The Magic Voyage (1992)

Ahhh, bad animated films. We love these kinds of flicks don't we? We love moaning about the annoying characters that we want to bash their brains out, we laugh at the rushed and cheap animation and we cringe at the crappy songs that won't make any of the Disney songwriters cry in their sleep.Now with this little beauty here called The Magic Voyage, you have to take it with a magic pinch of salt.You can either call it a horrible horrible film that has no redeeming qualities and is just annoying to watch, or you can go the extra mile and call it a bad film but still unbelievably funny to watch.Guess which path I'm taking Sherlocks? Yep, that's right, the second path because I found the Magic Voyage to be a hysterical piece of animated trash from our good ol friends in Germany.Now I can sort of see what they were going for here, they wanted to give Disney a good run for their money and try to make an animated film. They tried but they more or less failed on all accounts.The animation here is unbelievably bad, like Paddy The Pelican levels of awfulness. This kind of thing would feel more right at home on 70's Saturday Morning TV with some other "classics" like all those toons focusing on those popular stars.Oh yes you're also in for a treat, because like it's little brother Felix The Cat, half of the dialogue doesn't even match with the lips. Great fun for all, you could take a shot each time they make this error.Voice acting is pretty bad, not like Felix though but still bad nonetheless. Look Mr DeLuise, I love you man but you just wasn't right for the role of Christopher Columbus and the less said about that wood character thingy the better.Are you a person who loves history? Too bad, better look elsewhere because this is also packed with tons of historical accuracy, it goes completely off the walls and makes even Pocahontas look even more accurate by comparison.Oh yes and this film doesn't know when to take a quick breathe just like Felix, so it's pretty loud half the time. I'm pretty sure, if this film was a real person, it would be dead in under 10 minutes or so.Magic Voyage was hysterically bad and incredibly funny to watch. It's basically a trainwreck that is so big you can't help but just watch it anyway. A gigantic failure for all involved and pushes animation back 80 million years. (Hold on, did animation even exist back then? Beats me.) Right, I'm off to make my own historically inaccurate animated film. Byyyeeee.

This is a movie that is supposedly the story of how Columbus discovered America with his famous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. We all know the story of how Columbus discovered that the earth is round, but not many of us are stupid enough to think that a wood worm told Columbus this revolutionary idea. There's even a scene in which Columbus says to a ship crew man, "this isn't an ordinary wood worm, this is the word worm that told me the world was a'round! Did you know the world was round, amigo!"Not only that, but there's a lot of other historically accurate characters, such as a giant swarm of bugs called "The Swarm Lord" and a fairy named Marilyn from a fairy land called "Moon Twilight".It shouldn't surprise anyone that this movie was made by German film makers. It's unbelievable how little the makers gave a crap about history. The movie is directed by Michael Schoemann, who more then likely read the introduction on a history book about Columbus, closed the book, rolled it up into a giant cigar and smoked his brains out with marijuana and said "Hey, you know what this story needs? Swarm Lords, a talking wood worm and fairies!!!"Like many people on IMDb, I saw this movie while I was a child and loved it. By the time Columbus and his crew get on the ocean sailing, the movie goes sugar high insane with Columbus going crazy in his dreams, singing a song and a strange climax after the arrival in America and bugs attacking. There's apparently more to fear then just the edge of the world. I found the movie to have some pretty hilarious moments in it's idiotic premise, such as the horrible dubbing which most of the time goes along lips that aren't even moving, a few lines from crazy Columbus and an argument concerning the ship running over a fish.

Recently for my birthday, I bought the DVD for "The Magic Voyage", which I recalled being one of my favorite movies during my childhood. Whenever we had lessons on Columbus in elementary school, my classmates & I would often watch this. Being the easily-impressed girl that I was, I loved every minute of "The Magic Voyage", & even now, at the age of 19, I am not ashamed to say that I still greatly enjoy watching it.Of course, I know that the Columbus story as portrayed in the film is quite different from what we've been taught in history class, but of course, the "artistic licenses" are what keep this movie--any movie, for that matter--fun & entertaining, not to mention interesting. It makes me wonder sometimes why people complain so, so much about the "technical inaccuracies" in "Pocahontas", "Anastasia", "The Prince Of Egypt", & other animated movies based (at least somewhat) on true stories...these are the *movie* versions, you guys. Just watch & enjoy! Additionally, in my humble opinion, while the animation in "The Magic Voyage" is not the best that the world has to offer (putting it nicely), this flaw is redeemed by the entertaining screenplay, the nicely-written songs, the well-done casting, & the enjoyable characters (Christopher, Pico, & Marilyn are my particular favorite members of the cast).Overall, not a bad movie in the slightest. Good to watch on a rainy day or with your kids.

I watched this as a young child and enjoyed it. I remember thinking it silly, but nevertheless watched it over and over. Although it is very untrue to the original story, it's not completely terrible. Columbus's dialogue is rather sporadic and he sounds like a mindless lunatic most of the time. The entire movie seems to center on a wood-eating bug that lives in Columbus's "globe" and his silly romance story rather than any real history. However, it made the history seem interesting for me later, and I was able to not discard learning about Columbus Day as one of those useless facts about history we always have to learn. (to this day, hearing an Italian accent always makes me think of Columbus exclaiming "The world... she is a'round!")To say it deserves negative points is a bit harsh, because this movie was made for children, not adults. That being said, it is very outdated and you're better off teaching your child through books.