The movie does not live up to the eternally enchanting music, but it serves as an enjoyable delivery system for experiencing it again, which is magic enough.

If viewers can focus on its engaging young cast, vivid appearances by several international opera stars and well-executed melding of reality and fantasy, “The Magic Flute”... should prove a buoyant and enjoyable musical journey.

In a way it’s kind of neat. In another way it’s kind of dopey. The movie toggles between those two states throughout. But the tunes are nice, and it is novel, one could say, to hear them sung in non-operatic modes.

It’s easily worth a watch if you’re at all familiar with the opera, as it does deliver a fairly fun retelling of this classic story.