Stream of the Day
‘Shrek’ director brings new spell to Netflix
In ‘Spellbound’, a young princess fights to save her kingdom after her parents are turned into monsters.
In Spellbound, a determined young girl goes on a daring quest to save her family and the kingdom of Lumbria after a spell transforms her parents, the king and queen, into monsters.
The animation is directed by Vicky Jenson, best known for co-directing Shrek – the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, back in 2022. Spellbound begins streaming on Netflix today (22 November 2024).
“Mythology and fairytales have always been part of my life and upbringing,” says Jenson. “My father, the son of immigrant Romanian parents, was an aspiring writer and my mother, raised in Costa Rica by literary parents, taught us to love the arts and old family ghost stories. Storytelling runs deep in our families.
“So, when I was pitched the basic story of Spellbound, I recognized immediately the unusual yet universal heart that was already beating inside the concept. The original story, while powerful, wore it all on its sleeve, but it was when we found our allegory that the story started to sing.
“And as the old theatre saying goes: When feelings are too big to express in words, one sings. It was then that composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater joined the team and gave the movie its soul.”
The original score by EGOT-winning composer Menken (Beauty and the Beast) and Slater (Tangled) accompanies a voice cast that includes Rachel Zegler, Nicole Kidman, John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis, Nathan Lane, Tituss Burgess, and Javier Bardem.
“Spellbound is about what it is that really makes a family,” says Jenson. “Like any timeless myth or lasting fairytale, I believe the meaning reaches even further than the specifics of this family’s dynamic. It speaks to kids and their parents and the kinds of alienation that can happen between them as well as the steps we have to take toward each other, how we can weather it together, to come through to the other side with better understanding.”
The film is written by Lauren Hynek, Elizabeth Martin, and Julia Miranda, and produced by John Lasseter, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Bruce Anderson for Skydance Animation.
