Upon his father's death, Tim Walker (Jack Wolfe) is granted admission to an exclusive Hogwarts-style boarding school in the Shout! Studios move The Magic Flute. This school though doesn't train its students to be magicians but rather musicians. The Mozart School, founded by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with a reputation for developing the most gifted opera singers in the world, has a stern curriculum and is intensely competitive; but is also enchanting place.
Tim has dreamed of attending his father's alma mater, Mozart All Boys Music School, but gets off to a rough start when his aspirations become a reality when a hostile headmaster (F. Murray Abraham) confronts the boy about the authenticity of his singing voice. To show that he belongs at Mozart, Tim decides to try out for the lead role in the student body's production of The Magic Flute, against the headmaster's objections.
While preparing for the role, magical spirits lead Tim to a mystical gateway in the school's library that transports him to a fantasyland where he lives out the story of The Magic Flute opera. Assuming the identity of Prince Tamino, Tim embarks on an adventure to save the Princess Pamina. The three child spirits that led Tim to the mystical gateway are the same that inspired Mozart during his composing of The Magic Flute and are featured in the opera. They lead Tim through adversity and give him the confidence to tackle the role of Prince Tamino in the school production when he returns to his normal reality.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was 35 years old when he began work on the opera The Magic Flute, based on a libretto by Emanuel Schikandeder, in the Spring of 1791. The opera debuted that Fall in Vienna and sadly was one of Mozart's last works as he passed away in December of that year. This movie shares the stories and songs from The Magic Flute with the feel of watching a Harry Potter or Percy Jackson film rather than sitting through an opera performance. This makes The Magic Flute more amicable for kids and teens to want to take in. My family enjoyed Shout! Studios The Magic Flute and it made for a nice movie night.
In an interesting bit of Mozart movie trivia, F. Murray Abraham, who played the antagonist Salieri in Milos Forman's film Amadeus (1984), is the headmaster of the Mozart boarding school in The Magic Flute. Abraham won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Salieri and Amadeus also won the Oscar for Best Picture.
Another tidbit of trivia is that many of the scenes in The Magic Flute were filmed in Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Some of the locations in The Magic Flute were also in the musical The Sound of Music (1965) with Julie Andrews. Look to see if you can spot The Sound of Music locations while watching The Magic Flute for some extra fun.
The Magic Flute is now available to view on Blu-ray, Digital and DVD. An educational and entertaining selection for a family movie night. The Magic Flute earns a Geek Daddy nod of approval for being an out of the ordinary movie that introduces the opera genre to wider audiences and was enjoyable to watch during our family movie night viewing it.
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