No Surrender Cinema: Magic Kid
If you were a kid in the 90’s looking for a family friendly way to get your ass-kicking fix, there was no shortage of content out there. There were action-packed adaptations like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Street Fighter, heartfelt films like Sidekicks, and over the top ideas like Surf Ninjas hitting the big screen in rapid fire succession. Each of those films that I just mentioned are memorable in their own way, but none of them are the subject of this No Surrender Cinema. This time around, we’re talking about PM Entertainment’s attempt to get in on the action (literally!) with their take on the kids karate craze. Let’s take some time today to remember Magic Kid!
Magic Kid was the film debut of Ted Jan Roberts, who would go on to become a major player for PM in the years to come, starring in several more films that were a bit more mature, such as 1994’s A Dangerous Place. Here, Roberts’ Kevin Ryan is a 13 year old martial artist who heads out to California with his sister Megan to stay with their bumbling Uncle Bob for a little while. Bob at one point was a major Hollywood agent, but times are tough for the poor guy, no thanks to his lack of luck with gambling and his affinity for Jack Daniels at all hours of the day. Try as he might, Bob just can’t seem to catch a break, but that doesn’t stop him from making promises to his niece and nephew, like telling Kevin that he’s going to bring him to meet Kevin’s idol, Don “The Dragon” Wilson. Kevin’s hero worship of “The Dragon” is pretty much the only clear defining trait his character has, aside from his ability to get into altercations with pretty much everybody him and his family bump into.
Kevin’s skills are called upon quite often in Magic Kid, with his most frequent punching bags being mob goon Guido and his two flunkies, who keep trying to collect Bob’s debt. The fights with the gangsters are ones that are played for laughs in a very 3 Ninjas-esque way, but there are also a few serious heels for him to go up against, like a bunch of douchebags on the pier who are leering at his teenage sister. Oh, and then there are the guys at the pool hall mad at Bob for beating them in a game…and who also leered at Kevin’s sister. These are all adult men making comments about her ass and plying her with alcohol (in what’s supposed to be a kids movie), yet the character of Megan is supposed to be 15 years old! Even the “good guy” movie star that she’s crushing on breaks the ice by inviting her out to a nightclub, right in front of her uncle. Actress Shonda Whipple was 19 at the time of Magic Kid’s release, and it might have come across a little better if her character was around that age as well, because as it stands it comes off as just a tad creepy that a good 75% of the bad guys in this movie are degenerates who want to get in her pants.
For all of his flaws, Uncle Bob, played by comic actor Stephen Furst, means well, and tries to give Kevin and Megan the good time that they came out to California for. In return, the kids start to warm up to him, with Kevin trying to motivate his uncle to be a better man with some of his martial arts wisdom. Try as he might, Bob just can’t catch a break, but lucky for him his nephew is good with his fists and feet, although Bob gets his hands dirty when he has to fight off a little person at a costume party…and does so while dressed like a clown. Family fun, everyone!
Magic Kid does manage to pay off its major plot point of Kevin’s insistence in getting to meet his hero, and it does so by having “The Dragon” just so happen to be in the nightclub when Kevin comes face to face with another mob henchman named “The Animal”. Together, they unleash a flurry of kicks and punches upon the bad guys and save the day, leading to a cute “Hollywood ending” where Kevin is now acting alongside his hero. I know there’s no rhyme or reason as to how some people manage to break into Hollywood, but if it were as easy as sticking my nose into my uncle’s problems and nearly getting my ass kicked until I was saved by an action star, I could be making summer blockbusters by now!
While I’m nostalgic for a lot of the films from my youth, I have to admit that I can see why it’s been a while since I last viewed Magic Kid. The truth is that it’s rather unspectacular, mainly because they were going for more of a kids flick than an action flick. Even then, you’d think that Ted Jan Roberts would have something that makes him stand out, but all of his fights here feel repetitious, and he’s never in any real danger until the climax calls for it so that “The Dragon” can do his run-in. Then there’s the way that the characters treat their circumstances; everything is a joke, whether it’s Bob’s alcoholism and gambling, or Megan and Bob’s girlfriend Anita almost getting sexually assaulted until Kevin steps in, and then their attitude turns to an “aw shucks, look at Kevin kick some ass” demeanor. Magic Kid’s biggest problem is its identity crisis, because it can’t seem to decide if it’s going to be a family comedy where the main character just happens to be good at karate, or a karate film that has too much levity in it for its own good.
Ted Jan Roberts would go on to do quite a bit under the PM Entertainment banner, and I would gladly recommend you check out films like A Dangerous Place or Tiger Heart over this one. Magic Kid is fine if you have nothing better to do on a weekend afternoon and want to watch fight scenes that have fewer repercussions than a Three Stooges short, but I wouldn’t call it essential viewing. Those who grew up on it like I did might still have a sliver of fondness for it because of its frequent appearances on afternoon cable in the 90’s, but its self-inflicted confusion as to what type of movie it wants to be created a final product that’s worse than a bad film, it’s just a bland film.
Magic Kid, aka Ninja Dragons and Ninja Sidekick, is currently streaming on Pluto TV and is also available to watch in full on YouTube.
