Heartwarming / Strange Magic

Spoilers Off applies to the Moments subpages. All spoilers are unmarked.

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• While they may be polar opposites, it's clear that Marianne and her younger sister, Dawn, have a close relationship and really love and care about each other.
  • After Marianne saves Dawn from the lizard that had tried to eat her and Sunny.
    Marianne: (shakes Dawn by the shoulders, totally exasperated) You drive me crazy! (then give her an affectionate forehead kiss)
• Sunny and Dawn's duet of "Three Little Birds". It showcases what good friends they are (and likely have been for a long time) rather nicely.
• While Marianne and Dawn's father isn't perfect, it's clear that he cares a lot about his daughters and just wants them to be happy.
  Marianne: I'm stronger alone.
  Fairy King: (downtrodden) I don't want you to be alone...
  • For most of the film, the Fairy King seems blissfully ignorant of Roland's worst qualities, and still sees him as a perfect suitor for Marianne in spite of all the evidence suggesting otherwise. However, when Roland finally uses the potion on Marianne after the final battle, the King is the first to cry out in horror, clearly finally seeing Roland for the monster he actually is.
• Sunny fulfilling his end of the deal with Sugar Plum by helping her escape her imprisonment followed by her tearful response to being free. Sunny seems to have been the only one who sought her out to make the love potion and to help her out while others left her there.
• Marianne and the Bog King bonding over how much they hate love. They're both so grouchy about it but at least they're grouchy together.
• The Bog King calling Dawn's boutonniere lovely. It's the first time you see him doing something besides scowling and being angry. He's just trying to not hurt her feelings because he knows she's not in her right mind.
  • When she starts singing again he tries to talk her down gently.
    Bog: No! No, no, no, no! What you're feeling is the potion, you know? (sighs resigned and takes her hand to pat it comfortingly) ...No, I suppose you don't.
• While he doesn't return her (potion-induced) romantic love, the Bog King clearly grows quite fond of Dawn during her time as his prisoner. When Roland attempts to take Dawn hostage during the climactic battle, Bog is just as quick as Marianne to hold him at sword point to protect her.
  Bog King: Let. Her. Go.
• The Bog King and Marianne's interactions when the Sugar Plum Fairy reveals the Bog King's secret:
  • The Bog King starts out yelling "no" only to softly peter it to a reluctant okay because he sees Marianne's desperate face.
  • Marianne telling the Bog King he's not hideous after he's relived being rejected by his love.
  • The Bog King telling Marianne that she's different and having a major Freudian Slip by telling her that's what he likes.
  • The two of them commiserating over their terrible luck with love and how both of them have decided to trust nobody. Even as they say that, it's pretty obvious the two are opening up to each other.
• The entire "Strange Magic" duet between Marianne and Bog.
  • The Bog King shows Marianne the beauty of the Dark Forest, and that the things that had scared her like the unrolling ferns could be a source of wonder. It's a nice metaphor for their relationship.
  • Marianne taking the Bog King's hand and trusting him to fly them through the thorny bush. They've come very far from their first interactions of trying to kill each other.
• The Sugar Plum fairy saving Griselda's life when the castle is crumbling. Despite their frosty relationship, and the fact that her son locked Sugar Plum away for years, she still carries her out of the there.
• The Bog King and Marianne trying to not be the first one to confess is adorable. Each of their faces light up when the other starts to speak only to be disappointed. It's so obvious that everyone, despite being members of opposing armies facing off, join together to force them to confess.
  • At the end, they share a Big Damn Kiss!
  • The "Wild Thing" duet. After half a movie of fumbling and hesitating and being unable to spit it out, suddenly you've got Bog and Marianne shouting their feelings from the rooftops. It's just so jubilantly, infectiously happy.
• The end credits show the Dark Forest branches mixed in with the Fairy Kingdom, showing that Marianne's dream that people would be free to go wherever they wanted was realized.
• Griselda really wants her son to be happy and find love, and is initially excited about Dawn being love-dusted and fixated on him ... but after she talks to Dawn a bit (off-screen), she informs Bog, "Not your type." She'd rather wait and look for someone he's compatible with than push him into the first relationship possibility that comes along. She may be pushy and over-eager, but she does have genuinely good intentions.
• The Imp being forgiven after Sunny managed to steal back the potion from him. True he caused a great deal of chaos when he stole the potion, but he doesn't seem to want to actually "hurt" anybody. Sunny must have realized that he was just playing jokes on others, like he (Sunny) said earlier.
  • Later the Imp seems just as devastated as everyone else when it seems Bog had been killed.