The Magician’s Elephant (2023) Best Movie Quotes

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Starring: Noah Jupe, Benedict Wong, Brian Tyree Henry, Pixie Davies, Aasif Mandvi, Cree Summer, Lorraine Toussaint, Mandy Patinkin, Miranda Richardson, Dawn French, Sian Clifford, Natasia Demetriou, Kirby Howell-Baptiste

OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆

Story:

Netflix animated fantasy adventure directed by Wendy Rogers. The Magician’s Elephant (2023) follows Peter (Noah Jupe), who is searching for his long-lost sister, Adel (Pixie Davies). When he crosses paths with a fortune teller in the market square, he wants to know, is his sister still alive? To get the answer, he must find a mysterious elephant and the magician who will conjure it, setting Peter off on a journey to complete three seemingly impossible tasks that will change the face of his town forever.

Our Favorite Quotes:

'How will the world ever change if we do not question it?' - Leo Matienne (The Magician's Elephant) Click To Tweet

Best Quotes

Fortune Teller: Speed, spirit, and a really large fish, the three tools of a hero!

Fortune Teller: If I’m going to tell this story, I’ve got to catch you up on everything.

Fortune Teller: Nothing felt possible or magical, and then the clouds rolled in. Strange clouds that never break, or budge, or snow. The town’s been stuck, but things are about to get unstuck. I mean, otherwise, why would I tell this story? That’d be pretty boring.

Peter: We’re soldiers, sir.
Vilna Lutz: And what is this?
Peter: The world.
Vilna Lutz: And what is the world?
Peter: Hard.

Peter: “The most profound and difficult questions that could possibly be posed by the human heart or mind will be answered for the price of one coin.”

Fortune Teller: You will only get one question. So be careful.
Peter: [referring to his sister] Will I ever see her…?
Fortune Teller: Stop! Stop and think for a moment. Think of the right question, Peter.

Peter: How do I find her?
Fortune Teller: Yes, good. Very good. And the answer is follow the elephant.
Peter: You’re having fun with me.
Fortune Teller: You have your answer.

Peter: “Follow the elephant?” I gave you our one coin for today.
Fortune Teller: You made a choice. You asked a question.
Peter: And you cheated me.
Fortune Teller: Follow the elephant and you’ll find her.
Peter: But there aren’t any elephants here!
Fortune Teller: Just as you say.

'Where there is comfort, there is innocence. Where there is innocence, there can never be soldier.' - Vilna Lutz (The Magician's Elephant) Click To Tweet

Vilna Lutz: We have no dinner tonight because of Fortune Teller?
Peter: Yes, sir. But she knew so much about me! About you!
Vilna Lutz: How could she know about me? I do not even know about me.

Vilna Lutz: Where there is comfort, there is innocence. Where there is innocence, there can never be soldier. Peter, today, you were told a fairy tale. One just as false as any in this book! There are no elephants. If there were elephants, I would spot them immediately!

Peter: I have to do extra tonight because I spent our dinner money on a Fortune Teller.
Leo Matienne: And what did they tell you?
Peter: To follow an elephant, which doesn’t exist.
Leo Matienne: Yes. But what if it did?

Peter: The elephant has come. And what that means is my sister lives!

Leo Matienne: An elephant! I knew it would come! I knew it would come.
Peter: You did?
Leo Matienne: No. But I had strong and unreasonable hopes. And sometimes that’s enough.

'We make these decisions in war, in life. We have only a moment.' - Vilna Lutz (The Magician's Elephant) Click To Tweet

Vilna Lutz: [to Peter] An elephant will do you no good!

Peter: Sir, have you ever lied to me?
Vilna Lutz: What are you saying?
Peter: I’m saying she lives, and I will find her.

Magician: How could I produce an elephant on purpose when I can’t even escape from a jail cell?

Leo Matienne: If a boy throws a rock through a window, can you blame the rock?

'Think of all of the impossible things you've done, and you've probably done plenty. Have you ever gotten through one of them alone? Of course not. That would be absurd.' - Fortune Teller (The Magician's Elephant) Click To Tweet

Minister of Justice: The elephant committed a crime!
Leo Matienne: The elephant is guilty of nothing except being an elephant!

Fortune Teller: The King likes to be entertained. Only to be entertained, and never to not be entertained.

Leo Matienne: I was going to come get you. I said I’d help you see the elephant.
Peter: Oh, I guess, I’m just not used to that. Help.

Peter: I need the elephant to lead me to my lost sister. It is my destiny.

Peter: I must ask you to give her to me.
The Countess: The elephant is very dangerous, Peter. That’s impossible.
The King: I happen to like impossible things.

'Things are only impossible till they're not.' - The King (The Magician's Elephant) Click To Tweet

The King: Hey, what if Peter does three impossible things in exchange for one?

The King: Okay, the first impossible task is a fight!
The Countess: A fight?
The King: Sure! Who doesn’t like a fight? And an impossible fight is the best kind. Right, kid?

The King: [to Peter] Give him my saber, Henri. It’s all yours. Unless you get killed, in which case, you know, I’ll take it back.

Gloria Matienne: Oh, madness. How can the boy win?
Leo Matienne: But what if he does?
Gloria Matienne: What if? Your “what ifs” will be the end of us, Leo Matienne.
Peter: I beg your pardon, ma’am. But how can two small words be so dangerous?
Gloria Matienne: In Leo Matienne’s hands is how.

'Belief is a great and invisible thing. It comes over us like sleep. We struggle along the edges, fighting it for reasons we cannot name. Until, as with sleep, we lose ourselves. We stop, and we are restored.' - Fortune Teller Click To Tweet

Gloria Matienne: You see this roll of silk? My husband wanted to use it to kill himself.
Leo Matienne: It’s called a parachute, and there is evidence it can work.
Gloria Matienne: Has it ever worked?
Leo Matienne: No. Actually, the results have been quite grisly. That’s true. But what if I had been the first?

Leo Matienne: How will the world ever change if we do not question it?
Gloria Matienne: The world cannot be changed. The world is what the world is, and forever has been.
Leo Matienne: No. I won’t believe that. For here is Peter, standing before us, asking us to make it something different.

Fortune Teller: The elephant also has dreams. The elephant’s with her family, and she hears her name spoken. Somewhere she’s known, somewhere she’s loved.

Sgt. De Smedt: Do you believe a person can change?
Peter: I just beat you in battle, Sergeant. I think anything’s possible.

See more The Magician's Elephant Quotes

The King: [to Peter] You’ve done the first impossible task. concurrently, you’ve also lost my priceless family saber, and ruined a perfectly good killing machine.
Sgt. De Smedt: “Hello,” said Mr. Pig. “Hello,” said Mr. Rooster.

The King: [to Peter] You’re a surprisingly weird and dangerous young man. And I like that.

The King: [to Peter] Now, tomorrow, for the second impossible task. You will fly!

The King: Tomorrow at noon, we’ll all meet in the square, and watch the kid fly, or crash, or both. Both could be funny.

Fortune Teller: The elephant cannot understand human speech, but she can look at a face and recognize friendship. She doesn’t feel well, but she does finally feel something like hope. And hope can spread from one person to the next.

Leo Matienne: Peter, what’s wrong?
Peter: I have to fly tomorrow, but I have no idea how to do that. Vilna says that I’m going to die. Like I don’t know! Like I don’t already know. I have to fly tomorrow. I have to.

The King: Great day to watch the kid fly, eh? Not a cloud in the… Oh, strike that. It’s a shame, really. Because, you know, with a tan, I become irresistible.

The King: I’m still King, right? I didn’t miss a coup or something.

Vilna Lutz: You are flying, Peter! You are flying! What is possible? It’s possible! It’s possible!

The King: [to Peter] Well, you’ve done the second impossible task. So, you are one step away from owning an elephant! It doesn’t sound great when I say it out loud. A lot of cleaning up. Huge.

The King: Okay, for the third impossible task. I don’t have it yet. No, I’m a spur of the moment kind of king, you know? I come up with things on the fly, you know? Always winging it.

The King: For your third impossible task, you will make the Countess laugh.
Peter: What?

The King: They keep doing this. What part of impossible is tripping you people up? Im. Not. Poss. The middle part. Im. Something. Okay. I have no idea. But it means, “impossible”! Plus, this kid’s a killer. Anyone who thinks they’re better than this kid, you’re next jumping off the cathedral wearing a circus tent. Remember that. You all should stop worrying about the kid and start figuring out who’s getting me an ice cream cone. Preferably butter pecan.

Vilna Lutz: [to Peter] You are right. She was alive. The little girl was alive. I could have saved her.

Vilna Lutz: [to Peter] We make these decisions in war, in life. We have only a moment. I could have saved you both. I didn’t. And I lied because I didn’t want to cause you any more pain. Oh, I’m so sorry.

Peter: Sir, did you see her dead? My sister?
Vilna Lutz: No.
Peter: Then anything is possible.

Vilna Lutz: Well, you spoke of impossible elephants, and were correct.
Peter: Sir?
Vilna Lutz: You stood before an impossible opponent, and you were victorious. Then today, I saw you fly! It’s you, my boy. You. You are what is possible.

Magician: That night, I tried to cast a spell on you and everyone else there. A spell to make you believe again, to care about magic, because extraordinary things are possible. If you believe!

Magician: I tried for mystery and wonderment. It brought disaster.

Peter: [to the elephant] Oh, I can’t wait to get you out of here. We’re going to have so much fun and so many adventures, finding my sister.

Peter: All this time, I’ve tried to win the elephant to find my family, but she has a family, and she was taken from them.
Leo Matienne: Peter, what about your sister?
Peter: The elephant might have a sister too. Why is mine more important? I know the joke didn’t work, but please, the elephant didn’t ask to be brought here. We have to send her home.

Fortune Teller: Okay, I know. This is impossible. But what if it wasn’t? Just think for a moment. Think of all of the impossible things you’ve done, and you’ve probably done plenty. Have you ever gotten through one of them alone? Of course not. That would be absurd. Peter fought, and flew, and defied a king, and maybe he feels alone. But he’s not. No one is. Remember that.

The King: Alright, kid. You did it.
Peter: What? Really? But it was the elephant.
The King: [referring to the Countess] She’s laughing, right? That’s all I really wanted. Things are only impossible till they’re not.
The Countess: The elephant is yours, Peter.

The King: Hey, magic man! Let’s send the big lady home!

Peter: [to the magician] I believe that you can perform the necessary magic. I believe that only you can set things right.

Adele: [referring to the elephant] In my dream, I was meant to follow her.
Sister Marie: I do not believe in dreams.
Adele: Yes, you do.
Sister Marie: Yes, I do, in fact, believe in dreams.

Peter: This is my home, but it’s not hers. It’s hard to lose a friend. We have to say goodbye now.

Adele: [after the magician sends the elephant to her home] You were meant to follow her to your destiny.
Peter: This was more important.

Adele: [to Peter] You’re alive! And here! And family!

Peter: [as she hits his arm] Ow! What was that for?
Adele: No more jumping off buildings!

The Countess: [referring to the town] You’ve been visiting for a while.
The King: I know, but every time I try to leave, it just seems impossible.

Fortune Teller: A whole family created.

Fortune Teller: And as for the elephant, she lives a really long time. Long enough to test even an elephant’s memory. But of course, she never forgets Peter. I mean, how could she?

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