Die Schule der magischen Tiere 3 (4 Stars)

This is the third film in the series, and the title means "The school of magic animals". It's based on a series of children's books, of which 29 volumes have been published since 2013. Twenty-nine books in eleven years? Wow, someone has been busy!

Unlike the previous two films, most of the action takes place outside the school. In the opening scenes two new magic animals are introduced and given to deserving children, a crocodile and a cat. Both of them can talk, and both are able to turn themselves into unmoving stuffed animals at any time; usually when someone walks into the room who isn't allowed to see them.

The children are planning an event to show their support for the local forest. They don't want the trees to be cut down to make way for a luxury hotel. The trouble is that after months of planning it's announced that the fashion designer Maja Malakara is putting on a fashion show in the local museum. That doesn't matter to most of the class, but the 16-year-old Helena is a moderately successful YouTuber, and she wants to boost her popularity with a live broadcast of her class singing at the show. Can she persuade her classmates to abandon the forest for the sake of her YouTube fame?

I say that Helena is 16, but that's only a guess. The children look and act that age. It's 18 months since the last film was made, and fortunately the actors don't seem to have aged much. They won't stay young for the next 26 films. Make up artists can't work miracles, however good they are.

I've tagged this film as a musical. My definition is that a film is a musical if the main characters burst into song at random during the film. A film isn't a musical if the characters perform a song as part of the story. That's why I say "Rocketman" is a musical, but "Bohemian Rhapsody" isn't. I make the further restriction that a film isn't a musical if the main characters only sing at the end of the film, during or immediately before the credits. That excludes "Slumdog Millionaire". If I remember correctly, there are two scenes in "Die Schule der magischen Tiere 3" in which there are spontaneous musical numbers.

It's a good film. Oliver loved it, and he's already asking when the fourth part will be released. Personally, I don't think it's quite up to the level of the previous film, but I'll decide when I watch it again. It's definitely worth a rewatch.