Movie Thoughts: Secret Magic Control Agency (2021)

• Released: 25 March 2021
• Directed by: Aleksey Tsitsilin
• Running time: 1 h 43 min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A secret agent and her charlatan brother try to rescue a kidnapped king and thwart a devious plan by a villainess. 

My Thoughts

Just a movie I ended up watching on random. I like digging up the more obscure animated movies on Netflix once in a while. This one was done by Wizart. I've previously looked at their movie Sheep & Wolves and may take a look at their Snow Queen property sometime in the future. But for now, let's take a look at this one, shall we?

This is honestly pretty much a spruced-up retelling of Hansel and Gretel. Yeah, the title doesn't really imply that, but it's very, very obvious. I mean, the main characters are literally called Hansel and Gretel. The setting and situation are a whole lot different, but it does still have elements of the story. If you're looking for an accurate retelling, however, please look further. This is more of a story that is inspired by it than an actual adaptation. 

Some things about this movie I thought were decent, others not so much. Character designs, animation, setting, relationship between the main leads? All decent. Nothing special, but they looked fine. 

However, there's also some aspects that hold it back for me. I didn't enjoy the villain a lot, for one thing. Her name is Ilvira and she's the past cook of the king in the kingdom. That's also literally her entire motivation for wanting to become queen and take over the kingdom. She got fired. That's it. There wasn't even more to that. I really expected her to have some dark past with the king. Maybe she was his past (secret) lover or something. But nope, all she is is a fired cook. This caused her to create an army of sentient cookies, kidnap and drug the king and try to marry him in order to (somehow, don't ask me how) gain magical abilities. Yeah, that part was never really well-established. Somehow apparently when she puts on the crown and marries the king officially she unlocks magical abilities. 

Honestly, Baby Yaga, who makes an appearance as a side villain, was way more fun as an antagonist for me. She doesn't have a needlessly convoluted plan, I like her design way more and she just overall was a more fun character, even though she was a very brief character. She just tries to eat children and sells potions. That's her entire deal, and somehow it's still more engaging and makes more sense than whatever Ilvira's plan was.

Another thing that kind of put me off is the title. You'd expect this movie to deal heavily with the SMCA stuff, but honestly it's much more of a brother-sister road trip. Yes, one of them happens to be a secret agent, but the movie overall has very little to do with the Control Agency. Gretel and Hansel get turned back into kids early on in the movie, which prevents the SMCA from taking them seriously. So from that point on they're honestly just all on their own to solve the case. So I don't really get why this movie's title is Secret Magic Control Agency when said agency does practically nothing in the entire movie. Something like Hansel and Gretel: Quest for the King or something along those lines would've been better in my opinion. It would've made it more obvious that this was a Hansel and Gretel retelling, and wouldn't have had the control agency's name in the title.

Overall I'd say this was a decent movie, I liked it better than Sheep & Wolves. I don't think I'd go out of my way to recommend it, but it wasn't bad or anything. If you're curious, maybe check it out, maybe do not. Your call.