Director/co-writer Sven Unterwaldt Jr. presents School of Magical Animals 2, the sequel based on an extensive series of successful German children’s books by Margit Auer. At a stunningly picturesque school that looks like a castle, new kid Ida (Emilia Maier) is chosen to write and direct a musical for the school’s anniversary. She encounters many distractions as threads of the story spin out before re-converging. In the first film, Ida is introduced to the school as a bullied outsider until she meets a teacher named Miss Cornfield (Nadja Uhl), who introduces the children to their lifelong magical companion animals. Ida’s animal is a fox named Rabbat (voiced by Max von der Groeben).
As a burgeoning teenager, Ida deals with peer pressure, young love in the form of a cool kid named Jo (Loris Sichrovsky), and the inevitable mean girl wolf-pack led by the snarling Helene (Emilia Pieske). What ensues is the usual “nerds vs popular kids” dynamic, with predictable outcomes. But, amongst the usual mix of high-school angst elements, what of the strange holes someone is digging at night in the quad?
“…new kid Ida is chosen to write and direct a musical …”
The operative word for everything that happens in this film is “predictable.” Situated in the same entertainment universe as Lazytown and Paw Patrol, School of Magical Animals 2 is seamlessly and comfortingly familiar from start to finish. This film is made for a demographic who will want to watch it endlessly on a loop.
As kid-targeted entertainment goes, this one ticks all the boxes. The colors are saturated and the images are, in fact, complex and interesting enough. Everything on the screen is pretty. High marks for outstanding cinematography. The CGI companion animals are quality animation, fun, and cute. The soundtrack is faux-hip in a way meant to remind you of popular music, but with the corners rounded off so that it’s inoffensive and instantly dismissible. There are no earworms like “Everything is Awesome,” thankfully. That tune from The Lego Movie will drill straight into your brain and won’t stop until it hits your medulla. I double-dog dare you to google it and listen to it right now.
"…The school is meant to look like Hogwarts"
