Review of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007) by Dawdlingpoet — 26 Nov 2021

This is a family comedy/fantasy film, with themes present including eccentricity, motivation and imagination. I found it to be a very charming film, charming and quirky with a delightfully eccentric main character. It features lots of bright lighting, with almost neon/fluorescent colours shown in most scenes, giving it the look of a cartoon or comic book come to life. It reminded me somewhat of the more recent Dr. Zeuss film adaptations. It also made me think of the film versions of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory - that and Big (the film starring Tom Hanks, which I loved as a kid). Having said that, I know that not everyone likes the artificially bright colours present in many kids TV shows and films these days, such as my mum who has said on ocassion that she feels such artificially, sickly sweet bright shows may bring on headaches and the like.

This is a good family film - there are plenty of special effects to keep young children interested/occupied (there are appearances from well known characters such as the one and only Kermit the Frog!) and I found myself enjoying some comic moments and other elements of the plot. The music featured is quite light and cheery, including some folk type songs.

Cast wise, the main character is played by Dustin Hoffman. I imagine some people may well have cringed when/if they heard of him playing such a role, as he's well known for much more serious roles. Having said that, it certainly looked like he very much enjoyed the role - well, ok, maybe thats just his acting but I very much liked the character, a somewhat zany eccentric type but (most importantly) a caring one. Meanwhile, Natalie Portman plays Molly Mahoney. She also does well in her role, as an unhappy young woman daunted by the prospect of taking on the emporium. Other cast members include Jason Bateman as the appointed accountant, who doesn't realise quite what sort of estbablishment he's dealing with (as you can probably imagine!). It was amusing to see him in a family friendly film, given he's usually in rather saucy/lewd teen comedy films. He's referred to as 'mutant' during the film.

The film does cover a difficult topic for children - that of death. It isn't by any means an especially sad or depressing film for children to watch, it is kid-friendly but the main plot does involve that topic all the same. Content wise, as I say this is a family friendly film, so there's relatively little to mention, other than one or two moderately sad scenes, with the implication being the death of somebody (although it isn't depicted visually as such, the viewer has to presume it happened). Due to this, the film has been rated U, so it should be suitable for just about anyone to watch (as long as the bright colours don't put you off too much).

Yes, I'd recommend this film as I found it to be relatively engrossing, fun and it features a good cast.