Magic Camp: Dated and Uninspired
A recycled idea gets a recycled (and problematic) response.
It is incredibly rare that Disney quietly dumps a film sitting on the shelf for four years, but it looks like it’s going to happen twice this year, with the theatrical exhibition of The New Mutants on August 28th, with most U.S. theaters still closed, and the quiet release of Magic Camp on Disney+, a highly problematic (and dated) teen-comedy starring Adam DeVine and Gillian Jacobs.
DeVine plays Andy Duckerman; a washed-up magician now turned taxi driver after a fall-out with his assistant, Kristina Darkwood (Gillian Jacobs). As he’s driving a cab on the Vegas strip, his former mentor, Roy Preston (Jeffrey Tambor), invites him to return to The Institute of Magic, a summer camp teaching children the art of prestidigitation. The bunks’ goal is to win a competition called the “Top Hat,” and Duckerman receives the opportunity to win against Darkwood, who allegedly ruined his career.
Filmed in 2017, Magic Camp was initially intended to release in theaters, until multiple pushbacks and allegations of sexual and verbal harassment surrounding co-star Jeffrey Tambor delayed the film indefinitely. In August 2019, Disney announced that it would be released on its streaming service on “launch day”…until it wasn’t. In July 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney announced that the film would finally be released on August 14th, with no promotional material and trailer until 4 DAYS before its release. These are all the signs of a lousy movie, and Magic Camp certainly falls in that category.
Written by six individuals (some of them highly talented like Matt Spicer, Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster), the film never finds its footing as it is filled with uninspired and incredibly dated comedy. If you’ve seen any made-for-children summer camp movies, you know exactly how it’s going to go. Magic Camp is filled with clichéd, stereotypical characters you’d typically find in a film of this caliber.
There’s the “shy, but talented introvert with a pre-dead parent” who is brimming with potential because of how passionate and talented he is, but doesn’t use it due to his stage fright and desire to avoid humiliation as much as possible.
There’s also the “typical child bully” who is so full of himself because he won a specific prize the year before (the golden wand in this case) and is jealous of the new talent he tries to humiliate them as much as possible for him to feel good about himself. There’s the “kid that doesn’t want to be there and is forced by her parents,” but ends up enjoying her time at camp and finds love in the process. There’s also the “hypochondriac nerd” who knows everything there is to know about physical ailments and the dangers of wildlife (while extremely good with numbers).
We also can’t ignore the child whose dad has created a path for him in his life but doesn’t want to become who his father tells him to be. Finally, let’s not forget the “emo” whom we recognize by an AC/DC t-shirt and the dark makeup who hates everyone and loves animals nobody likes, and the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl,” who, in this case, is a “Manic Bunny Dream Girl.”
All of these characters are [mostly] found in typical late 1990s-early 2000s films involving summer camp, such as Slappy and the Stinkers, Daddy Day Camp, and even The Parent Trap, can see where the inspiration from Magic Camp came from.
It’s a mesh of every predictable trope found in children’s films that was made before to do…the same thing. There’s no shred of originality in the script, and I’m confident that, if you’ve read the plot of the film alongside the character descriptions I’ve written here, you’ll be able to predict how the film will end.
The film takes no screenwriting risks — it always stays in the familiar and paint-by-numbers. Every situation you can see coming a mile away happens with no 180 twists on the ordinary to keep you engaged. Typical, childish bodily humor (involving a slow-motion sequence of a skunk urinating at the children) is found, the arc of Duckerman and Darkwood is as predictable as you’d expect.
Of course, they’re going to reconcile at the end, and he’s going to accept that he treated her poorly and was the cause of their break-up! Suppose you’re able to figure out exactly what’s going to happen within 10 minutes after the film introduces every character. What reason could you possibly have to finish watching this?
Sure, the acting is mostly entertaining. Adam DeVine does a pale imitation of Jack Black in Richard Linklater’s School of Rock. Hoe does, however, add a form of humanity to his performance once he sees the potential the “shy kid” Theo (Nathaniel McIntyre) has. It’s nothing special, or in any way remarkable, but he does his job admirably. Most sequences involving Jeffrey Tambor were pretty uncomfortable to watch, even if his performance was probably the film’s best. Separating the art from the artist, he did add a certain level of charisma and genuinely funny antics that were desperately missing from the film. The most disappointing aspect of the film promises the audience, via promotional materials, a DeVine v. Jacobs storyline.
Yet, Gillian Jacobs is incredibly underused and barely seen in the movie. Tambor has more screentime than Jacobs, and his presence in the film’s promotional material was hidden entirely. It’s unfortunate because the chemistry between DeVine and Jacobs is quite natural and entertaining to watch. If the movie wasn’t solely focused on DeVine’s bunk and his ego getting in the way of the children’s learning and went all-in with the DeVine v. Jacobs storyline, the promotional material promised us, maybe it would’ve been a mildly entertaining, yet predictable comedy.
However, Magic Camp has virtually no excitement. Its familiar, perhaps too familiar script is dull, as it’s riddled with predictability and family film tropes we’ve all seen before. With all the writing talent behind Magic Camp, it could’ve been something truly memorable, whether for the big screen or the small screen, but it never once goes beyond familiar platitudes.
This summer, Disney+ brought us incredibly creative content for our homes like Hamilton and Black is King. However, Magic Camp doesn’t deserve to be on the streaming service, or in theaters for that matter. If Disney scrapped its release altogether and never made it see the light of day, perhaps it would’ve been better to do this instead of quietly dumping it in the middle of a global pandemic where people desperately crave new content. Magic Camp doesn’t even qualify as “new content,” as it is both dated and incredibly uninspired.
