Story

Once upon a time in a faraway magical kingdom, things go badly wrong while the King is tasting dishes for his upcoming birthday celebration: he’s kidnapped by a spaghetti monster. There’s clearly some black magic involved, so the Secret Magic Control Agency steps in.

Top agent Gretel (voiced by Courtney Shaw) is tasked with finding the criminal and retrieving the King. Gretel isn’t happy when Agent Stepmother (voiced by Georgette Reilly), the agency head, instructs her to recruit her estranged brother, Hansel (voiced by Nicholas Chorda and Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld). The plan is for Gretel to use Hansel’s knowledge and talents as a charlatan and con artist.

On their quest, Gretel and Hansel accidentally come into contact with a magic potion that transforms them back into children. Of course, this doesn’t stop them and they even seek advice from Baba Yaga, a wise but dangerous witch who captures and wants to eat them.

They finally discover who’s behind the King’s kidnapping: Ilvira (voiced by Erica Schroeder), a former chef at the castle, is planning to bewitch the King and the entire country with her magic love cookies, so that she can become Queen. Will Hansel and Gretel be able to stop Ilvira and sort through their personal differences?

Themes

Animated; fantasy action; comedy; secret agent story; family

Violence

Secret Magic Control Agency has frequent cartoon, action violence. For example:

• Characters get kidnapped and held captive.
• Characters get bewitched and transformed.
• Characters get into physical fights featuring comedy action violence. There’s no serious harm or blood shown.
• Characters are threatened with being killed, eaten and thrown in an oven.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in Secret Magic Control Agency.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Secret Magic Control Agency shows some use of substances, including mind-altering magic potions and love cookies.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in Secret Magic Control Agency, including when Ilvira and the King kiss each other on the lips. Ilvira’s appearance is voluptuous and sexy. She wears a 1950s-inspired outfit that accentuates her body.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in Secret Magic Control Agency.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in Secret Magic Control Agency, including ‘jerk’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Secret Magic Control Agency is an English language, Russian-American animated action comedy. It’s an interesting blend of the classic German fairytale, Hansel and Gretel, Slavic folklore and a James Bond-type secret agent story. The witch in the original Hansel and Gretel story, for example, is incorporated as Baba Yaga. She’s a supernatural being who often takes the form of an old woman or witch, is wise and sometimes helpful, but also cunning and dangerous. And as in Grimms’ fairytale, Baba Yaga wants to eat children. Other characters remind us of James Bond’s M and Q. Underlying the non-stop action is a fair bit of humour and a predictable but important story about the relationship between the estranged siblings, Hansel and Gretel.

Secret Magic Control Agency has many positive messages, and it’s likely to amuse and entertain children and parents. It does, however, have frequent action violence and themes of threat and peril. These make it unsuitable for very young children, and we also recommend parental guidance for children aged 6-8 years.

The main messages from Secret Magic Control Agency are that you achieve more when you work as a team and that you should be careful when making assumptions.

Values in Secret Magic Control Agency that you could reinforce with your children include teamwork, family cohesion, courage, resourcefulness, kindness and honesty.

Secret Magic Control Agency could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like revenge. For example, Ilvira holds a grudge and is seeking revenge, and she’s prepared to use black magic, lies, threats, coercion and violence to achieve her goals. This backfires badly and ultimately she fails miserably.