WFG RATING: A-

Freestyle Digital Media presents a Pine Pathways Productions/Baum18 Media/Rusty Hall Productions film. Written, edited, and directed by Nicola Rose. Produced by Tierney Boorboor, Rebeka Herron, and Drew Martin. Cinematography by Mathieu Taillefer. 

Stars Shaylin Martin, Patrick McKenna, Tania Webb, Steven He, Debra McGrath, Colin Mochrie, Mikayla Wong, Zooey Schneider, and the voice of Tara Strong. 

A teenager with a colorful condition comes of age in this heartwarming, emotional, and at times very funny look at life from writer-director Nicola Rose. 

Maggie Campion is a 13-year-old girl in 1997 whose family moved to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Feeling completely out of place, Maggie isn’t sure what to think. She has been seeing colors in ways like no one ever has. On her first day of school, she faces relentless bullying. However, when she impresses her teacher with her drawings, Maggie begins to slowly feel welcome. This comes especially when she finds her first friend in classmate Wendy.

Maggie’s father is working to get a stage show off the ground and it is there where Maggie develops a crush on one of the older actors, Travis. As Maggie can’t help but relate to Travis, Wendy gets annoyed when Maggie swoons about him. Meanwhile, Maggie soon discovers why she feels different. Diagnosed with synesthesia, a condition that allows her to see and feel colours. Maggie slowly begins to realize who she is and finally comes to terms with her differences. 

This coming-of-age film is quite interesting with some moral lessons to keep in mind. They are that “normal” is overrated, and it is okay to be different. There are many emotions that go through the mind of our central character Maggie, excellently played by Shayelin Martin. Maggie knows something is going on with her as she compares emotions to colors. While it may be seen as strange, she uses it to her advantage when it comes to her love of art. 

We learn so much about Maggie as we see her running the gauntlet of emotions. She starts out very uncomfortable and all we can do is feel bad to see her facing bullying. Despite the efforts from her dad Russell to help her feel more like herself and to be good about it, Maggie still feels weird. However, she finds herself slowly getting happy when she has support from both her art teacher and new friend Wendy, played by Mikayla Kong. 

Maggie also gets her first major crush on Travis, an actor who works for her father’s stage show. YouTube fans will be pleased to know that Travis is played by Steven He, who also served as an executive producer and whose “emotional damage” line remains an iconic meme today. He does quite well with his performance, even getting a chance to share the screen with Whose Line Is it Anyway icon Colin Mochrie, who plays the local handyman with a gift of singing. Her crush and constant swooning tends to cause tension between her and Wendy with an obvious reason. Then there’s Maggie’s inner conscience taking over her favorite doll, Captain Cassopeia, with another icon in voice acting legend Tara Strong providing the inner voice. 

Magnetosphere is a great film that showcases an amazing performance from young Shayelin Martin and seeing the likes of Steven He and Colin Mochrie, along with Tara Strong as the inner voice of Maggie. The film should be up there with the 1995 film Angus with the lesson being “it’s okay to be different”.