Kleks Academy Parent Guide

On her twelfth birthday, Ada Contrary (Antonina Litwiniak) doesn’t have the surprise party she expects. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t surprised….

As she mopes in her apartment, a bird-man named Matthew (Sebastian Stankiewicz) appears on her fire escape and informs her that she has been selected to attend Kleks Academy, a school for children with big imaginations and unusual abilities. Ada remains unconvinced until the messenger tells her that polishing her skills will help her find her father, who has been missing for several years. This promise sells the offer, and Ada soon finds herself in a magical school, surrounded by acres of red-colored forests which contain doors into fairy tale worlds.

Initially leery, Ada soon throws herself into learning how to express her imagination and develop her innate gift for empathy. The only question is whether or not she’ll be able to learn fast enough. For Matthew is being sought by a group of human-wolf hybrids, unimaginatively referred to as wolfurs, who are seeking vengeance for a long-ago death – and they are willing to destroy whoever stands in their way.

Fantasy movies rely heavily on their sets and visual design and Kleks Academy is fortunate in this regard. The production clearly lacks a Hollywood blockbuster budget, but the sets effectively create a fantasy world with lush red trees, islands floating in the sky, thoughts that turn into glowing butterflies, and a fountain that gives people the ability to understand all languages. There are some wondrous moments in the film, and that’s critical for a tale that’s trying to be magical.

What the film lacks is the ability to tell a consistently enjoyable story. One of the mysteries of Kleks Academy is how a film with such a long runtime is unable to fully flesh out its characters. Ada gets a backstory and a personality, but the other students are simple one-note ciphers - karate girl, comedian girl, wannabe magician boy. Most annoyingly, Ada’s behavior often seems to be random; not arising organically out of the story but shoehorned into the script. I haven’t read the Polish books on which the movie is based so I can’t tell if the screenwriters are desperately trying to squeeze well known incidents from the books into the movie or if they are simply inexperienced. Most glaringly of all, a major plot thread is left unresolved – I assume to make room for a sequel. (I wouldn’t hold your breath on that.)

On the plus side, the movie’s negative content is limited to violence, which is more intense than expected for a TV-PG rating. There are several scenes of sanitized violence but one involves brief torture of a child and another is an extended scene where a child dies by drowning. This is not a movie for little kids or those who are easily frightened.

If you think the production’s imaginative world makes it worth slogging through the rest of the film, there are some positive messages for young viewers. The story leans heavily on the importance of confidence, loyalty, empathy, kindness, and peacemaking. It urges viewers away from prejudice, stereotyping, violence, and vengeance narratives. If you’re really lucky, it might help squabbling siblings realize that there are other ways to settle disputes. But I wouldn’t count on that either…