Various controversies - star Tambor became the subject of various harassment allegations just as the film was preparing to hit theaters in the fall of 2017 - pushed back its release until it landed on Disney+, where it arrives in the heat of long, boring, horrible summer. The film, shot way back in 2017, was conceived of before Disney had even launched its streaming service and was originally intended to be a theatrical release. Obvious moral lessons and a predictable plot help clear up the early confusion, while also lulling the film into a formulaic rut it never attempts to break out of. ‘Mulan’ on Disney+ Could Launch the PVOD Blockbuster EraĪ constant push and pull between characters and scenarios - Adam DeVine is top billed here, but “Magic Camp” opens with a focus on young Theo (Nathaniel Logan McIntyre), and then there’s the over-the-top showiness of Jeffrey Tambor as the camp’s wacky director - makes it difficult to nail down just what this whole thing is supposed to be about. Final credits don’t even include Steve Martin, who wrote the script’s first draft and was once attached to star in it that’s how many cycles this screenplay has been through in just four years of existence.
The best warning of what’s to come arrives in the opening credits: the film comes from six screenwriters, and while many of the half-dozen scribes (not counting the two additional with only “story by” credits) it took to write “Magic Camp” are quite talented folk (top credited duo Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster most recently wrote the lovely “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” Matt Spicer and Max Winkler are both rising filmmakers), little of that magic makes its way into this feature. At least that film was trying for something. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, the lack of imagination on display in Mark Waters’ “ Magic Camp” is almost more depressing than the incomprehensible weirdness of Kenneth Branagh’s YA flop. One piece of programming mostly missing so far: the kind of instantly forgettable original that would not have felt out of place premiering on the Disney Channel in the late ’90s or early aughts, family-friendly fare to fill a lazy Friday night.
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Just nine months into its existence, and Disney+ original programming has already run the full gamut, from critically beloved series like “The Mandalorian” to theatrical cast-offs best left forgotten (sorry, “Artemis Fowl”).
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