Movie Review: Thunder and the House of Magic (2013)

The animated movie uses voices from Murray Blue, Cinda Adams, George Babbit, Grant George and Joey Camen.

This is a movie that, under most circumstances, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed on Netflix. However, my mother-in-law recently watched it and recommended it to me. So, even though I did honestly still have some doubts, I ended up watching it with my daughter this past weekend.

Overall, the movie was considerably better than I was expecting it to be. However, my opinion of it was also mixed.

The animated film takes a bit to get going and, when I first started watching it, I was concerned it would be a movie that focused on some clever animation (which I'm assuming was in 3D at one point) because the overall plot was weak. However, once the movie did start to get going, it was somewhat entertaining.

I personally enjoyed how Thunder (Blue) used the magician’s various robotic contraptions to prevent the house from being sold while his elderly friend was out of commission. Some of the methods they used, which included making the house seem haunted, were surprisingly entertaining and not quite as predictable as I thought they would be.

I think my biggest problem with this movie is it did cross some lines that made me question whether or not it was really suitable for younger children. The word “damn” is used quite a few times (with no real reason) and I’m pretty sure I heard the rabbit call someone a “pussy.” In other words, it’s not the type of language I would expect to hear on a movie that is geared toward kids.

There was some other material that was also questionable. This includes the nephew (Doug Stone) being bitten in the crotch, Thunder being shot at and a scene involving fireworks that, had this not been an animated film, probably should have resulted in the house being burned to the ground.

The part with the nephew trying to get the last laugh using a wrecking ball was also a bit much, especially since his whole reason for deceiving his uncle was to sell the house. It’s kind of hard to do that if it is just a pile of rubble.

As I said before, the movie was better than I thought it would be and even proved to be somewhat entertaining. But, because of some of the questionable content in it, I’m honestly not sure this was a film I should have watched with my daughter and am glad her younger sister didn’t watch it with us.

My Grade: C