Mr. Magorian's Wonder Emporium

The owner of a magical toy shop decides to pass the trade on to shop manager Molly Mahoney who struggles to accept the responsibility, but in the end, finds the magic touch that sets everything straight again.

It is easy to see why this film is in the shadow of 'The Golden Compass', with its relatively simple storyline and effects, but from the opening credits, this film is captivating and imaginative and a lot of fun. Dustin Hoffman, who plays Mr. Magorian, is as you'd expect, an eccentric and very watchable character.

My favourite character was the young boy Eric, who had a wonderful hat collection. His story is the search for a friend. Henry, the accountant brought in to set all Mr. Magorian's affairs in order, goes through a journey of imaginative awakening.

I found the film very compelling, since there was no doubt about what was going to happen from the start, which focussed the attention on the character's reactions. Musically, the film is absolutely excellent and definitely adds to the excitement and character of the emporium.

Other than a few badly delivered lines and some child-acting, which I'm happy to gloss over, the film's main disappointment came in the final scene. Having been musically and visually excellent and kept the tension high waiting for this moment, it suddenly seemed to come too quickly. I don't want to spoil anything, so if you're thinking of watching the film (and I recommend it), you may want to stop reading.

Molly Mahoney is a musical prodigy, but she is not able to find a finish to her piece, as beautifully as it begins. In the final scene, she is told that she must believe in herself and that is where the special 'sparkle' comes from. I don't like this message, because confidence and ability are different things, but anyway...

As Molly begins to believe in herself, the shop comes to life, and it was exactly the ending to be expected. The problem was that the kids who were in the shop were instantly amazed at everything that was happening in the shop, whereas only two days before, the shop had been doing exactly the same things. The gap between discovering how to run the shop was only two days, which in film terms did not seem long enough. As a result, the ending felt rushed, even though the film hadn't felt long at all.

The other problem with the ending was that the music, I felt, was being drowned out by the visual effects. There was almost too much happening on the screen, so that the amazement of everything was lost. It didn't help that Mahoney was conducting unconvincingly and out of time. I imagine it was a hard scene to shoot, but although separately taken the visual effects, the acting and the music would have been fine, the final effect was not as powerful as I'd been expecting.

Not to take away from how much I enjoyed this film, because I did, and it made the ending so much more disappointing.