Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

As I'm sure you can already tell, I enjoy really moving scenes in movies and T.V. One of the most powerful, witty, and enjoyable movies I've ever seen is...

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Mr. Magorium is a 243-year-old man who owns a magical toy store. He fell in love with shoes in Tuscany and bought enough pairs to last his whole life. He is on his last pair of shoes and feels it is time for him to "depart". So he hires an accountant, whom he calls "Mutant", to see how much his store is worth. He wants to leave it to his faithful store manager, Mahoney, who is a piano genius struggling to finish her first masterpiece. There is a boy named Eric, who spends his time helping out in the store. He struggles making friends and has a hat collection. He wears a different hat every day.

The movie is filled with subtle humor, powerful lines and moving speeches. Here are a few of my favorite parts:

• The store begins sulking and turning black in a corner because it is unhappy that Magorium is leaving. He walks around the store one night and talks to it.

"I must say, I am very disappointed in you. I understand feeling sad, scared, or even suspicious but that is no reason to turn gray and start pouting. I would expect such behavior, perhaps, from a brand-new store, or even a store a few years old, but a store your age...sulking? It is simply atrocious. The immitigable truth is I'm leaving tomorrow, and Mahoney, bless her timid heart, will be given care of you. I'm sorry, my sweet, but it is a perfect fact and no amount of misbehavior will change it. She loves you, as do I. (He walks to the gray corner) We must face tomorrow and whatever it may hold with determination, joy, and bravery. (He touches the wall and it turns red again under his hand) So I suggest you stop this petulance. I expect you to pull yourself together, and put your best face on by the time of my departure."

• Mr. Magorium and Mahoney come back to the store at night and say goodbye before his departure. She is crying and this is the speech he gives to her.
  

"When King Lear dies in Act V, do you know what Shakespeare has written? He's written 'He dies.' That's all, nothing more. No fanfare, no metaphor, no brilliant final words. The culmination of the most influential work of dramatic literature is 'He dies.' It takes Shakespeare, a genius, to come up with 'He dies.' And yet every time I read those two words, I find myself overwhelmed with dysphoria. And I know it's only natural to be sad, but not because of the words 'He dies.' but because of the life we saw prior to the words. I've lived all five of my acts, Mahoney, and I am not asking you to be happy that I must go. I'm only asking that you turn the page, continue reading... and let the next story begin. And if anyone asks what became of me, you relate my life in all its wonder, and end it with a simple and modest 'He died.'"

• Mr. Magorium and Mahoney are in a clock store and set all the clocks to go off at noon.

Mahoney: "Thirty-seven seconds...now we wait."
Mr. Magorium: "No, we breathe, we pulse, we regenerate. our hearts beat, our minds create, our souls ingest. Thirty-seven seconds well used is a lifetime."

• Mr. Magorium gives Mahoney a block of wood and tells her it will help. She has no idea what to do with it.
  

"There are a million things one might do with a block of wood. But what do you think might happen if someone, just once, believed in it?"

It isn't until she is telling Mutant that she believes it is absolutely more than just a block of wood, that it does something. The store then comes alive because it now knows that she believes and that she can run the store.

• When the Mutant comes to the store for his accountant interview.
  

Magorium: "Name the Fibonacci series from its eleventh to its sixteenth."
Mutant: "Umm... 89, 144, 233, 377, 610?"
Magorium: "Perfect. Number four, do we really need it?"
Mutant: "If you like squares - you do."
Magorium: "Oh, I like squares. Good. Now, the hot dog, the hot dog/bun ratio, why for the love of mustard are there never enough buns?"
Mutant: "Extra hot dogs..."
Magorium: "Yes, but why?"
Mutant: "In case you drop a couple."
Magorium: "What kind of insufferable fool drops a hot dog?"
Mutant: "Anything can happen, sir."

Magorium: "Anything can happen. How absolutely true. You're exactly the mutant I'm looking for! You're hired"

There are a lot more scenes and lines I enjoyed but this should suffice. There is a cute scene between Mutant and Eric starting a friendship. Eric builds a statue of Abe Lincoln out of Lincoln logs and all the kids just stare. This kid gets ran over by a gigantic kickball and Magorium says "Isn't that amazing? Impossible to dogde!" Magorium has a pet zebra named Mortamer and tells it to get off the couch and stay out of the fridge. Eric puts stars up in Magorium's hospital room to make sure he has enough "space" to sleep in. The list goes on and on. The entire movie is filled with little tidbits of joy and I love it!