User Reviews

I didn't see much advertisement for this movie, but some of my favorite Disney Channel stars heavily promoted it online so I thought-What the heck. I'll kill 103 minutes and see it. (Yes, 103, not 100 or 105 like most Disney Channel movies.) I personally thought it was okay, but I wouldn't see it again.

The movie follows 2 teen wizards- Nory and Reina, who are old enough to go to Magic School. Reina is put in the advanced classes, and Nora has to go to the Upside Down Magic classes. You see, Nora can turn into animals, but only odd ones, like a crossover between a cat and fire-breathing dragon. Because of this odd(and deemed dangerous) trait, she must do regular school work in a basement until her powers wear off and she can be expelled from the school. Believing in her powers, Nory convinces her class to stand up to her school and show what they are made of.

In one word, I thought this movie was okay. Not bad, but not good, just in the middle. There were engaging parts, and there were dull parts. However, I am 21 and this seemed to be geared towards kids under 10 years old. Single-digit aged kids should get a kick out of it, Double-digit aged kids will be mostly bored.

Now, you may say: "Well, you're 21 and this a Disney Channel Movie for kids." Yes, but there's quite a few DCMs that came out in my late teens and adulthood that I enjoyed very much- Kim Possible, Invisible Sister and Adventures In Babysitting among them. I actually own 2 of these on DVD! And growing up, past the aimed audience age, I have enjoyed movies like Lemonade Mouth, Camp Rock, and Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie. So the quality is not due to my age, it's due to how the demographic was focused on the kids and not the adults who may be watching. That within itself is not a bad thing, but that does limit your crowd and that's why my recommendation is quite marginal.

Another problem that I had was that this seemed to be a knock off of Harry Potter. Here's one example of many: you know how Hogwarts students go through Platform 9 3/4 by seeping through a brick wall? Going to the magic school Sage Academy is very similar, going through a tree or something similar. This again shows how unoriginal Disney has been lately-first with sequels, then with remakes, now with ripping off other properties.

The film was quite predictable as well. To give you one of many examples, it was clear early on that this movie was going to have a message of "be yourself" and words that cliché were used near the end. I think I rolled my eyes when that happened, along with a mental "I knew it."

So, yes, I found this dull, predictable, and unoriginal. But there were a few things I enjoyed about the movie:

For one thing, I recognized a few of the stars from the Disney shows that I watch- Siena Agudong and Max Torina were both guest stars from my favorite show, Sydney To The Max, and Ricardo Ortiz was in 2 episodes of Gabby Duran. These appearances made this film somewhat watchable. In fact, I wouldn't say that any of the actors were bad, just that their material was a bit lackluster.

Also, while I was often bored, I could tolerate the movie for about half the run-time. Considering that it was about 90 minutes without commercials, I enjoyed it for around 45 of them. However, at most, that's all I can say about the movie.

When I give a movie a 6/10, it's a negative review that means I didn't like it but a certain audience would like it better. As I mentioned, that would be kids under 10. If you are 11 or older, then this movie is not recommended to you. If you must see it with the intended audience, have your phone or something ready to use during the movie.

This is a magical film for kids, but the others will went to cast a spell on the 90 minutes they spent.

Reverse Recommendation: If you want a similar movie that's actually good, then I highly suggest seeing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Even if you have seen it, re-visiting it would be a better use of your time.

*If you enjoyed this review, please check out my others at https://www.imdb.com/user/ur119773892/?ref_=tt_urv or my old page at https://www.imdb.com/user/ur88612516/?ref_=tt_urv

Please note however that I review grown up movies as well, so be cautious as I discuss my thoughts on the content in some of these movies! Enjoy!

I am fully aware that this is a movie not made for me - I am long past the days of watching Disney Movies where the message of 'BE TRUE TO YOURSELF' is hammered home ad nausem. This is Harry Potter Lite, and has been done by other movies better and cleaner.

I want to make it clear that in my rating I did my best to separate, for the most part, my feelings from the book. It is clear that Disney threw at least SOME money at this - and it is an okay film. The two lead actresses, and may of the younger cast were actually enjoyable. There is only one big problem that stops me from keeping my rating as a 'cute and fluffy' kids flic in check.

Simply; it is NOT Upside-Down Magic.

If it had been named ANYTHING else - call it 'Magic School', 'Sage Academy', Mag-X or what have you - It'd still be a functioning movie. It would be fine. The problem comes up, as I've seen with the few others who have read the books on here, that there is ALREADY an Upside-Down Magic Series - and while it too has a similar embraceable message of 'be yourself' - it is WAY more complex, and actually gives the same target tween audience a better interpretation than this vanilla aspect.

And as an Upside Down Magic adaptation, it fails on so many levels.

So - I will also admit that I am NOT the target audience for the book series either. But it is a series I have enjoyed reading to my younger cousins and would recommend wholeheartedly to anyone with children to read as a group. The message in those stories are way more complex than 'be yourself' - and is more centered on 'embracing' what you can do rather than conforming - which the movie touches on, but not to the extent of the movie.

"But it's a movie", I here you saying. "Some things are lost in adaptation!"

Well, there's adaptation - and there's a complete nixing of the source material.

In this movie, the only character who I can say for a FACT is even remotely who they are in the books is Nory - which makes sense with a lead actress. But - the strength of the books is not Nory herself - it is her classmates, her teachers, her friends. It's a nice idea to give her a cohort in Raina - but to make her the 'normal' one and her the oddball one just seems...wrong. The books feature a lot of characters, both 'average' magicians and 'UDM people' who feel like living actual people and not walking punchlines, angry teens, or completely unlikable adult characters.

Which is probably my biggest gripe with this story - That the adults featured in this movie are more cartoony than the current ANIMATED Disney Villains. The Principal of the school may as well be a cardboard stereotype for 'mean lady who just doesn't understand that DIFFERENT is OKAY guys' - I'd say she was a Stepford Wife parody if I hadn't already seen it done BETTER in other movies. (Not to mention that if you wanted to get into realism - even magic realism seeing as it's a fantasy - anyone running an institution who treated ANY students with the snide, barely hidden winks of this actress would be out of a job. I mean hell - this woman makes Cruella DeVille look subtle - and that was a literal animated person who wanted to kill puppies!)

Then there's the Kyle - Who, if they had portrayed with even an ounce of the same dignity they gave to the teacher (yes, a fully licensed teacher - NOT a Janitor given a glorified upgrade to take care of the 'weirdo kids') I would not have had. Instead, he remains as a punchline and disagreeable person for almost the entirity of the film - it is the kids themselves who have to teach the ADULT to embrace their strangeness.

The strength of the book's story over the film's is simple. You still have a UDM class, separated from the 'normal' magic-weilders. But there is a larger variety to the students that start off with - more INTERESTING displays of magic. (for those who are curious - they breech topics such as a 'fluxer' like Nory, who is only able to transform into inanimate objects, requiring medical treatment to fix and having him live in fear of turning into something from which he can't recover), a fuzzy who frightens animals instead of makes friends with them, and even some students who's magic isn't quantifiable into one of the five categories at all. The difference with the story(or stories, as there are multiple small-form books) is that instead of the key being 'oh they shoved us all into the reject class in the hopes of 'curing' us or stopping us from being weird - and we as kids have to fight against that and show them that being different is COOL!' They actually show a teacher- multiple teachers, within the school itself, and not just a reject janitor - teaching the kids how to manage their powers, sometimes directing towards a more 'normalized' output, but also to EMBRACE THEIR DIFFERENCES.

I may sound like I'm getting fired up, but the truth is I've looked at this series as a way of talking about disability as much as it is about magic and fantasy and fun. The books themselves talk about the Upside Down Magic program as being as sort of 'alternative' teaching strategy. Teachers and educators who go 'okay, we are not throwing these kids aside because of differences - we are going to help them so they aren't dangerous and maybe can find their way into fitting into our society - both so WE know how to work with them, and they with us'.

The movie itself is fine. But it is about as far from the Message that I'd expect from an Upside-Down Magic Book as to be detrimental. If you want a cute movie to watch with your kids, silly and over the top in only the way a Disney channel can be and about as subtle as a brick to the face with the message of 'BE YOURSELF' - it's just that - Fine.

If you're watching as a fan of the series, Ready to see Nory and the UDM Crew adapted with any sense of decorum or dignity just...save yourself and don't.

At the same time - I sort of hope that there is some sort of sequel to THIS as a story, if only for the young actress who are clearly trying to put their all into it - just...don't try to pass it off as an adaptation that it is in NAME alone.

I don't know about the book that everyone is talking about, but this movie is so bad.

Bad acting, cringey script, even the battle between the shadow monster near the end was bad.

On top of all that, I was very disappointed near the end where they face against the shadow witch. She was like," Oh look at my fire, you think that's powerful? I can do much more." When she transformed, she does nothing but stood there. She did not fly, disappear, or use anymore fireball. Nope, she just let the kids made a fool out of her.

In this movie Disney took the AMAZING book series Upside Down Magic and made it into Disney's Descendants movie it was just a mash up though.... Nory was not supposed to have a best named Raina (aka the person Disney made into Audrey) and it was all gone weird I mean what the heck is shadow magic where did they even get that?! Ok just imagine upside down Magic is a perfect ball of clay now Disney should have added a tiny touch but instead they completely smashed it then tried to build it back up! Trust me people the books are amazing! The movie was nothing like it! I would have rated it 0 if I could

This movie is seriously fantastic! It teaches kids they don't need to change who they are to fit in with the rest, but rather to connect and be the best they can be of who they already are! Watched this movie with my 10 year old daughter and we loved every minute of it. It was funny, it was scary and it was a feel-good movie that we totally enjoyed!

Loved it and loved the message it sends out!

Just What are these people trying to teach the children of this generation!!!. Garbage Garbage Garbage!!!. The whole mantra of this move is "Just be yourself" and flush the morals and ethics into the toilet. Ya right ! be yourself even if you feel like you are a psychopath is fine!!!. Please don't teach the children what to think, but teach them how to think and Lay foundations of good morals and ethics and life skills. it saddens me to see movies like this now a days.

Within the first 10 minutes we learn that's shapeshifter, fire benders, then rock movers, and people that can fly.. what about every other ability?! No?

Okay .. so then you're going to make the main character a failure and have them go to "failures class" and her best friend, who is also a failure, gets to go to top class but isn't worthy so she cheats and ends up being the bad guy.

Worst straight to Disney I've seen in a while.

I wonder why Disney is downgrading in movies and television series so much.

I feel that it didn't breakout of its comfort zone, followed the grammatical path, we need to breakout of the ways taught to us by the common english professors, in order to achieve true write, or rites; there's power to the notion, the color, the fancy things, the things that Disney does so well; I still watch Disney, have been for my whole life, I want to say, more specifically: to not follow the herd, so here goes; (the absolute value of 100) = (the absolute value of 1) : if 1 equals the "standard" that my the absolute values of my said "ego" in which, is quadrilaterally proving its merits, says its ultimate reality of form, at Disney's level of relaxed expertise, then this film, in terms of what Disney can do, is simply going through the motions....but let's break out of the standards and have fun with it.

A repeat of Harry Potter's novel, but the bad copy, why insist on imitating the novel