Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

shannonpags The movie literally starts out with the cat purposefully getting abandoned by its owners - they throw a ball out of the car, wait for the cat to get it, and then drive away. Even though that's a terrible way to start a movie, you can almost get past it because the youngest kids won't realize that's what happened. Then for the majority of the movie the poor cat, Thunder, is constantly being threatened that it is going to die. The rabbit Jack and the nephew David, I think, are constantly saying it's going to die. The movie sends horrible messages to young kids like if you get too old your nephew is going to trick you into signing power of attorney over to him and he'll put you in an old folks home, sell your house, and/or demolish the house.The nephew is constantly saying that DAMN cat. I don't know about you but I don't want young kids, my niece is 5 and I watched it with her, hearing DAMN being constantly said. Also, the nephew is straight up trying to kill Thunder. Like not in the playful cartoon way. He is literally chasing him around the house shooting a shot gun at him. Very, very realistic. And when that doesn't work, he steals a wrecking ball and starts to demolish the house! I found this movie on the kids section on Netflix. This is no way a suitable movie for kids. I trust the kids section to have appopriate content for my nieces. I also rely on it in when I teach younger students and there is no way I could show them this movie. It is too dark and violent with inappropriate language to show any kid!

tonyhuddy I took my 4 year old daughter to see a G-rated movie ostensibly about a cute little kitten and his adventures in a strange house of wonderful magical contraptions.I was expecting a delightful daddy-daughter shared experience full of whimsy and wonder and kittens. What I didn't expect was a lengthy opening sequence in which strongly suggests that THE KITTEN IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!Now I am the first to admit that my daughter is a bit jumpy. She finds it hard to watch the Adventures of Peter Rabbit (the Fox is a little bit frightening). She also squeals during the more tense parts of the Octonauts. So when the cinema's website said "some scary scenes", I was prepared for a gentle build up of tension followed by a mildly scary chase scene that lasts a minute or two at most, culminating in a satisfying last-ditch escape: enough to give the little ones a bit of an adrenaline surge, but nothing that will affect their ability to sleep.The G-rated "Thunder and the House of Magic" takes terrifying small children to a level I had not previously experienced. It opens ominously, though subtly with a kitten being dumped on the side of the road. An adult quickly works out this is a cat being cruelly abandoned, but an innocent child can easily imagine it is just a mistake, the kind that happens frequently in kids movies and books and ends with a happy and tear-filled reunion some minutes and/or pages later. In this case, the newly abandoned kitten is almost immediately caught up in a life-or-death struggle for survival involving fast moving motor vehicles. Cars and trucks zoomed past and over the kitten at very high speeds and very close range. The kitten looked terrified. So did my daughter. At this point, I have to stress, my daughter was pretty much convinced that THE KITTEN IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!I held her hand through this and reassured her that everything would be fine (as an adult I am aware of the convention of not killing kittens in the opening scenes of a G-rated movie). But instead of breaking the tension with a nice happy scene involving flowers and butterflies, this one went from traffic terror to a torrential storm soaking the poor little kitten to its miserable skin, and accompanied by extremely close and frequent lightning strikes which my daughter was sure meant that THE KITTEN IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!But that's not the end of it. The terrified kitten finds shelter in the creepiest freaking attic imaginable, made creepier by the terrifying shadows cast by the lightning outside, and when the creepy silhouette of the coat and top hat flashed for just a second on the screen (appearing like a well dressed invisible psychopath), my daughter was certain that THE KITTEN WAS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!Then, just when I thought I had her convinced that everything was going to be fine, the kitten was attacked and chased through the strange house by the Evil Bunny and the Mean Mouse, who make it abundantly clear that the kitten was not only not welcome, THE KITTEN IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!Finally, after what seems like an eternity of terror in the mind of a four year old who really, really likes cats (which is, incidentally, why I chose this particular movie in the first place), we meet the owner of the creepy house who of course turns out to be a very kindly old man, but for reasons I can only assume involve some sort of childhood trauma, the film-makers decided to make look, on first impression, like a terrifying mad man. They certainly didn't disguise the fact they wanted everyone in the cinema to know that THE KITTEN IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!At this point I managed once again to convince my daughter that everything was going to be OK, that this was going to be a happy movie, that I didn't know it was going to be so scary, and that I love her very much and didn't deliberately go out of my way to bring her to the most frightening movie she had ever experienced in her short life. And for a few brief moments, as the nice old man took the poor scared cat to bed with him, it looked like I was not lying to her. And then the Evil Bunny and the Mean Mouse poke their heads up over the edge of the bed and tell the cute little kitten that if it doesn't leave the house before sunrise IT IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!At this point my daughter asked for the third time if we could leave, and I had very little choice but to agree that it seemed like the best thing to do. We left, we went to the park, and we had a lovely day together thanks for asking. But even several days later, I have to wonder who thinks it reasonable to put a G-rating on a movie which is, from the perspective of a small person, all about the terrifying final moments in the life of a cute little kitten.Now I am in no way suggesting that this movie should not have been made this way. I'm sure there is a market for kiddie horror movies in which cute animals are constantly almost killed, just as I am sure there are children who don't at all mind watching a kitten being terrified out of its wits at every turn. I'm simply saying that I relied on the G- rating as an indication that this was not such a film, because my daughter is not such a child.I urge you to consider a special warning on future promotional materials that quite clearly states: IMPLIED IMMINENT DEATH OF KITTEN MAY DISTURB SOME YOUNG VIEWERS.

Figgy66-915-598470 25 August 2014 Film of Choice at The Plaza Dorchester on this rainy bank holiday afternoon - House of Magic. Adults were definitely in the minority in the cinema this afternoon to see this lovely animated tale of an abandoned kitten doing everything he can to save his new home. Originally released in France on Christmas Day last year, it has eventually hit our screens amid some fierce competition for the school holidays. This film has some very cute characters and is engaging from the opening scene when Thunder the cat is abandoned by his family. In true animation fashion the story leads us through good times and bad times but always ends with a happy ending. Not one for the DVD collection but a rainy afternoon viewing on the TV would be a must.

shawneofthedead In too many ways, the Hollywood animation industry has ruined the market for everyone else. Disney and Pixar are leading a pack – DreamWorks, Fox, Sony – that have considerable resources at their disposal: they can easily afford to hire the best talents and bombard the entire world with adorable tie-in merchandise, even if the films they're producing aren't particularly good. It's a real shame, because it means that smaller, semi-independent efforts like The House Of Magic – an utterly charming French co-production – might too easily fall by the wayside.Abandoned by his owners, a cat sneaks into a mysterious mansion that the neighbourhood pets are convinced is haunted. In short order, our feline protagonist gains a new name (Thunder) and a new master – the genial, elderly Lawrence, a magician who lives happily in a magical world with his toys and mechanical gizmos. However, Thunder also gains a few enemies: Jack Rabbit and Maggie Mouse have no intention of allowing him to become part of Lawrence's act, even as Lawrence's nefarious nephew Danny plots to sell the house away.Plot-wise, there isn't anything particularly special about The House Of Magic. The story marches along in largely predictable fashion – the schemes cooked up by Thunder and his buddies aren't enormously innovative and the ending of the film is never in doubt. It's also the kind of movie in which moral complexities are easier to ignore than include, so don't expect many shades of grey in the characters of Thunder, Lawrence or Danny. Even Jack Rabbit, who proves a worthy, grouchy secondary antagonist to Thunder, is quickly forgotten in the film's action-packed ending.But it's all woven together to charming, sweet effect in the film, which benefits enormously from its excellent character design. It's easy to forgive the straightforward narrative when it's hurried along so effectively by the bouncy, adorable Thunder and his desire to be part of a family again. Lawrence's toys are also wonderfully realised: Edison, the most expressive walking lightbulb you'll ever see, is a standout, but the other supporting characters are lovingly developed too. Much of the joy in the film comes from watching them come together to thwart Danny's efforts.Taken all together, The House Of Magic has the feel of a well-worn bedtime story: it may occasionally feel like something you've seen a thousand times before, but it's also powered by a comfortable, familiar spark of magic – the kind that makes you feel right at home, wherever you might be.