The Mystic Woods (film)

The Mystic Woods is an American animated action-adventure-fantasy-supernatural-comedy film, being directed by. It is produced by and distributed by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment, being released on July 24th, 1998.

Summary
When a teenage girl discovers that she has the ability to communicate with the unnatural, she discovers that she must stop a monster disguised as a businessman who plans to enslave the world in order to create his perfect world. As a result, with the help of an imp she finds and befriends, she begins a quest to find a way to stop and seal him into a vase before he fullfies his dream.

Full plot
The film begins with Lucille telling a young Miranda about the legend of Blackburrow as a bedtime story. Under construction...

Voice cast

 * as Miranda Phillips, a ditzy teenage girl who discovers that she can communicate with the unnatural, being the chosen one to face the Red Man.
 * as Implo, a comedic and cowardly imp who aids Miranda, even though he disagrees with some of her ideas and shenanigans.
 * Frank Welker (vocal effects, uncredited) as Coco, Miranda's pet cat who joins her in her quest to defeat the Red Man.
 * as the Red Man, a rogue spirit who is out to enslave mankind to make his vision of a perfect world to come true.
 * David Cross as Virmor Bloodtone, the Red Man's clumsy henchman who often gets into trouble for often causing him to lose his patience due to his shenanigans.
 * Kate Winslet as Chelsea Blake, Miranda's friendly and cheerful best friend who is unaware of her friend's new life as a supernatural hunter.
 * as Michael Strange, The Red Man's well-meaning "son" who befriends Miranda and betrays him after discovering he's been used by him to gain trust of Miranda.
 * as the Hermit, a mysterious elder hermit who reveals to Miranda that he is the one responsible to teach new people to control their supernatural powers.
 * Robert Englund as Henry Phillips, Miranda's protective father who deeply cares about her and hopes that she becomes a brave heroine.
 * as Lucille Phillips, Miranda's strict but caring mother who wants her daughter to act more mature.
 * as Madame Wilson, Miranda's strict teacher who is often at odds with her and Chelsea thanks to their immaturity.

Release
The film was released on July 24th, 1998, along with the Yogi Bear short Pic-a-Nic Havoc.

Home media
[VHS and DVD release on December 29th, 1998]

The film premiered on HBO on March 26, 1999.

[TV premiere on cable on Cartoon Network, around a year and a half/two years past its theaters premiere]

[availability for streaming]

Critical reception
The film has received universal acclaim by critics and audience alike, being praised for its animation, its plot and characters. It had a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 89 out of 100 on Metacritic, and a 9/10 on IMDB.

Both critics and audiences enjoyed the movie for its mix of TBD, considering it a better attempt to emulate such style when compared to their previous attempt with Quest for Camelot. The film was also compared positively with 20th Century Fox's 1997 film Anastasia due to [emulation of the Disney formula by a rival studio].

[because it's the 90s, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel's opinion]

The film was eventually nominated for an Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, but ended up losing to Mulan.

Sequel
See Return to the Mystic Woods.

A sequel to the film was released on July 13th, 2001, featuring the voices of Matthew Lillard as the Red Knight, as the God Goat,  as Gurdr the Black Knight and  as the Beast Queen.

Television adaption
See Tales from the Mystic Woods.

Following the success of the film, Warner Bros. Television Animation produced an animated adaption serving as a sequel to the events of the film, airing on Cartoon Network from July 8th, 2000 until December 11th, 2004.

The voice cast featured some changes, with Miranda being now voiced by Kath Soucie and Implo being now voiced by Jim Meskimen, in addition to featuring a new main antagonist named the Nightmare King, being voiced by Joe Alaskey.

In addition, Frank Welker provides once again the vocal effects of Coco, Chelsea is now voiced by Elizabeth Daily, Mako reprises his role as the Hermit and Michael is now voiced by Jason Marsden. Robert Englund reprises his role as Miranda's father and Miranda's mother is once again voiced by Kathleen Turner.

Logo variations

 * Warner Bros. Family Entertainment: the logo plays normally with its theme being reorchestrated by David Newman.

Transcript
See The Mystic Woods (film)/Transcript.

Trivia

 * Mystic Woods is located in Michigan.