MAGIC BEACH

Australia, 2024, 76 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Robert Connolly

An Australian film for a younger audience, especially for those who have read Alison Lester’s childrens book. And, there is the appeal to those who read the book as children or who had Magic Beach read to them as they were growing up. And, of course, the appeal to the parents who read the book to their children.

During the opening credits, there is the use of illustrations from Alison Lester’s book, to excite the audience imagination. And they are contrasted with real life children, families, of the reading of the book.

While Robert Connolly is the director (and is familiar with films with a family appeal, having directed Paper Planes and Blueback) but there has been an invitation to a group of animators to take a particular story and write, design, animate according to their particular talent and style, interest and inspiration.

And, acknowledging the animators: Susan Kim Dantga, Pierce Davison, Jake Duczynski, Emma Kelly, Anthony Lucas, Simon Rippingale, Kathy Sarpi, Susie Shapones, Marieka Walsh, Eddie White, Lee Whitmore.

So, while there are scenes with the children, some walking along the beach, some going into the water, some sitting in boats with binoculars, children and adults communicating with sign language, the final group of children and everyone on the beach, the stories within the story are very varied, the young boy on the beach suddenly riding a white horse, racing with horses underwater, the young girl, with a mermaid story, more a pictorial fantasy. – and a dog story. There are some adventures, pirates and smugglers along the coast, a group of children sitting in a boat with binoculars out to sea, a range of stories with different kinds of appeal, some more realistic than others and, if the audience is not liking this particular story then there is another one soon to come.

For older audience not familiar with the book and its illustrations, the experience might be less engaging. But, for those familiar with the book, the young children’s audience, there are stories to excite, to delight, and to open up the imagination.