George Lucas on Strange Magic

Last week I had the opportunity to see Strange Magic, and attend the press junket two days later, with the creator of the story, George Lucas.

The film caught me off guard. It’s a computer animated rockopera, something I simply didn’t see coming. In fairness, I prefer to go in blind, and don’t watch trailers or read any press until I’ve seenthe film myself.

Two days after seeing the film, the press sat staring into the face of George Lucas. Mr. Lucas explained themotivation behind the film. He felt that he had made the 12 year old boy movie, Star Wars…which of course was love by all genders and ages. Strange Magic was made with his daughters, and 12 year old girls, in mind. He believes that every generation needs their “coming of age” film about ‘real love’ – not infatuation. While Lucas wanted to share this message of ‘real love’, he also wanted to hear his favorite music, so the story and concept were born.

George Lucas used his personal archive of rock and roll music, the one he began at 10 years old, and still cherishes and listens to. This is also the same archive Mr Lucas used in the creation of American Graffiti. Initially, he wanted the script to use only song lyrics to tell the entire story, but that proved too difficult to move the story along, so dialogue was added.

This pet project has been floating around Lucas for 15 years, and was still incomplete when the sale of Lucas Films to the Walt Disney Company was finalized. Lucas hoped that Disney would fund the completion of the film, and was pleased that they did. He is thrilled with the final product- a coming of age film, with a rocker princess fairy finding her true self, through the lyrics of All-American Rock and Roll.