Magina

Magina is a 2003 American animated musical romantic fantasy film produced by Universal Feature Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. It portrays a fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. The film was directed by Ash Brannon and written by Irene Mecchi and Gary Hall from a story by Brannon, Hall, Michael Wildshill, Jim Anderson, and Amy McNeill, and stars the voices of Jodi Benson, Elijah Wood, Alfre Woodard, and David Ogden Stiers. It tells the story of a young man named Olin, who falls in love with a mysterious, magical girl named Magina, unaware that she is cursed under a witchcraft.

Wildshill conceived the original concept of Magina in 1997, towards the end of production for Ama and the Mysterious Crystal. The film's production was fraught with difficulties, and the film ended up facing numerous delays from an original 2000 release date. In 2001, Brannon was approached to direct the film and revise the story. The film was animated using traditional animation, with extensive use of computer-generated imagery. Its songs were written by Stephen Schwartz, with Randy Edelman composing the film's score.

Magina premiered at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on September 3, 2003, and was released in the United States on September 19, 2003. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its animation, score, and performances, but criticized its story and writing. Grossing only $78.1 million on an $80 million budget, Universal suffered a $130 million loss for the film, which nearly made its feature animation division file for bankruptcy and led it to abandon traditional animation for computer animation. It is considered to be one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, but is also considered to be a cult favorite.

Plot
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Voice cast

 * Jodi Benson as Magina, a young woman with magical powers who is locked in a fortress.
 * Elijah Wood as Olin, a young man whom Magina helps find a new peaceful home. Aaron Lohr provides Olin's singing voice.
 * David Ogden Stiers as an elderly Olin, the narrator
 * Alfre Woodard as Telea, Olin's mother
 * John Kassir as Pongo
 * Spencer Breslin as Olin's grandson
 * Tony Jay as Thomas
 * Phil Morris as John

Additional voices

 * Jack Angel
 * Mike Bell
 * Bob Bergen
 * Rodger Bumpass
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Paul Eiding
 * Sherry Lynn
 * Cynthia Marion
 * Edie McClurg
 * Mickie McGowan
 * Laraine Newman
 * Phil Proctor
 * Jan Rabson
 * Evan Sabara
 * Jim Ward

Development
Michael Wildshill conceived the concept for Magina in 1997, envisioning a romantic "supernatural" story set in a Massachusetts town during the Salem witch trials. As Ama and the Mysterious Crystal was nearing the end of production, Wildshill developed his concept into a forty-page film treatment and sent it to then-Universal Feature Animation president John Cohen, who wrote back with "Wow." Soon after, the project began development under the working title The Legend of Magina. Wildshill created the original design, sets, characters, and core storyline, but was never formally named director as he was focusing directing Mistress Masham's Repose after Ama. Irene Mecchi, who had co-written the screenplay for Paint World, came on board to write an early draft of the script.

In 2000, Jim Anderson was added by Universal as a co-director, and was given exclusive control of the story. Lacking confidence in the story's development, Universal animation management replaced Wildshill with Ash Brannon in 2001, while Wildshill left the film to work on an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's story The Snow Queen and later Nippon.

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Casting
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Animation
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Trailers

 * The teaser trailer was released on November 19, 2002 as a bonus feature on the home video release of The Gabriel Garza Movie; it was later shown with Treasure Planet, Nessy: Tale of the Sea Monster, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Daredevil, and The Jungle Book 2.
 * The first trailer was released on March 12, 2003, and was shown with Puyo Puyo, Piglet's Big Movie, The Whackems: One Big Movie, X2, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Daddy Day Care, Over Sea, Under Stone, The Trichotomy Picture Show, and Finding Nemo.
 * The second trailer was released on June 10, 2003, and was shown with Rugrats Go Wild, Hulk, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Jeremy Monroe: The Biggest Movie Ever, Johnny English, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, Freaky Friday, and Thomas & Mike: The Movie.
 * TV Spots aired between July 22 and November 28, 2003.

Video game
Magina games were released in September 2003 for PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and PC.

Release
Magina went several release date changes. In July 1997, it was initially set for December 2000, but in June 1998, the film was pushed back to November 2001, with Mistress Masham's Repose taking its place. In February 1999, the film was pushed back again to November 22, 2002. In December 2001, the film's release date was pushed back once more to July 2, 2003 in order for the production team to work more on the story and animation. In June 2002, the film was pushed back one final time to September 19, 2003, in order to avoid competition with DreamWorks Animation's Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.

Box office
Magina grossed $12.9 million in North America and $65.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $78.1 million. On October 9, 2003, Universal announced that, due to the film underperforming at the box office, Universal Feature Animation would take a $130 million write-down, which nearly made the division file for bankruptcy.

Reasons for the film's financial failure included the September release date, an aggressive marketing campaign which cost over $100 million, competition with films such as Anything Else, Underworld, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and Lost in Translation, and disinterest in traditional animation in comparison to computer animation.

Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Magina holds a 53% rating based on 119 reviews, with an average score of 6.1/10. Its consensus reads, "Magina shines as a darkly animated, beautifully sung love story based on the Salem witch trials, but an uninspired script makes all that grandeur wear out its welcome." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 57 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Home media
Magina was released on VHS and DVD on January 27, 2004. During the first month of its home release, the film led in VHS sales and was third in combined VHS and DVD sales. Sales and rentals of the VHS and DVD combined would eventually accumulate $144 million in revenue by the end of 2004.

On September 13, 2011, the film was released on Blu-ray.

The film was released on 4K Blu-ray on December 15, 2020.

Legacy
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Main
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

Trailers
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.