If ever there were a more utterly pointless film, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is it. The film tells the tale of a 243-year-old man, Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) who runs a magical and seemingly living toy store. One day, Magorium decides it is time "to leave" (as in, the world), because he is down to his last pair of shoes. Enough said.
Mr. Magorium runs on for a little over 90 minutes of excruciating tedium. Magorium decides to leave his magical store to his store's only employee Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman), a 23-year-old former child prodigy pianist now struggling to write her first piano concerto and to find her "inner spark." Then there is Eric Applebaum (Zach Mills), the awkward kid who can't make friends his own age who hangs around the store, collects hats and has taken to Molly. Lastly, there is Henry Weston (Jason Bateman), the accountant that Mr. Magorium hires to get the store's business affairs in order so the store can be left to Molly. Weston is too detached from his inner child to be able to see the store's magic.
Trouble ensues when the store throws a temper tantrum over Magorium's decision to leave the world and Molly begins to struggle with the dilemma of whether she wants the store, wants to pursue her stunted musical aspirations, and how to convince Magorium not to leave the world. While all of this is taking place, naturally it falls to the outsider Henry -- whom they have all taken to calling "Mutant" (due to Magorium's whimsical intepretation of the word accountant = "counting mutant") -- to hold everything together.
And so the story plays out -- a tale of inner journeys, finding inspiration, being true to one's self and not losing sight of your "inner spark". Yes, it's all so cliché that the inspirational message is not so inspiring at all, but that's not the worst of it. The story moves along so slowly, with so little actually taking place throughout that children and adults alike will be struggling to stay awake, much less take away any intended inspiration. The most exciting moment of the entire film comes in the very closing scene, unfortunately, and then it's immediately into the closing credits. Personally, I cannot see any younger children -- or anybody, for that matter -- managing to sit through this snooze fest.
The Picture
Fox has done a spectacular job on this video transfer. Presenting the film in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 in a 1080p/24 AVC/MPEG-4 encoding at 35 Mbps, the picture is gorgeous; displaying an amazing amount of fine foreground and background detail, and perfect film-like quality with just the right balance of grain. Colors are true, flesh tones natural and mid-tones are warm. Visually, the most amazing sequence comes in the very closing scene, which is the most special effects-laden and colorful moment in the entire film. This transfer from Fox captures it all brilliantly; the colors leap from the screen, with no artifacts whatsoever to be found. Bravo!
The Audio
Audio options available on this release are English DTS-HD Master Audio Lossless 5.1, English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround and French 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround. Still not having the capability to either bitstream the DTS-HD MA to my A/V receiver for decoding or to decode in my player, I am forced to listen to the full-bitrate DTS core (1.5Mbps) embedded in the DTS-HD MA track. This is far better than a 640Kbps Dolby Digital track, in my opinion, but surely not up to the standard of what the actual lossless track is capable of providing.
With that said, the mix was well done and the surround channels were used quite aggressively for various special effects throughout the film. High frequencies were easy on the ears. The mix at times sounded slightly veiled and somewhat dry due to subdued use of ambient effects. It could also stand to use just a bit of a boost in the lower frequencies. These are both minor quibbles, however, as the mix was very well suited to the material and the score, in particular, was excellently recorded. Once again, one of the best sequences was film’s denouement, where the score and the special effects were aggressively mixed into all six channels.
The Extras
The extras provided by Fox on this release are barebones and hardly worth a mention. The only materials present are five trailers, all in high definition, one of which is a preview of the forthcoming theatrical release Nim's Island, and the remaining four are currently available Blu-ray releases.
Final Thoughts
As a film, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is so safe, bland, banal, boring, and pointless that I find it difficult to see how even children -- to whom this is squarely aimed -- could possibly sit through it without becoming restless. Adults will certainly not find much of interest here. But, as a high definition release, the picture quality is amongst the best releases I have ever seen and the sound quality is quite nice as well. Unfortunately the disc is hampered by a lack of any extras to increase the value and given Fox's exorbitant MSRPs on their Blu-ray releases, I can't see why anyone would want to purchase this title from them in particular.
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