Introduction

Mustafa and the Magician is a 2016 animated film created by the Pentamedia team in Los Angeles, California. This exciting and action-packed animated film follows the story of the kingdom of Barzah, which is governed by the loving King Alladin. Everything was happy and cheerful until the villain appeared. Using magical means, the wicked wizard ZeeZeebah saw that the newborn Prince of Barzah would destroy him and thus looked for ways to prevent that from happening. ZeeZeeBa went into a bloodthirst rage to eliminate the prince through his dark powers to prevent the prophecy from coming to fulfillment. The storyline is packed with action, adventure, and romance to capture the hearts of the critics. “Mustafa the Magician” will wow you with its thrilling narrative and rich backdrop. The film was submitted for consideration for Oscar’s academy award for Best Animated Feature in 2017.

Plot

The story began with the evil and power-crazy sorcerer, Zeezeebah, who was power-drunk and hell-bent on becoming the most powerful man in the universe. However, to his dismay, he found out from Nostradam, a supernatural flaming creature, that he would sometimes, in the future, lose his place. According to Nostradam, he would no longer be the most powerful man in the entire universe, and one powerful man, who is pure of heart, will be his end. It was ridiculous for Zeezeebah to find out that this powerful one was the child prince of Barzah, Dime Al Akhnaar, who was the firstborn of the great Alladin. 

The prophecy from Nostradam was that this child would destroy Zezeebah on the first moon of his twenty-first year. Therefore, to prevent the prophecy from coming to fulfillment, Zeezeebah decided to kill the child. To do that, he summoned Gorah, the giant evil dragon, to carry out his bid and bring him the son of Alladin.   

Gorah, on the order of the evil master Zeezeebah, flew straight towards the grand palace of the kingdom of Barzah to carry out Zeezeebah’s bid. Even though the king, the great Alladin tried to put up a resistance, they were no match for Gorah the dragon. However, queen Dayena, wife of the great king Alladin, was able to get the baby prince to safety in the hands of Habibi – a trusted woman who was the childhood nanny of the queen herself. Although Gorah took Dayena with her to Zeezeebah, she was without the child. Enraged because of the queen’s refusal to tell him the where-about of the prince, Zeezeebah turned her into a parrot and kept her locked up in a cage to make her tell him where the child was.

As a result of the queen’s disappearance, king Alladin embarked on the journey to find Zeezeebah. When Zeezeebah learned of their coming, he summoned the dark forces of the sea to destroy and sink the king’s ship. However, the king survived and swam to Zeezeebah’s coven, but he was turned into a statue through a curse that the magician had laid on Dayena. In a further quest to find the prince, Zeezeebah again turned to Nostradam to find out, but he was disappointed to hear that Nostradam does not know about the where-about of the prince because he can only foretell the future but not the present. Since the land of Barzah was no longer a safe place to keep the baby prince, Habibi handed over the prince to a long-time friend, a captain of a ship to take the baby far away from the reach of Zeezeebah. Khan then renamed the baby prince Mustafa and trained him to become a sailor.

Twenty years after, Mustafa was now grown into a very handsome and strong sailor. While sailing one day, Mustafa encountered a shipwreck that washed him alongside two of his friends to the shore of an island where he met the princess Laila, the daughter of the king of Zyger, after saving her from a group of abductors. Meanwhile, Zeezeebah had spent the entire twenty years looking for the prince. And as the day goes by, he gets more and more worried because the prince is now only three months away from turning 21.

Meanwhile, Mustafa, who was still with his friends in the land of Ziaga, fell deeply in love with the princess Laila and had intentions of marrying her. One of the princess’ maids and a guard tricked Mustafa and trapped him and his friends in prison to stop this from happening. However, Mustafa was able to climb to the prison top, where he got the King’s attention after the princess pointed out that he was the one who saved her. She also told the king that Mustafa was her desired choice of husband. Since it is customary for a princess to marry a man who is a prince either by lineage or by achievement, Mustafa had to prove himself by carrying out the king’s impossible task of restoring the river that once ran through the Ziaga kingdom.

Meanwhile, Habibi and Khan had grown so worried because Mustafa was lost at sea and therefore embarked on the journey of finding him. Unknowingly to them, Zeezeebah found out from their conversation who Mustafa indeed was and went on the quest to hunt him down. On his task to restore the river, Mustafa encountered a mighty creature who had swallowed the diamond sword that is the key to unlocking the river. Mustafa bravely confronted the dragon and went on to slay it and retrieve the diamond sword. On the creature’s word, they used the light of the blade to restore the river, which then ran back to Ziaga. 

Seeing that he has completed the seemingly impossible task, the king, according to his promise, announced the union of Liala, his daughter, the princess, and Mustafa. However, not long after this incident, Zeezeebah appeared at the scene out of nowhere to destroy Mustafa since he now knows that he is the prince Dime Al Akhnaar, the son of the great king Alladin. After a series of confrontations, Mustafa was able to overpower the Zeezeebah through the powers of the magical diamond sword he wields. Zeezeebah seeing that he was no match for Mustafa, escaped back to his coven to find out from Nostradam, who told him that the power of the diamond sword was just too much for him to handle. On hearing that, Zeezeebah decided to lure Mustafa to his coven by sending Gorah the dragon to kidnap Laila from the palace in Ziaga. However, queen Dayena, still a parrot, managed to trick juju, Zeezeebah’s servant, and escaped from the coven to Ziaga to warn Laila of impending danger. Despite this, the dragon still succeeded in kidnapping the princess.

Mustafa, who had gone to bring Habibi back from Barzah to his wedding to the princess, came back to find Laila already kidnapped. While still confused about how to go about the present situation, the parrot flew to them to tell them of Zeezeebah. She could not tell them her story because Zeezeebah’s curse would turn them into a statue just like it did the king. However, she related everything to them by telling it to herself while facing a mirror; hence, she became a statue too.

To save the princess Laila and free his father and mother from Zeezeebah’s curse, Mustafa went over to Zeezeebah’s coven. However, to make Mustafa lose the diamond sword, Zeezeebah commanded the statue of Alladin to fight his son, knowing that Mustafa would not want to hurt his father with the Diamond sword and would eventually lose it. After several clashes and confrontations, Mustafa succeeded in dispossessing Zeezeebah of his evil staff, which he broke – instantly destroying the wicked magician. The story ends with a happy reunion of king Alladin and his wife Dayena, and together they embrace their brave son Mustafa and her lover, princess Laila.

Ratings

So far, the film itself hasn’t gotten that much rating on most contemporary review and rating websites. However, it is worthy of note that the first version of the movie, named “Son of Alladin,” released in 2003, has an average rating of 3.1 on IMDb.

Reviews

Mustafa and the Magician is a great movie with a nice and compelling storyline, especially for children and early teens, who are likely to find it highly interesting and amusing. The cartoon has welcomed quite a degree of mixed reactions so far. Quite a number of people saw the movie as enjoyable because of its impressive storyline and the fact that it incorporates a degree of action, adventure, and romance in an exciting way.

While a fraction of viewers has voiced their dissatisfaction with the cartoon’s pretty substandard visuals, voice acting, and animation, it also gathers a number of positive reviews from other people. While the movie could have done better in many aspects, it is not a bad one to pick up and enjoy on a lazy day.