Rachel Zegler must break a dark magic curse that has suddenly engulfed her parents or she will lose them forever.
Netflix has just released the trailer for the new animated adventure, Spellbound. Spellbound follows the adventures of Ellian, the tenacious young daughter of the rulers of Lumbria who must go on a daring quest to save her family and kingdom after a mysterious spell transforms her parents into monsters. Spellbound is directed by Vicky Jenson (Shrek) with original score from EGOT-winning composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast) and lyrics by Glenn Slater (Tangled). A Netflix Film from Skydance Animation, Spellbound boasts an all-star voice cast led by Rachel Zegler, John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis, Nathan Lane, Tituss Burgess, with Javier Bardem, and Nicole Kidman. Spellbound is written by Lauren Hynek & Elizabeth Martin and Julia Miranda and produced by John Lasseter, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Bruce Anderson for Skydance Animation.
Director Vicky Jenson talks working with Rachel Zegler, “I can’t think of Ellian without thinking of Rachel Zegler. She just IS Ellian. She’s got such a wonderful, charismatic personality, very real and fresh. She’s a great actress and a stunning singer. When we met and started working with her she was just down for it, down to play, to try anything. Even in her earliest demos of the songs she was weeping, she was laughing, she just brought everything and left nothing on the table. A lot of what she did in those early days is still in the movie, it was just that good. Rachel is one of a kind. She simply has everything.”
Jenson also spoke about how the movie was a personal dream for her, “Mythology and fairytales have always been part of my life and upbringing. My father, the son of immigrant Romanian parents, was an aspiring writer and my mother, raised in Costa Rica by literary parents, taught us to love the arts and old family ghost stories. Storytelling runs deep in our families!”
Spellbound is about what it is that really makes a family. Like any timeless myth or lasting fairytale, I believe the meaning reaches even further than the specifics of this family’s dynamic. It speaks to kids and their parents and the kinds of alienation that can happen between them as well as the steps we have to take toward each other, how we can weather it together, to come through to the other side with better understanding.
The kingdom opens November 22.
