A film filled with action, adventure, fantasy, and with surprisingly dark and emotional moments that made Chile's animation industry made a Renaissance.
"I clear your orders, Captain!"
— Nahuel
Nahuel and the Magic Book (or Nahuel y el Libro Mágico in Spanish) is a 2020 Chilean-Brazilian animated film by Germán Acuña Delgadillo, Written by German Acuna Delgadillo and Juan Pablo Sepúlveda, Produced by Sebastian Ruz, Livia Pagano, Patricio Escala, Sabrina Bogado, Milton Guerrero, Gabriel García, Margarita Cid Lizondo, Constanza Adonis, with the help by the animation directors Enrique Ocampo and Rosamari Martinez, composed by Felicia Morales, German Acuna Delgadillo and Cristobal Carvajal, and starring Consuelo Pizarro, Muriel Benavides, Sebastian Dupont, Vanessa Silva, Sandro Larenas, Jorge Lillo and Sergio Schmied.
The movie's about a young and introverted 12-year-old Nahuel who lived with his father Antonio in a small fishing town in the Chiloé Archipelago. Nahuel is afraid of the sea despite helping his father as a fisherman. One day, after he grabs the house keys from a cat inside the abandoned house, he stole a mysterious book, the Levisterio, and takes it home to solve his childish fears. However, Kalku was furious as he heard about the book by Raiquen (known as La Voladoras) and then kidnapped his dad after he and Nahuel got separated by a storm. Now, his journey starts with the help of his companion Fresia and a cursed wolf Ruende to save his dad and conquer his fears.
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The vehicles such as the trucks and the ship are rendered, including the scene on the tower and the abandoned town.
- Action Girl: Fresia, Raiquen and Huenchur are considered action girls.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Nahuel and Fresia joking around about petting Ruende, and in one scene when Trauco grabs the equipment to make a soup, he hits himself on the back of the head and both Nahuel and Ruende laugh.
- Adults Are Useless: Sra Hilda, Don Simon and Antonio (until the climax) are given as exposition rather than do anything for the plot.
- Affably Evil: As it turns out, Elzaino is nothing more than lying servant of Kalku who lies to Nahuel and gives the Levisterio to Kalku.
- Affectionate Gesturetothe Head: Elzaino patted Nahuel's head after he answered the final question of Chon-Chon's riddle.
- All Myths Are True: Most of the film had a full screentime to all Mapuche and Chiloe myths such as the Trauco, the Chon-Chon and the crow wizard Kalku.
- Amplifier Artifact: The Levisterio and Fresia's magic stones, though the Levisterio was used twice thoughout the film.
- Animation Bump: While there are some errors here and there, most of the entire movie's design and animation was incredible and it was inspired from Studio Ghibli, Future Boy Conan and many of Hayao Miyazaki's works along with some inspiration for the art and character designs from Western cartoons and animation like Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Infinity Train, Hilda, The Owl House and some French animated movies and shows and Japan's anime.
- Big Damn Reunion: Not only our Nahuel, Fresia and Antonio watched after the Cai-Cai saved the two and watch the sunset, but also Ruende, the wolf who's been there in Nahuel's journey along with normal Raiquen reunited with the kids.
- Backstory Horror: The first pages of the Levisterio contains the violence from the wizard a hundred years ago. Thousands were trying to hunt down the book to destroy the world, but luckily a single wizard hides the book from the sorcerers in order to let the world saved.
- Beat Themat Their Own Game: Chon-Chon gives him the clue to Kalku's island when the boy won in the riddle scene.
- Battle Couple: Nahuel and Fresia, while it happened in climax only and while they're not in love, some rumors said they cared for each other. She saved Nahuel from getting chocked on by Kalku by using her two magic stones.
- Bilingual Bonus: The Levisterio contains some Mapuche languages, twice, between Nahuel summon the giant spell and Kalku summon the Cai-Cai along with the control spell.
- Body Horror: There are some creature who isn't beautiful as we think, most notably Trauco, Raiquen (when she was cursed), Chon-Chon (who took off his head during the riddle scene, and Kalku
- Book Ends: The same scene when Nahuel jumps out the boat sets in a seashore after the intro and then at the end when Nahuel, Antonio, Fresia, Ruende, Raiquen and Huenchur sets out on a picnic on a distant shore.
- Brought Downto Normal: In the climax He conquer his fear of the sea without the Levisterio, and between him and Fresia landed safely by the Cai-Cai.
- Call-Back: The scene when Nahuel focuses on the third answer is, with the lightning flashes, it takes us back the exact same time when Nahuel and Antonio got struck by the tsunami as his father fires up the flare.
- Chase Scene: When Nahuel got the eggs, he got encountered again by Calfunao and Rorro in the market. He dodges the people who get in his way and even the one big cart. Luckily, Nahuel didn't got hurt, but he drop the eggs when he got in he sigh in disbelief.
- Chekhov's Gun: Nahuel founds the Levisterio, who didn't realize the book will destroy the world and hunt down by the sorcerers thousands of years ago to destroy the world, but he uses it anyway to conquer his fear of the sea.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The innocent, happy, Tavern owner Elzaino,lie to Nahuel to steal the book last night. Then, while the tavern is empty, it was only himself and Kalku alone.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Consuelo's passing turns Antonio into an arrogant, cold-hearted father to Nahuel.
- Damselin Distress: After Fresia saved Nahuel from Kalku, the malevolent wizard had a chance to grab her when he let go of the boy.
- Deal with the Devil: Nahuel accept Chon-Chon's offer to a riddle and if he answered three questions, he will told about Kalku's location.
- Deathby Childbirth: In the first minutes of the film, Antonio uses the boat with his wife headed straight to the hospital in the middle of a stormy night to safety, but unfortunately, he stopped the boat and helps her to give birth to her son before she passed away.
- Designated Girl Fight: The fight between Raiquen and Huenchur as Nahuel and Fresia escaped from the fight.
- Deus ex Machina:As it turns out, unexpectedly, the Cai-Cai awakens Nahuel from the drowning to save Fresia after he stopped Kalku from controling the monster.
- Distressed Dude: Nahuel has been suffered two times, by his brainwashed father and the malviolent Kalku.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Kalku got eaten up by the Cai-Cai in the climax along with the Levisterio.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence:
- As Nahuel and Fresia escaped, Huenchur fights Raiquen giving the kids some time to run.
- The Cuchivilu rushed in on the kids, when they got up to the tree, Nahuel falls and the creature sees to hurt or yet kill him. However, Ruende rescues Nahuel, biting off the Cuchivilu and letting the creature retreats through the bushed.
- The climax on the abandoned island like Ruende fights his long lost wife, aka Raiquen, the brainwashed Antonio hurts down Nahuel, but he got cured from the same locket he gave to his late wife, and the final battle between Kalku on the top of the tower.
- Follow in My Footsteps: Thoughout of the film, Nahuel explains to Fresia that has a dream to be a fisherman, just like his dad.
- Gangof Bullies: Calfunao and Rorro appeared twice throughout the movie.
- Gray Rainof Depression: It rains when Elzaino gives the Levisterio to Kalku.
- I Will Find You: Nahuel looks upon the stars before he's going to sleep, hoping to see his father again.
- Jerk With A Heartof Gold: Trauco, the same man who mocks Nahuel since they first encountered in the tavern, is a nice guy all along who loves catching fish and now he helps Nahuel by drinking his magic soup to meet his late mom.
- Plot-Triggering Book: The story begins when Nahuel finds the titular book "Levisterio," which has the solution to his fear of the sea. However, he goes on an adventure to rescue his father and overcome his fears after an evil sorcerer who's after the book kidnaps his father.
- Power Trio: Nahuel (the fisherman's boy), Fresia (the Machi in training) and Ruende (a talking wolf with a big secret).
- Late to the Realization: After he failed to attempt to get into the boat, he hears the horn from the other fishing ships, he realizes that he's late for his dad.
- Like Father, Like Son: It's none other than Nahuel and Antonio, and to makes the film not just a single message of Face Your Fears, but also the bond between them.
- No Full Name Given: Most of the characters are only known by their first names.
- The Magic Goes Away: The death of Kalku and the destruction of the Levisterio results both Ruende and Raiquen turning back into humans again.
- Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: The death of Consuelo causes the distant relations between him and Nahuel.
- Missing Mom: at the beginning of the film, we can see the saddest scene when Consuelo was about to get birth.
- In one of the scene later, Nahuel asked his father if he miss Consuelo, he froze, knowing that his only son knows about his late wife, but luckily he replied. Nahuel asked the second time and his hand start to shake, still can't handle the pain of the loss of his Consuelo.
- Morality Chain: Fresia (and maybe Ruende) are the only person who cares about Nahuel throughout the journey. she tells her why he stole the Levisterio in the first place just to make his father proud of him but it failed miserably because the sorcerer kidnaps his father, she then gives him a piece of advice to her friend why she overcomes her fear of the dark. He smiled and thanked her for the advice and maybe they will rescue his dad someday.
- Papa Wolf: both Antonio and Ruende, while Antonio is being a jerk to his son and Ruende isn't Nahuel's father, and he looks like an actual wolf, the two characters have in common: protect Nahuel. Like Antonio grab the flare to let the crows flies away to protect Nahuel or even Ruende, in his first appearance, fights off the Cuchivilu, protecting the boy in progress.
- Parents as People: Though the distant, ever since Antonio's wife's death, he try to love his only son, but as he sees Nahuel's actions like getting late on the port and didn't get the eggs he got more frustrated when he arrived on late at night and starts to believe in his inadequacies and his old age as a father and lets his sister take his son away.
- Parents in Distress: Kalku's intervention for the book causes him to kidnap Antonio just to steal the book.
- Parental Issues: After the chase, Nahuel is late at night and his father argued that he's late for school and when he arrives, he didn't get the eggs, and even worse, He was sent off to his aunt in Puerto Mont.
- Revenge Before Reason: Nahuel fights off Kalku to drag the Levisterio away from him necause he drops his father in front of the boy's eyes.
- Rivalryas Courtship: All this time, La Voladoras, Kalku's servant is was none other than Ruende's lost wife.
- Riddle Me This: The Chon-Chon challenge Nahuel to find his father. He didn't answer the second one (The Chon-Chon), but he answered the two (Imbuche and the storm).
- Stacked Characters Poster: From Nahuel and the main characters to the center, to Kalku at the top.
- Stop Drowningand Stand Up: He runs away from his mom, as he realizes under his foot, the sea keeps close to him, he drops and starts to panic as his greatest fear came true.
- Time Skip: The film starts 11 years ago when Nahuel parents gave birth to him, it skips to the present day where the whole film takes place, then at the end within weeks or months as the ship got fixed when the first one is destroyed by a tidal wave and have a picnic.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Not only just Nahuel who is addicted to the Levisterio, but also Antonio from being a cold-hearted father to him who didn't believe his sib in the first place to help him fight Kalku.
- The Tower: The place where Kalku lives is the dark tower on the abandoned island.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The first and second trailers somewhat spoils the plot from beginning to end, even going as far as Nahuel got into the top of the Caicai before Fresia wakes up.
- You All Meet in an Inn: Nahuel, Fresia, and Ruende went to the Inn to meet Elzano and other creatures to to meet up with Trauco to find Kalku.
