#StrangeMagic Interview with Elijah Kelley (Sunny) and Meredith Anne Bull (Dawn)

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“Strange Magic” Interview with Elijah Kelley (Sunny) and Meredith Anne Bull (Dawn)

“Strange Magic” Interview with Elijah Kelley (Sunny) and Meredith Anne Bull (Dawn)

My interview with Elijah Kelley and Meredith Anne Bull discussing “Strange Magic” was the highlight of my week. I was fortunate enough to be part of an interview with Elijah Kelley (Sunny) and Meredith Anne Bull (Dawn) discussing Lucasfilm’s “Strange Magic” coming to theatres this Friday, January 23, 2015. Elijah (love the name by the way considering I named my son Elijah too) and Meredith are magical. Not strangely magical either, just awesomely magical. 🙂

George Lucas’ next film as stated above will be in theatres on January 23, 2015 which is merely two days away! “Strange Magic” is a musical fairy tale inspired by William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with fairy tale creatures like elves, goblins and fairies, you won’t be expecting the modern day tale about love and mischief to include songs like “Crazy in Love” and “Wild Thing.” Gary Rydstrom does an amazing job of directing the film with George Lucas as the executive producer.

They did an amazing job of mixing together new versions of our favorite songs from at least the last six decades. There were songs from Elvis Presley and Deep Purple to Beyoncé and Lady Gaga. I literally was singing the entire time. Softly of course, because you’re not supposed to be on your phones or talking during a movie. Why yes, I was dancing in my seat too. There are “kingdoms” in the movie and they all have their very on genre of pop music from several decades knitted together perfectly in a very cohesive and logical way.

Elijah Kelley’s character, Sunny, is an elf that is in the “friend zone” with Marianne’s sister, Dawn. Sunny gets over looked for the more handsome, tall, and athletic fairies by Dawn. Dawn doesn’t even realize what is right in front of her.  Sunny is the underdog, the one you root for, the one you want to win. Sunny is the lover and a fighter. He won’t let fear stop him.

Meredith Anne Bull’s character is a fairy princess, and Marianne’s (Evan Rachel Wood) little sister. She is a boy crazy, flirtatious, fun-loving, high-energy and carefree girl who is high on life. She’s clueless to Sunny’s clear affections for her. This is just reality. How many times are we as girls clueless to the non-athletic, shy guy’s crush on us? You know the guy who would move heaven and earth for us if we asked him too? Hello, I didn’t know my husband was in love with me for quite a while. HAHA

Your kids will learn the most valuable lesson of all and maybe you as parents. Everyone deserves to be loved regardless of what is on the outside. What matters is what is on the inside. It doesn’t matter your race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, size, hair color, etc; you deserve to be loved just like everyone else.

Being that I’m an older sister, I know how completely challenging it can be to take care of the younger, feistier sibling. I instantly could relate to Marianne. One of my questions was for Meredith. I wanted to know how difficult it was for her to play the younger sister with the much more domineering and controlling older sister? You can listen and watch the interview here and see Meredith Anne and Elijah’s responses. I just posted the last part of the interview with them. Meredith Anne has a sister who is almost 8 years older than her and so it was one of the easiest things to relate to, she stated it would have been much harder for her older sister to play Dawn understandably.

EK = Elijah Kelley, MB = Meredith Anne Bull, FM = FaVe Mom, EB = EliVe BraVe (FaVe Tween), MY = Monica Young

Elijah Kelley (Sunny), FaVe Tween (EliVe BraVe), and Meredith Anne Bull (Dawn) at the “Strange Magic” Interview

FM: Your character represents that small is strong, and it’s a good thing and be proud, and the Bogg King likes to point out that you’re so small. How does it feel to be the man behind the voice that empowers kids to not let people bully them if they are small?

EK: I grew up and all the guys in my family are like huge. Everybody was 6’2 or bigger and I’m barely like 5’8. And so I didn’t even know my stature, 5’8 is regular in Hollywood, I didn’t even realize what my stature was because I was around these guys all my life. So, I literally in my head thought that I was as big as they are. So my confidence came at a very young age but to kind of piggyback off of the lessons you teach, it has no boundary your success, dealing with your size, the amount of courage that you have, or the amount of resilience that you have. I told someone else that fear is something that everybody has it’s when you succumb to fear that it becomes a problem. And, I think the fact that Sunny is so small in stature and never succumbs to fear even though he’s scared out of his mind in every single moment that he’s in but he decides to get it done and I think that’s what kids should take away from him. He doesn’t let anything stop him from his goals.

FM: See you’re not alone son.

Elijah Kelley (Sunny), FaVe Tween (EliVe BraVe), and Meredith Anne Bull (Dawn) at the “Strange Magic” Interview

The FaVe Tween got to ask some questions too. The first one was who was your favorite character was and Elijah Kelley instantly responded, “My character, and it better be your favorite character too.” I explained that it was his favorite character and that since they share a name in real life that may or may not have something to do with it. Honestly, he just fell in love with the fact that Sunny was small and didn’t let anything keep him down. Elijah Kelley said, “What? I never meet Elijah’s.”  and got up and gave my Elijah a high five. We found out Elijah was in gymnastics when he was younger too. So, being in an Elijah² situation was pretty cool in my book.

I wanted to post this question below because the FaVe Tween asked a very interesting question. It was a good question and I’ll admit that I couldn’t think of a response right away.

EB: If you guys were in another animation which voice actors would you choose to be in it?

MB: What was the question?

EK: If we were in another animation which voice actors would we choose to be in it?

MB: I loved Big LLou Johnson who plays Pare in the movie. He plays the big guy that helps Sunny and he does a lot of that work, that’s a lot of what he does and he sings so low. It’s crazy.

EK: Do you mean like celebrities like people that you would know?

EB: It doesn’t matter.

EK: Just anybody

FM: Because he’s seen all the “Star Wars” just so you know.

EK: He’s seen all the “Star Wars”

FM: Oh yeah!

EK: Oh goodness. I don’t know. There’s a lot of; who has like really interesting voices?

MB: Bill Hader

EK: Bill Hader. Do you know Antonio Banderas? I really, really like Antonio Banderas.

MY: I really like him. Nice accent. We’re not related or anything. (Monica Young)

FM: (laughing) Not biased at all. HAHA

EK: I love Antonio Banderas

MB: Who would you pick?

EB: Chris Pratt

MB: Oh, Chris Pratt, he was in, didn’t he just, he was in the “The Lego Movie” right?

EB: Yes!

EK: Chris Pratt, oh he’s funny. Who else? You know he’d be cool in an animation. Do you like basketball? What about Shaq? Shaq would be cool right? So me, Chris Pratt, and Shaq are going to be in an animation and you are (Elijah B.) are going to write it and direct it.

EB: Awesome!!!

Speaking of Chris Pratt, FaVe Tween (EliVe BraVe) wanted to take a photo in front of this Guardians of the Galaxy poster before we left Walt Disney Studios

Speaking of Chris Pratt, FaVe Tween (EliVe BraVe) wanted to take a photo in front of this Guardians of the Galaxy poster before we left Walt Disney Studios

Go see #StrangeMagic on Friday, January 23rd. Use hashtag #StrangeMagic so I can follow along with you. It’s the best love story I’ve seen in a long time and anything that combines music from six decades and makes it sound amazing is worth seeing. You’ll wanna dance with somebody, with somebody who loves me. Oh wait, I meant you. 🙂 You’ve been warned.

Trailer: http://youtu.be/3wv7Li2V7S8

Like STRANGE MAGIC on Facebook: http://facebook.com/StrangeMagicMovie

Follow STRANGE MAGIC on Twitter: http://twitter.com/StrangeMagic

Follow STRANGE MAGIC on Instagram: http://instagram.com/StrangeMagicMovie

Follow STRANGE MAGIC on Vine: @StrangeMagic

STRANGE MAGIC opens in theatres everywhere on January 23rd this Friday!!!

FaVeMom

FaVeMom

I live between our Nation's Capital and North Carolina, love daisies, giraffes, purple, polka dots, Diet Mountain Dew, Doritos, and guns. Not necessarily in that order. I know that I’m very unoriginal and fit most cliches. I won’t try to deny it if you ask me. Ill-advised, indiscreet, and injudicious individuals infuriate I.