The Flicks Files: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is about a magic toy store. Right away, you know that at a certain age, you would have been all over that concept. Like for me, that age is about now (also at age seven, which proves not much has changed).

The movie starts off with a writer in a basement. He's the guy who makes all the books for the toy store, and he's writing the story. He sports a great heart tattoo that says "to be filled in later." (Must get one of those.) He starts off the story and we think maybe he's going to be important. He seems like an interesting character, but then he's pretty much never heard from again. Screenwriter/Director Zach Helm (Stranger than Fiction) tends to bring an interesting writerly perspective on storytelling to his screenplays, but I thought in this instance he should have made the character important or ditched him.

Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) owns the magic toy store, but he's over 200 years old, and he's planning to leave. He plans to leave the toy store to Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman), only she doesn't believe she's magic enough to handle it. This causes the toy store to throw a temper tantrum. A little boy with an awesome hat collection (Zach Mills) and a newly hired workaholic mutant aka accountant (Jason Bateman) must convince Molly that she's magical enough to run the toy store.

Dustin Hoffman is charming as ever in this and also endearingly goofy. I have to admit that he's one of relatively few actors that I like so much that his presence in a movie will usually make me want to see it. He doesn't disappoint here. Natalie Portman seems much more at home in this role than she did as the always-overdressed Padme Amidala in Star Wars, and her character's belief in the magic of the toy store, even while having trouble believing in herself, is very sweet.

Overall, this is a colorful, fun, and amusing movie that I think kids will enjoy. Unlike many kids' movies these days, it doesn't try too hard to appeal to adults, so it doesn't have a lot of jokes in it that the kids won't get. Adults may like it, as I did, for its sweetness and positive attitude, but I suspect kids will be even more enthralled. Rated G, there's nothing too scary in this movie, and I would think it's appropriate even for fairly young children.

I admit I'm a sucker for the Hollywood cliché that says there's nothing you can't do if you believe in yourself, even if I tend to think actual evidence for this theory is rather scarce. That's the kind of movie this is, and it'll leave you with an upbeat feeling. The movie is currently available on DVD.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium earns the "Pass the Popcorn" rating in the black cat rating system, indicating it's well worth watching.