Abandoned by his owners, Thunder the cat (voiced by Murray Blue) is chased down the street by a mean dog who only stops when they reach a spooky old house. Seeking shelter from a storm, Thunder ventures inside but ends up bounced around by an amazing array of gadgets, gizmos and magical toys before being booted out by two residents, a disgruntled rabbit called Jack (George Babbit) and suspicious mouse Maggie (Shanelle Gray). But the storm sweeps Thunder back in the house where he befriends its elderly owner Lawrence (Doug Stone), a once famous magician fallen on hard times. These days Lawrence performs magic for sick children at the local hospital and he happily ropes Thunder into his act, much to the displeasure of Maggie and Jack who are determined to get rid of him. Unfortunately their prank backfires and lands Lawrence in hospital enabling his nasty nephew Daniel (Grant George), an estate agent (Boo! Hiss!), to work his plan to stick the old man in a retirement home so he can sell the house. That is unless Thunder can save the day.
Given at no point does Thunder the Cat bellow the word "Ho!!" we can safely assume his name is not a nod to the classic so-bad-its-good Rankin-Bass cartoon series Thundercats. On the other hand House of Magic, a comparatively unsung Belgian computer animated feature, is a surprisingly charming family film. Belgian animator Ben Stassen, who devised the story and co-directs, started out producing CGI rides for amusement parks. There is an element of the fun-fair about several eye-popping sequences in House of Magic wherein poor, befuddled Thunder is slung into the air or juggled like a ball by some crazy magic gizmo. Yet while such ingenious, visually engaging scenes delight and amuse, Stassen is careful to ground his film with an emotional core right from the opening seconds with Thunder cruelly flung into a seemingly heartless, chaotic world where no-one wants to help him out and danger lurks around every corner.
Stassen's previous, underwhelming films never drew the critical plaudits bestowed on the output of studios like Pixar or Laika. Fly Me to the Moon (2008) and A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures (2010) were syrupy fables aimed at undemanding under-tens. By comparison, House of Magic is considerably more ambitious and not solely with regard to its visual flair but in the care and attention paid to a nuanced, warm-hearted story. The set-up vaguely evokes Chuck Jones' classic Warner Brothers cartoon Presto Change-O (1939) but rather than simply a box of tricks the titular house proves a safe haven for misfits, the unloved and unwanted. The film draws parallels between Thunder trying desperately to fathom what it he did to make his owners cast him out so cruelly and Lawrence's melancholy lament that people don't want to see magic anymore. At the same time the film sagely points out cutting one's self off from the wider world is not the solution. A hospitalized Lawrence is reinvigorated by two adoring kids while Thunder inspires the other surreal mechanical residents by virtue of his unflagging decency. The poor little guy really does get run through the wringer though: chased, caged, hurled through the air, framed for attempted murder, even shot at!
Come the half-way point things grow a trifle repetitive as Thunder scares off a succession of potential buyers to Daniel's escalating frustration. However, each extended slapstick set-piece proves visually inventive and relatively amusing. In particular the glow-in-the-dark funhouse-like sequence where Thunder freaks out two big tough removal men. Things take a surprisingly dark turn at the climax when an enraged Daniel chases Thunder around the house with a shotgun but the tone remains light and fun buoyed by a big-hearted feline hero who forgives even his most vindictive adversaries. The soundtrack has a propensity for Eighties Brit-pop including The Cure performing (what else?) "Love Cats" and Shakin Stevens' "This Ol' House." Just don't tell the kids what Madness' "House of Fun" is really about.
