Phoenix and the Magic Carpet Director's Cut (1995)   Starring: Sir Peter Ustinov, Dee Wallace Stone, Ewan Bremner, Laura Kamrath, Nick Klein, Timothy Hegeman, Nicole Lengenberg, Maya Zekina and Kenny Andrews Distributor: Fabulous Films Ltd / Fremantle Media Enterprises RRP: £12.99 FHED4052 Certificate: PG Release Date: 03 May 2021

Based on the classic children’s book by E. Nesbit, The Phoenix and the Magic Carpet: Director’s Cut (1995) is now available for the first time ever on DVD. This magic carpet ride to a land of enchantment and fantasy is based on the book The Phoenix and the Carpet which was written by Edith Nesbit (author of The Railway Children). It was first published in 1904 and is the second in a trilogy of novels that begins with Five Children and It (1902) and concludes with The Story of the Amulet (1906)...

First things first... this is a kid's movie (not a family film) which means that while kid's will probably love it (and replay it over and over again) adults will find it tedious and annoying. It's pretty obvious that the budget for this movie was not very high. The acting is pretty ropey and the effects are almost laughable... The Phoenix looks like something made by school children for a school play about a dead parrot and the magic carpet rides don't even bother to do the simplest things to sell the idea of realism - like have a large fan blowing on the actors.

The story is predictable and rather... well, dull. The Phoenix is actually rather creepy. The acting is mainly poor, but the majority of this is down to an almost laughably shoddy script with unbelievable dialogue. Having said that... Very young children will probably totally love it.

Extras are a little thin on the ground (thankfully) with just a behind the scenes stills gallery; Long Trailer (3 min, 48 sec - which pretty much tells the entire film in under 4 mins); Short Trailer (2 min, 04 sec) and Teaser (59 sec).

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Darren Rea