The Academy of Magic (2020) User Reviews

Total ripoff

[Java_Joe · 2/10 · 15 March 2023]

Honestly it's so blatant that this cartoon is ripping off Harry Potter that it's honestly a surprise they haven't been sued.

See if this sounds familiar. A young person is gifted with magic, has a very distinctive scar, goes to a magical academy where they learn magic, has a dark haired teacher that gives them a hard time for yet known reasons and there's a blond bully who bullies them for being "common". Oh and there's a dark secret there that this young person and her friends must uncover. It's Harry Potter but with a girl in the lead role. And if that wasn't enough she bears a striking resemblance to Anna from Disney's "Frozen".

The animation is second rate and looks more like something you'd find in a cheaply made cartoon... which this is. It's cheap. The animation, while not terrible and I've seen worse, isn't good.

Honestly this isn't a good movie by any stretch. Sure. Kids will probably like it but what can you do?

It's just not a good cartoon or story.

Also somebody, or a group of somebodies, have attempted to game the system by voting this a "9" en masse. Didn't work. It's still only 3.3 or thereabouts.

Ok for young kids

[klucas-06992 · 3/10 · 24 February 2021]

Animation is poor, script inelegant and the ending is awful.

My 4 year old enjoyed it in 3 parts but hasn't mentioned it since.

Not great.

[rodandjoy · 3/10 · 18 November 2020]

Story is fine but the animation is not great. Suitable only for kids and even they may struggle given the high quality of alternative animations available. Overall I wouldn't recommend.

no telling where the money went...

[owen-691-380910 · 1/10 · 7 June 2020]

Estimated budget 12000000, I guess they blew it on coke and hookers, if so, well played, however, if this is an actual attempt at entertaining children, it seems misguided at best. The animation quality is terrible. The same pictures/sequences are used again and again. The voice acting is amateurish. A previous reviewer said something like "dont watch this unless your high or drunk" however I have to vehemently disagree (there are far better things to do while high or drunk ;) and say dont watch this until and unless some sick twisted serial killer is holding your wife and kids and forcing you to watch it to save them, and even then I would ask you to think twice.

Disgrace

[finol-80628 · 1/10 · 1 June 2020]

As excited as I was for something about magic, this made me consider suicide. Animation was poor, story was terrible, and characters plain and shallow. For 12 Million Budget you would expect something with depth and an actual try to make it good, while this was just an poor attempt at Something? that wasn't even okay. Do not give this a watch unless you are high or drunk.

Not even subtle HP ripoff with extremely cheap CGI

[ZoeM-2 · 1/10 · 10 January 2021]

From a magic mark on the skin, to ginger twins, blond bully who picks on our heroine for being common,to an intimidating dark haired teacher, this is an unbelievably bad rip off of Harry Potter but with the animation of Paw Patrol. AVOID!!

There are no words to describe this.

[margaamezcua · 1/10 · 12 October 2020]

This movie its a movie that it has to be seen twice, but because its horrible, when the movie starts you see a robot that has what its seems to be a baby, and in this scene you can alredy see that the animation it is unfinished or that its from 20 or even 30 years ago.

As you progress in the movie you can see that the plot it's not well written, it's looks like the first Harry Potter film, when Harry goes to Howards but low cost, because there isnt anything that keeps her away from beliving the robot that wants to take her away, there isnt any real problem or villain in the movie untilhalf of the movie, another issue with the movie its that there is a character in the portrait that its not seen in all the movie, and even worse its that a character dialogues arent even made, so when he talks it doesnt sound anything, but you can see the mouse moving like if it was talking!!!! And things like this are in all the

In summary, the plot ismts Boring to the point that even my little brothers of 5 and 7 years noticed that there was something wrong, then you see the animation unfinished, some character movements arent made and magic isnt finished too, also there are plot holes, like the moment when a character says that he is unable to use magic, but in the next scene you see him using magic. And as i said before this continues and continues to the point where there are more problems with the movie than movie.

OMG....

[joanne_caddy · 1/10 · 23 July 2020]

This movie was so contrived and a blatant rip off of other movies that it was unwatchable. Wooden animation and voice overs, plot copied from elsewhere. I decided to fill in a questionnaire about my community on my phone instead, much more interesting!!!! Give it a miss.

Why? Seriously I mean! Why?

[ItsCN · 1/10 · 9 August 2020]

The movie's concept is kinda nice but the graphics for such huge budget looks like *hit! I mean like literally. Everything is fine until the school is going like a regular day, she competes with her colleagues as she doesn't know anything at all but somehow in the climax she literally turns everybody from a rock to normal like an expert (which she isn't) and suddenly she's the headmaster of the school? I mean like wtf man? She's just 16 and she's a headmaster, I mean that old guy(guy's grandfather) is a magician who has years of experience, her own grandfather the founder of the school, and the teacher who is literally much more experienced than the main character.. but somehow the 16 year old kid was made headmaster of the school just because she saved everyone. I mean it's pure fuffin *hit. Do not watch it please, god bless whoever watched it already(I'm one of those who watched it) 😅

Mediocre, wasted potential

[crepesuzettey · 5/10 · 3 January 2021]

There are a million+ magical academia properties out there, and this film does not shine among them. Up until the climax, the film lacks any sort of interesting plot, and the animation is nothing special. There are also some minor distracting details (why are there only 7 students? Why is Susan's head bigger than everyone else's, literally speaking? How did Aura learn a spell from a book labelled "Grimm's Fairy Tales"?) that show how amateurish the production is. It would probably make an adequate TV series, the way it's written, but as a movie, it's just awkward. It DOES have good elements, but the writing is just so sloppy that it doesn't all come together in the end. The plot twist, in particular, just comes out of nowhere. In conclusion, the film will be entertaining enough for children, but it is by no means a "good" movie. The music is the most whimsical thing about it.

genuinely epic movie

[fruitsarescary · 10/10 · 29 August 2022]

Why are people hating on this movie? Its pretty above decent in my opinion. Yeah, maybe the animating can be whack at sometimes, but that doesn't affect the amazingness of it. Also, it might have a little reference from frozen (aura looks a bit too much like anna), Harry Potter (Snape and Dumbledore?? Weasly Twins?? Malfoy??), Baby Moses from the bible (what that baby doing???), Beauty and the Beast (the trapped grandpa dude??) and possibly even how to train your dragon (with that big pink dragon thing or wait omg maybe it was a reference to sleeping beauty with like that dragon and then OMG AURORA. AURA. Omg do you see the connection im literally so smart), but seriously, its not a completely rip off. It actually developed its own plot and storyline. I also need to mention the amazing soundtrack. Some of the pieces are lowkey fire. Also did I mention that the Shawn dude lowkey kinda hot. Anyways, thats not important. The build up to the climax is honestly top tier, and it does get pretttty intense. The climax itself is pretty anticlimactic though. Also I like how they just make characters stand in the back like they're not in the middle of a warzone. I also think this movie could honestly be passed as a comedy because of how freaking funny it is. That yellow robot thingy fits so well into the movie, and the lambert dude is honestly really funny. And, the twins being perfectly in sync was peak humor. So all in all, I highly recommend this movie for entertainment purposes, because truthfully, while I first watched it, I thought nothing about how "bad" it was (it wasn't even bad), I was genuinely having fun. I'd give it an 11/10 if I could. Also, my new motto in life is officially, apples are red, the color of money is green.

Could've improved better

[BethL789 · 7/10 · 23 October 2020]

The movie was great and so was the characters but there was definitely room for improvement. For starters, there were not enough students shown at the school. Not even just to appear in the background makes the school pretty lonely with little amount of people there. Unlike the Harry Potter movies, there are a lot of students in the background making the place very lively. Not to mention there were things like contests during classes which is completely different from the Harry Potter movies as well. Also one of the characters Shawn said he doesn't have any magic powers yet he did magic a couple of times in the movie which doesn't make any sense and is not clear enough. Unless the magic comes from his wand but the movie doesn't say so which doesn't clear things up so it's very confusing. Also during the battle with Frank after he gets stronger, it is unknown how Aura thought of trapping Frank in the box, how she encouraged Shawn to help her after he claimed he doesn't have any magic powers, and how the twins Reuben and Gerald came to help Aura and instead it cut straight to Aura telling the twins and Shawn of what to do to stop Frank. If this movie got a sequel, I am hoping that there will be more improvements. Like more students in the background at the school, clearing things up about Shawn not having any magic powers and all that stuff, and things that would make more sense.

Also I don't know if it could ever happen, but if possibly there would be a crossover movie between Cinderella and The Academy of Magic mainly because there are some characters that look alike each other. Alex and Shawn, Crystal and Susan. Not to mention Walt made a cameo appearance in The Academy of Magic. If this ever happened, it would really great to see how all the characters interacted with each other.

Just awful

[greg-taitt1981 · 1/10 · 11 October 2020]

The movie was such a blatant rip off of the Harry Potter series that I'm surprised they didn't get sued. You have the gifted child, an old headmaster with a beard, a sidekick with red hair, twin brothers with red hair and a blonde, arrogant antagonist. I wouldn't usually care but the animation was awful.

Amazing

[mk-93331 · 10/10 · 21 August 2022]

This movie was so well made and had an amazing story line. The voice acting was better than anything I've seen and the animation was peak greatness. My favorite part was when Aura and her friends did the rain ride dance to get the invisible stairs wet. I also liked when Aura found a way to defeat the headmaster! It was so good!!! 10/10😍😍😍😍