Magic Arch
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 Don't make my tentacles laugh!
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Magic Arch (Russian: Полное погружение) (Released as Sea Level 2: Magic Arch in the United States) is a 2020 Russian-Hungarian-American computer-animated musical adventure film directed by Vasiliy Rovenskiy, written by Alec Sokolow, produced by Licensing Brands and Luminescence Kft. The film was released on September 29, 2020, on DVD and VOD platforms by Lionsgate.
Plot
Delphi is a shy dolphin with an active imagination that discovers a Magic Arch misused by evil moray eels, which have become gigantic and plan to take over peaceful Fish Town. Delphi needs to reunite with his friend Zeb the Masked butterflyfish and his long-lost father Dolfius in order to gain the strength and power to conquer the morays, protect his city, and win over the love of his life.
Why It's Not Magic
- To get the elephant out of the room, it's one of the 20 rip-offs of Finding Nemo, alongside Izzie's Way Home, Shark Bait, Go Fish, Back to the Sea, and Finding Jesus.
- Poor voice acting. It sounds as if the voice actors were tired and unenthusiastic rather than ready.
- Misleading title: The film is advertised as a sequel to SeeFood, despite having no relation to that film.
- Terrible worldbuilding compared to Finding Nemo. Almost nothing much is revealed about the sea in which the film is set in and there's barely any lifeform there due to his excessive use of sunken temples through the backgrounds.
- The character designs, with the exception of the moray eels, are pretty unconvincing as their textures look like they were made of chocolate.
- All the characters are one-dimensional and clichéd:
- Delphi is the shy protagonist who wants to fit in but has something that gets in his way.
- Zeb is generic and has no personality other than being a Butt-Monkey comic relief.
- Alpha is the stereotypical bully that gets redeemed at the end.
- Mia is the girl of Delphi's dreams.
- The moray eels are the "villains that want to take over the world" cliché. In other words, they're Generic Doomsday Villains.
- Octavian is the cranky old man.
- Demetra is the old turtle who gives advice.
- The lip syncing is way off, with sometimes the voices can't synchronize with the characters facial expressions, most likely because the movie was made in Russian and then dubbed into English.
- False advertising: In the poster, there's a shark behind the main characters, but he barely appears on the film, and he is only used at the end where he is accompanied by Udo the anglerfish and two other sharks in a attempt to eat Octavian.
- Unfunny attempts at humor, with the jokes normally having some fish puns.
Magic Qualities
- The CGI animation looks decent for the standards of Russian animation.
- The designs for the moray eels are well done, and it almost looks like identical to their real-life counterparts.
- In fact, Murenius, the leader of the eels, is a green moray, while one of the three henchmen is based on a fangtooth moray.
- An arch that allows anyone to any fish what they wish to be is a very interesting concept.
- The musical numbers are nice to listen to.
- The scene which shows a flashback of Mia as a baby and getting adopted by Octavian and his sunfish is very heartwarming.
Trivia
- National Cinema Fund sponsored the movie, considering that Licensing Brands (the film's production company) is a subsidiary of the Russian government's screen production industry.
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