Magic Lessons is a 2006 italian animated short film directed by Michel Fuzellier and coproduced by Gertie S.r.l.. It's part of a series of animated show named Magic Kinder meant to advertize the surprises inside the snack "Kinder Sorpresa".
It's the start of the summer break, but four students: Vanitina, Chirus, Krapò and Kiko can't leave the academy of magic without passing an exam: Entering a mirror and fetching the red clover, a plant that would make anyone who uses it the best wizard in the universe.
The original CD also included promotional footage for the then upcoming movie Cars 1.
Tropes found in the cartoon:
- Anvil on Head:
- Downplayed. After Chirus squashed her with a falling Piano, Vanitina uses her magic to summon an anvil mid-air that Chirus narrowly dodges.
- A similar gag, involving a fridge this time, happens just before when Krapò asks for something to eat and Kiko grants said wish by dropping said fridge on him.
- Big Red Devil:
- Toc Toc, one of the professors at the academy, is a standard red devil with pointed ears and horns, but without tail.
- Downplated with Thor who's a little devil who lives in the classroom's stove, who has red skin but lacks both tail and horns.
- Booby Trap:
- While descending a ramp of stair to reach the wishing well's bottom, Krapò accidentally activates a trap that shoots an arrow at him and ends up Pinned to the Wall. Every single step of such ramp, actually, is linked to a similar trap as well. Vanitina attempts to bypass such trap by flying down, but a falling rock activates the other traps as well and she has to dodge them to reach the bottom of the ramp and block the trap's mechanism.
- Later, the four of them enter a room whose ceiling is full of flamethrowers. Kiko manages to temporarily neutralize them by granting Vanitina a wish she accidentally expresses.
- Crystal Ball: Potius uses a crystall ball to see things, like finding what the exams the four students will revolve around. Everyone else thinks Potius' crystal ball is a relic, as the students and Toc Toc use magical computers instead.
- Hidden Purpose Test: The main characters have to pass an exam involving finding a red clover able to make anyone who uses it the best magician in the world. It's actually a test to see how well the students are able to cooperate with each other.
- Invisibility: When she's searching for hints about the red clover Vanitina is followed around by an invisible entity.
- Literal Genie: Kiko is a genie that as a Running Gag always take the other's wishes literally, doing more harm than good in the process.
- Lotus Position: Chirus is shown using this position whenever he's concentrating.
- MacGuffin: The red clover, a plant that can be used to drastically increase someone's magical power.
- Magic Carpet: Chirus has a flying carpet that he uses to fly rather than walking, or just to sit over it.
- Magic Mirror: One of the mirror in the school is actually a portal to a parallel dimension where the final exam is held.
- Meaningful Name: Vanitina means "Little vain (girl)", and she's rather vain, even performing the classical "mirror, mirror on the wall" shtick.
- Piano Drop: Chirus transform a flying bell into a piano that falls on the other three students.
- Pinned to the Wall: Krapò is pinned to a wall by an arrow shot at him by a Booby Trap.
- Posing as Your Own Victim: Krapugnas is found crystallized in her office after someone crystallizes Vanitina, but then she's revealed to be the one attacking the students and the other staff members.
- Red Herring: Toc Toc, after both Krapugnas and Potius are turned into crystal, becomes the main suspect of the attack on both of them and Vanitina. But then it turns out that Krapugnas faked her attack and she was behind everything.
- Running Gag: Kiko granting wishes in a literal way that ends up doing more harm than good to the one that wished them. Said wishes, also, are more often than not just people thinking out loud and not real requests, but Kiko grants them nonetheless.
- Visible Invisibility: Downplayed. Vanitina, while searching for clues about the red clover, is followed around by an invisible entity who the audience can't see directly but who leaves footprints on the ground.
- Wicked Witch: Zig-Zagged. Krapugnas looks like your standard green-skinned evil witch, but she's actually one of the professors teaching at the academy. She then is revealed as the one responsible for cystallizing the other members of the faculty in order to get the red clover and become the most powerful witch in the world. Then she's revealed to just be playing her role for the exam.