Fromage Fridays #21: Thunder and the House of Magic

Its best trick was making my memories of Agent F.O.X. disappear.

One of the best parts of this job is being reminded if how the world can be full of pleasant surprises around every corner.

“Thunder and the House of Magic” isn't exactly taking home any Oscar nominations any time soon but it has certainly earned Fromage recognition for the very first achievement of thorough competence by an animated feature.

This week’s foreign awkwardmation feature, with a surprising lack of awkwardmation, is brought to us by Belgium and centered on Thunder, a young recently abandoned stray cat that finds himself in the house of an eccentric old magician and his pet mouse, rabbit, and a variety off tiny automatons that he has created to keep himself company and help with his performances. As Thunder attempts to settle into his new home, his new owner’s nephew, a corrupt real estate agent, attempts to con his uncle out of his flamboyant home in an effort to make a massive profit, forcing him into action to protect his new home and prove himself to his reluctant housemates.

“Thunder and the House of Magic” isn’t winning points for complexity either. The narrative is a dime a dozen tale with no surprises within the plot itself. Plenty of surprises do however reside in how much charm the creators managed to pack into a product that was thinly written at best.

From the first frame of the film, your sense are welcomed to something that actually looks like a proper theatrical release with both a budget and some semblance of effort and the detail of every scene demonstrates a strong sense of production direction the likes of which I would rarely catch in mainstream animated films. From the moment Thunder’s owner releases him onto the street, double taking while walking away, leading to him chasing the moving vehicle frantically claiming “Wait, you forgot me!,” most preconceptions of this being the ordinary bargain bin title go out the window.

In fact, the entire film almost gives off the vibe of the old Famous Studios cartoon shorts from the 50s and 60s. There’s a very old school charm to the animation of the whimsical setting that Thunder finds himself in compared to the darkness situation that he had just fallen into and while it doesn't save the blandness of the writing itself, it does work well with the solid and consistent voice acting to keep the film engaging enough from start to finish, without really losing its steam.

I don’t intend to oversell “Thunder and the House of Magic.” As surprisingly enjoyable as I found it to be, it is above all else a children’s movie. While the kids are bound to get more out of it than an adult however, it’s just too sincere and charming to deny that any animation fan would get a kick out of it as well. 

3½  Shatners

Bottom Line: Truth be told, “Thunder and the House of Magic” is probably better than some theatrically released animated movies of the last few years.