculous and it sucked.
I never read the book but is it explained why that kidfreak is allowed to hang out in the toy store all day? Does his mom drop him there every day?
Saw it with the kids over the weekend. As the movie was clearly designed to be a magical fable, I’m more than willing to let intrusive questions like “where are the kids’ parents?” slide.
The problem with the film is the third act (yes, I know it’s “chaptered” with the sketchbook framing device, but I can’t remember the chapter numbers). The first two acts describe the setting, the general rules, the personalities, and the potential problems, and here the movie is entertaining and imaginative if not spectacular. The movie falls apart the moment after…
…Mr. Magorium dies. The idea seems to be that the magic and wonder doesn’t end with Mr. Magorium, and that Molly–for all her career inertia and lack of purpose–must discover that she can run the store in his place if only she would believe. But this problem isn’t made clear in the first two acts; she surely sees the magic of the store and accuses “Mutant” repeatedly of being a “just”-guy–ostensibly belitting the general class of people who can’t or won’t believe in magic–but she somehow doesn’t get that she herself can keep the magic alive? I just didn’t buy it, and the quickie, slipshod resolution (was the thing with the cube a dream or not?) didn’t help matters.
Great visuals, and quite acceptable for younger kids; it captured my 4-year-old’s attention, though my 3-year-old periodically asked when we would be seeing “Bee Movie” again.