Out this September this is sure to be stupendous.
Based on the International Best Selling Book Series and starring Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie.
So this movie is based off of the first book of a book series called The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani. The series focuses on the two girls you saw in the teaser, Sophia and Agatha, who have been best friends for years. Sophie (the blonde-haired girl in the blue dress) and Agatha (the black-haired girl in the black outfit) get swept away by that bird away from their ordinary, non-magical village, and get taken to a fantastical, magical land of The School for Good and Evil to train with other students on how to be a hero and a villain. The thing is these students aren’t regular people like Sophie and Agatha, but instead descendants of your classic fairytale heroes and villains who have been raised from birth in the art of doing heroic/villainous deeds in a magical realm. The issue? Sophie, who has always wanted to be a classic princess with money, eternal glory, a prince and a castle, gets dropped into the School for Evil to instead train to be a grand and villainous witch , while Agatha who, like you said, was just along for the ride to get her friend Sophie back, gets dropped into the School for Good to train to become a future storybook princess. And there we have it, our prime conflict begins.
Now, a lot of people have said this concept is overused and cliche, and while yes there has been many stories that used the “kids of the old fairytale characters” trope all the time, I have yet to see a story that has used this concept to its fullest potential like this one has, or created such a initial intriguing starting point such as this. And as you seem to realize, the potential a story like this has is IMMENSE and exciting!!! And the author uses this potential to its FULLEST EXTENT and then some!!
All the potential this concept has is used in this book series and more, going above and beyond and doing everything we DON’T expect to with its characters, to create an epic fantasy adventure that is mature, thought provoking, intriguing, and makes us question everything we know about morality, gender, age, truth, destiny, fairytales, Disney and what a fairytale story is actually meant to be like. What makes the series so good is how maturely it deals with its concepts and characters and it takes everything you think you know about fairytales and its characters and what fairytale characters are meant to be like and flips them on their head! If anything, this fairytale series is more like the Grimms fairytales than Disney. This story does not shy away from telling the truth and being realistic with its characters physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Both Good and Evil get their full story told in it. It’s like if we had HP, but every other chapter was from Draco’s POV. However, this story vs HP are completely different, with plot and with tone. This story, unlike HP, centers on fairytales and people becoming future fairytale characters, whether villains or heroes, and the story focuses on two girls and their journey in finding themselves. It sounds cheesy at first glance, but when you start getting into the story, the emotional maturity of it blows you away! The tone this story takes is SO different from Harry Potter!! This book’s writing is satirical, dry, filled with humor, and yet also has a tone that isn’t cheesy, but realistic and subtlety moving!! The tone of it isn’t heartwarming or “we’re gonna win at the end of the day because we are the good guys” NO, just like the Grimms fairytales, this story is gritty and dark, yet reflects reality and a has deep beating heart.
People who are “good” have every single chance to end in a gruesome death and go through despair if they aren’t ACTUALLY smarter than the villain. Due to that, the tone of this book has a sense of urgency, fear, and uncomfortableness, which means that when good or evil wins it’s that much more impactful and meaningful! Because the win actually MEANS something!! Because it isn’t handed over on a silver platter! Regarding the characters, These characters are not necessarily protagonists, but every one being a deuteragonist, with a few antagonists thrown in here and there, and it’s because every single character is so fleshed out that none take a more important or significant role than the other!! And every one has an impact in the plot moving towards a happy ending or a bad one, no matter if that character is a hero or a villain! Because a hero’s mistakes in this story could cost them their livelihoods and friends and family and them not having a happy ending at all, while a villains victories can tilt the world less towards destruction and more towards completeness, making THEM the occasional hero instead of our supposed “good guys”. Which is just like the Grimms fairytales, and is what makes this story so captivating!
Verdict
We wholeheartedly recommend it!
Out this September this is sure to be stupendous.
