The Magician's Elephant (film)

The Magician's Elephant is a 2023 animated fantasy adventure film directed by Wendy Rogers, written by Martin Hynes and produced by Julia Pistor. Based on the 2009 novel of the same name by Kate DiCamillo, the film features the voices of Noah Jupe, Mandy Patinkin, Natasia Demetriou, Benedict Wong, Miranda Richardson and Aasif Mandvi. Animated by Animal Logic, the film was distributed by Netflix and released on March 17, 2023.

Plot
The town of Baltese had lost its hope in magic and warmth after the war, which is why nobody had any time to waste fantasizing about wild and exotic animals; there were only domesticated animals reared for produce. The very first mention of the elephant is when Peter, a young orphan raised by a soldier toughened by his time at the war-front, Vilna Lutz (Mandy Patinkin), approaches a fortune teller out of curiosity. Vilna had sent Peter on an errand to buy old bread and a small fish as he trained Peter for another inevitable war so as to increase his chances of survival. Vilna saved Peter (Noah Jupe) from the war-front after his whole family had been wiped out. He brought him up in harsh conditions so that Peter wouldn't lose his life and stay alive in even the worst conditions caused by war.

Vilna's only guilt had been that he could not save Peter's sister, Adele (Pixie Davies), and thus he had lied to him about her dying at birth. He could not bring himself to tell Peter that it was his decision to take him away and entrust Adele to Sister Marie. But, a bomb later wiped out the house housing Sister Marie and Adele, which is why Vilna thought they had died then. Therefore, Peter lived with this as the truth and never sought out Adele. Vilna argued that if Peter had hope, he would never grow up to be a good soldier. He tells the story of a young recruit, who used to find comfort in fairy tales. Vilna took away his story book and the recruit grew up to become the most feared soldier in the King's army. As he arrived at the town square to buy his daily dinner, Peter, intrigued by the Fortune Teller's (Natasia Demetriou) tent as well as how well she seemed to know him, decided to spend his only coin designated for food on a question that changed his life. The Fortune Teller mentioned that his sister Adele was alive and that if he wanted to find her, he would have to follow the elephant.

The story of following an elephant seemed just that-a story. However, impossibility gave way to likelihood when the opening act of a terrible magician at the opera summoned an elephant out of thin air, using a magic spell. Albeit, it was a fluke, as the magician (Benedict Wong) simply desired to bring back the lost hope, warmth, and magic of Baltese. Both the elephant and the magician were locked up as the weight of the elephant had crushed the legs of a noblewoman attending the show. However, the arrival of the elephant brought joy and hope to two individuals: one was Peter, who sought his sister, and the other was surprisingly his sister Adele, who had dreamed of an elephant leading her to her brother earlier that day.

Adele had been safely raised by her nurse, Sister Marie (Dawn French ), who had traveled to the army camp on the words of Vilna only to find it destroyed due to another bomb. Sister Marie had taken Adele away from the city to take care of her on the outskirts, away from any harm. Sister Marie also had the same guilt as Vilna, where she was constantly reminded of how she had let Peter go and that she should have saved them both. She loved Adele and thus gave in to her wishes when she asked to visit the elephant, as Adele saw her as a sign of hope.

Peter decided to save the locked-up elephant in order to find his little sister, and his downstairs neighbor, Leo Matiennel (Brian Tyree Henry), decided to help him. Leo is an official of the King's court and a captain of the Palace Guards. Leo then notified the King (Aasif Mandvi) of the arrival of an elephant in the town of Baltese to intrigue him into visiting the town when he saw that the Countess (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) was not bending to his request for the elephant to be released. The countess was swayed by the court who thought the elephant to be an instrument of a foreign power and wants to kill the elephant. The arrival of the King signified a shift in power. Leo invites Peter to the court at the unveiling of the Elephant. Peter saves the day by washing the elephant's eye when it was getting agitated due to chalk residue falling into its eye. Peter says that the Elephant is detained to lead him to his lost sister and asks for custody of the Elephant. Due to his love for dramatics and flair, the King decided on three impossible tasks for Peter to complete so as to own the elephant. His first task was to defeat Romain De Smedt, who was a one-man killing machine. Peter recognizes him as the same person from whom Vilna stole the book of fairy tales. He ran across the town, evading Romain and got the book. Peter won him over by returning Romain's lost book that had been stolen by Vilna so as to push him to become the soldier he was so he would survive.

The second task had been for Peter to fly, and this is where the efforts of Leo and his wife Gloria (Sian Clifford) came through. They designed a parachute for him, and Peter used it to glide through the air, successfully mimicking the art of flight, which he used to win over the King as well. Declared the winner of yet another round, Peter was set up for another impossible task, which was to make the Countess, who had been known for her stoicism after she lost her brother to war, laugh. He had been rather unsuccessful with his joke, although the Countess tried a fake laugh to help him out. The King just wanted her to enjoy the moment and thus decided that would not fly by. However, the plot armor decided that it wanted Peter to win and thus made the elephant sneeze all over the King. Seeing the most powerful man in the kingdom covered in snot, the Countess burst out laughing, which genuinely made the King smile as well. He declared Peter the winner.

Peter, after two of those tasks, had already changed his mind about using the elephant to find Adele; rather, he had come around to helping the elephant find its own family. Peter regularly took care of the elephant and thus had a bond with her. So, when the King announced that Peter had lost the privilege to own the elephant, Peter was very upset, as he now simply wanted the elephant to return to her natural habitat, as she surely did not belong in the city. This is why the plot armor had taken matters into its own hands and thought fit to let Peter win after all. The elephant symbolized the lost trust, light, and hope that the town of Baltese had. The Countess finally laughed for the first time since she had lost her brother and locked her emotions down, which meant the return of her emotions. The magician had been terrible at his own art due to the fact that the people of the town chose not to believe in their own emotions as well as in hope and magic. Also, the complaining attitude and the judgmental look of the noblewoman, a mighty Karen right there, had made matters worse for now, as the town had locked up the magician, who had failed his final trick to return the warmth that once was in the town of Baltese. The magician, now equipped with the belief and trust of the townsfolk, was now able to channel the spirit of magic and was able to send the elephant back to her natural habitat.

Meanwhile, Adele had unknowingly met her brother Peter, who had been troubled with the task of making the Countess laugh. Their interaction had been brief but spoke of familiarity. They met again when Adele came around to ask Peter why he had let the elephant go, as he was meant to follow her to find his destiny. With the disappearance of the elephant came light and hope that cleared out the dark, gloomy clouds, lifting the curse of the town and letting the light shine through. Meanwhile, Vilna found the courage to finally get out of his house and walk around with his cane instead of the wheelchair. As he reached the town, clearly proud and impressed, he came across Sister Marie, whom he had thought had lost her life along with baby Adele. Sister Marie couldn't believe her eyes when she realized that Peter and Vilna had been alive all this time. Thus, sparking a reunion, it marked the town's overcoming a long war where they had forgotten how to feel and thus ridding Baltese of its gloomy clouds for good. The story ends on a warm note, with the sounds of joy and laughter echoing through every street of the town as Peter enjoys a meal with his newfound family.

Production
On August 17, 2009, 20th Century Fox announced that Martin Hynes would adapt a novel titled The Magician's Elephant, which was yet to be released, into a feature film. In that same announcement, former Nickelodeon Movies producer Julia Pistor was also confirmed as the producer of the film. On December 15, 2020, after languishing into development hell for a number of years, it was announced that Pistor had taken the property to Netflix who acquired the film rights to the book and screenplay to develop the animated feature film, with Animal Logic in Sydney working on the animation. In the same announcement, Noah Jupe, Benedict Wong, Pixie Davies, Sian Clifford, Brian Tyree Henry, Mandy Patinkin, Natasia Demetriou, Aasif Mandvi, Miranda Richardson, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste were all cast to star in the film.

Release
The Magician's Elephant was released on March 17, 2023.