Secret Magic Control Agency

Gretel, an agent of the top-secret Department of Magical Security, loyally serves the state, detaining illegal black magicians and sorcerers who always strive to make a commotion in the country, then cash in on the talents of magical creatures. One day a king disappears from her kingdom. The sovereign is kidnapped, taking advantage of his love for delicious food: right at the table, pasta, meatballs and other dishes suddenly come to life and take the monarch away in an unknown direction. The magical security department cannot quickly find the culprit: he simply is not in the magic bases.

Gretel is tasked with finding the kidnapper. But there is one condition. As a partner, a girl should take someone who is himself capable of thinking "in a criminal way." The choice of the authorities falls on her brother Hansel - a charlatan who for many years diligently portrays a magician, in fact, is not one. The relationship between brother and sister cannot be called warm. Once upon a time they had a fight and almost stopped communicating. But now they have to find the missing king together. The task is complicated by the fact that at some point, under the influence of magical powers, both heroes turn into children. Nobody else will recognize them or take them seriously.

"Hansel, Gretel and the Agency of Magic": Movie Poster Review Hansel, Gretel and the Agency of Magic In one of the first scenes of the film, the viewer is shown the kingdom from a bird's eye view. On the sides of the castle standing on a hill, you can see the houses of local residents and three religious buildings: a Gothic cathedral, a mosque remotely similar to Kul Sharif in the Kazan Kremlin, and a certain structure with a green dome, which in theory can be mistaken for an Orthodox church. This is the best illustration of the semantic and visual eclecticism that the Voronezh studio Wizart Animation ("The Snow Queen" and its sequel, "Wolves and Sheep") seems to be promoting as the main principle of creating modern animation.

The film "Hansel, Gretel and the Agency of Magic" is overloaded with references to other works of mass culture. Bend your fingers: there is Men in Black, Bondiana, Despicable Me (the main villain is cupcakes-minions), and Harry Potter, and The Little Mermaid, and even for some reason, the Royal Corgi "(The heroes carry out the task in the company of a charming puppy). The creators of the picture are well aware that their potential viewers live not only in Russia, and therefore the screen is filled with characters of different appearances and with different skin colors, and closer to the final a certain detail appears (we will not clarify, so as not to spoil), which will certainly make the Chinese audience happy ... It's amazing how quickly filmmakers learn the principles of diversity and inclusion when the overseas box office is at stake. The only pity is that this does not apply to products for the domestic market, and in our country only heroes from Russian fairy tales are still responsible for all the originality of a huge multinational country.

At the same time, borrowing is not equal to quotations. From all these scraps, the authors of the animated film manage to weave a canvas that looks quite solid. The threads do not stick out, the action does not sag. And the script was really created based on the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm, which described at one time the archetype of brother-sister relations, the underlying inextricable bond, which turns into support and mutual assistance. No wonder Hansel and Gretel are still the first comparison for any story in which brother and sister sincerely loving each other appear.

"Hansel, Gretel and the Agency of Magic": Movie Poster Review Hansel, Gretel and the Agency of Magic Another thing is that it is rather difficult to highlight this topic in the huge list of things that the creators want to talk about. This is perhaps the main problem of the film. In any masterpiece of Hollywood or European animation, it is easy to isolate a specific idea around which the action revolves. In the creative process of Wizart Animation, everything seems to be the other way around: first, some episodes and jokes are invented, and only then a plot is made of them. And a lot looks like a trick for the sake of a trick - especially where winks are no longer at children, but at their parents.

Secret Magic Control Agency, the image of the witch from the original fairy tale was split in two. The heroes are threatened first by the recognizable Baba Yaga, and then by the overseas sorceress Ilvira with the appearance of the overweight Marilyn Monroe and great culinary talent. This is literally the same cook who dreams of running the state. Gretel with her hairstyle, intonations and fanatical devotion to the crown is very reminiscent of TV presenter Olga Skabeyeva. The “cookies” made by Ilvira are a symbol of the threat to national security - it is difficult to consider such details as a coincidence.

"Hansel, Gretel and the Agency of Magic": Movie Poster Review Hansel, Gretel and the Agency of Magic They, of course, will still pass by the little spectators, they will see only the funny king, funny mermaids and baked goods that come to life. They will love it for sure. But there is in all this some kind of unnecessary redundancy that turns the tale of the adventures of a brother and sister into a parade of winks and witticisms, half of which could be thrown out of the script without any