So, look, everyone knows that not many big releases have come out in 2020 due to the pandemic. But for what it’s worth, I think that streaming services have really picked up the load and have had a steady amount of releases still coming. Still, every so often, there comes a week where there’s really nothing new coming out that’s of any interest, so when that happens I just check out some of the new-ish releases available on streaming services. My girlfriend and I stumbled upon Magic Camp on the Disney+ streaming service, and ended up giving it a shot.

As the name implies, Magic Camp centers around a summer camp called the Institute of Magic, where kids go to learn magic. Our main character here is Andy, a grown man who used to go to the Institute of Magic and was extremely talented, but he and a fellow student, Darkwood, ended up having a falling out that caused him to leave the world of magic. Now, he’s been invited back to help teach a new group of kids how to do magic, and help them win the competition that the camp holds every year. In doing so, he tries to put back together his own life.

Look, I know that Magic Camp isn’t the pinnacle of film. I’m not going to pretend that it’s anything more than it is, which is little more than a glorified, higher-budget, Disney Channel Original Movie. There are definitely better movies out there, and I know this isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. However, I’d hope that you would know what you’re getting into and not expect it to be something it’s not.

And so when I did that, I enjoyed myself a lot more than I thought I would. Things like the acting and dialogue might be a little corny at times, but for what it’s worth I had a lot of fun watching this. Every so often I think it’s nice to watch a movie as innocent as this, and Magic Camp filled that niche for me wonderfully. I’m sure younger audiences will love this, so any parents out there should watch this with their kids. And even as a grown 27-year-old without any children, I definitely liked it a lot more than I was expecting.

4/5