Music Is Magic - Episode Guide

#5205-39 Music Is Magic
Written by Paul Dini

Synopsis:
Jem and the Holograms are appearing in a Music and Magic TV special in Magic Island, with the world's greatest magicians. Jem accidentally manage to upset three of the magicians. On top of that, the Misfits turn up as the second band playing. After the rehearsal of a magic trick goes wrong, Jem disappears, and the Holograms do their best to find out who is responsible, and to find Jem.

Characters:
Jem/Jerrica and the Holograms, The Misfits, Starlight Girls (Ashley, Ba Nee, Krissie, Deirdre, Lela, Anne, Marianne, Joellen, Becky, Nancy, Delaree), Sid director, Devon Silverstone magician, Marla Martell illusionist, Frick magician, Frack magician assistent.

Locations & vehicles:
Starlight Mansion, Magic Island, mansion on Magic Island.

Songs:
"Abracadabra" The Misfits
"It Could Be You" Jem and the Holograms
"Music Is Magic" Jem and the Holograms

Instrumentals:
"Music Is Magic" by Jem and the Holograms.

Genres:
Mystery, Action, Fantasy, Adventure, Humor, Drama.

Original airdate:
14 October 1987.

Releases:
Released on DVD.

International:
Italy: Aired on TV. The episode title was "Musica E Magia" (Music and magic).
France: Aired on TV. Released on DVD. The episode title was "La Magie De La Musique" (The Magic Of The Music).
Venezuela: Aired on TV. The episode title was "Musica Y Magia" (Music and magic).
UK: Aired on TV. Released on VHS.
New Zealand: Released on VHS.

Behind the scenes:
The writer of this episode, Paul Dini, seems to have a thing for magic, as he wrote an episode also for He-man and the Masters of the Universe, called "The Shaping Staff", and also wrote magic themed episodes for the Smurfs and Scooby Doo, and probably many others of the cartoons he's been writing for.

Fashions:

Trivia:
Different animation.

Kimber attempts magic tricks under the name "The Great Kimberini".

There seems to be some real magic going on in this episode.

Marla have her own projector to make holograms.

Devon discovers Jem in the act of creating some holograms.

The song "Music Is Magic" by Jem and the Holograms is re-used. Previously appeared in the episode "The Battle Of The Bands".

The writer Paul Dini, actually wrote 11 episodes for Master of the Universe (MOTU) aswell. Several of which were about magic, and in one of them "The Shaping Staff" there was a bad magician aswell, who made King Randor disappear after going inside a darkblue magic chamber, much like Jem does in this episode, and both King Randor and Jem ended up locked in in the basement. In the Jem episode a special location was created where the magic show was to take place, a beautiful old building that looks like a castle, much like in MOTU. In the MOTU episode, it is a female magician (Evil-Lyn) who uses real magic, while in Jem it's a male who uses magic tricks. But in Jem there is a quite angry female magician aswell which kinda resembles Evil-Lyn. Also, in MOTU, the magician lures the whitehaired Sorceress out of the castle and traps her by making her become a tree stuck to the ground, while in Jem the white haired Roxy gets lured by the magician and then trapped in a straightjacket (well infact, pretty much all characters were lured by the magician in Jem). The Sorceress frees herself and helps the others, as does Kimber. Also funny that although there is alot of magic in He-man, they usually don't need a staff for it, but in this episode the bad magician has one, as does the bad magician in Jem. In both the MOTU and Jem episode, a main character is replaced by an animal with a magic/trick (in Jem it happens to be a tiger, much like He-mans pet is a tiger). Infact to top this off, the writer of this episode, Paul Dini, is infact a practicing magician along with his wife, maybe there's even a magician connection to his name, which sounds like "Houdini". And he has written magic stories for other cartoons aswell, like Scooby Doo.