Harvie and the Magic Museum (Czech: Hurvínek a kouzelné muzeum, Russian: Гурвинек: Волшебная игра, lit. 'Gurvinek: The Magic Game') is a 2017 3D animated comedy fantasy film based on the Czech Spejbl and Hurvínek puppet comedy duo.
Contents
Plot
Years ago, Bastor, a puppet master, accompanied with three of his puppet companions, Brainy, Grumpy, and Dimwit, uses a magic disk to transform himself into a wooden puppet.
In the present, Harvie Spejbl is a young boy who lives with his father, Joseph, and lives with his neighbor, Monica. One day, while witnessing his father's puppet museum being demolished, he accidentally causes a massive hole to form that drops him and Monica into a cave filled with puppets, where he discovers the magic disk and uses it to open an entrance to the puppet museum, where they enter. There, they meet Brainy, Grumpy, and Dimwit, who explains that Bastor got his heart consumed with the disk, and the three imprisoned him ever since.
Before Harvie can place the disk in a pedestal located up high in the museum, Joseph arrives, and Harvie tries to tell Joseph about the disk to no avail, which leads to Joseph to lose faith in Harvey. Harvie successfully places the disk into the pedestal, and the group enters a secret room dubbed the "Hall of Fame", filled with puppet masters, where Harvie is recognized as a puppet master. Ignoring the puppet's warning about a button located underneath the disk, Harvie pushes it, inadvertently releasing Bastor. Bastor acquires the disk and begins to transform everything in the world into puppets, while Harvie and Monica flee into a lab. Inside, he tearfully confesses his mistakes to her. The two escape the lab. Harvie tries to recover the disk, but is caught by Bastor, who knocks the former off the museum, being rescued by Joseph.
Realizing that the disk is where Bastor's heart is located at, Harvie defeats Bastor by placing the disk onto its respective place, causing Bastor to fade, and restoring the entire world. He then apologies to Joseph about the mess. The following day, the museum is reopened as a magic puppet museum in honor of the Spejbl's.
Production
Production for the film lasted seven years. With a budget of 170,000,000 CZK ($8,000,000), it was the fifth most expensive Czech film at the time of its release, and the most expensive animated Czech film.
Release and reception
The film was released in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 31 August 2017, and had a worldwide gross of $2,079,037. In the Czech Republic, it opened with $354,048 for a total gross of $1,007,954; in Slovakia, it opened with $2,265 for a total of $61,859. The film was released in Russia on 7 March 2019. It was boycotted by the Association of Cinema Owners and three other networks due to the lobbying of the film by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. Because of this, the film was a box office bomb, grossing $235,105 in its opening weekend for a total gross of $468,680.
The film received generally negative reviews from critics.
The UK and Irish DVD release markets the film as a Halloween movie.