‘The Magician’s Elephant’ Review: Netflix’s Kid-Lit Toon Is Up to the Tusk

variety.com:

Michael Nordine author Is there an animal better suited to the big screen than the elephant? From Topsy (RIP) to Dumbo, these magnificent creatures have been especially prominent in documentaries and animation. (Understandable, given the logistical difficulties of making the soulful pachyderms into live-action protagonists.) Continuing this long tradition is “The Magician’s Elephant,” in which a boy (voiced by Noah Jupe) must complete three seemingly impossible tasks to find the younger sister he thought died at birth.

Netflix Animation’s latest offering uses the concept of magic to express the idea that nothing is impossible if your heart is in the right place and you believe in yourself.

While the movie itself is more whimsical than magical, it does have a few tricks up its sleeve. The three trials Peter must complete aren’t edicts from the movie’s eponymous magician, who barely factors into the narrative beyond conjuring the elephant out of thin air, but rather a royal decree from an eccentric king (Aasif Mandavi).

The ruler’s reasoning is simple, if also a bit skewed: Since Peter’s hope of finding his sister by heeding a fortune teller’s advice to “follow the elephant” is impossible, he should have to prove his mettle by achieving the impossible on his lonesome. (Bored monarchs aren’t known for being reasonable, one supposes.) Ergo, Peter must best the city’s fiercest warrior in single combat, fly and make a bereaved countess laugh for the first time since her brother died in battle.