By Zach Johnson
Which kind of witch are you?
The spellbinding trailer for the highly anticipated Disney Channel Original Movie Upside-Down Magic was released today. Premiering Friday, July 31, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, the film follows 13-year-old Nory Boxwood Horace (newcomer Izabela Rose) and her best friend, Reina Carvajal (Siena Agudong), as they enroll in the Sage Academy for Magical Studies.
While Reina’s expert ability to harness the power of fire lands her at the top of the class of Flares, Nory’s unreliable magic and proclivity for turning into herself into a “Dritten”—a half-kitten, half-dragon—lands her in a class for those with upside-down magic, or UDM, led by the wisecracking groundskeeper and “professor” Budd Skriff (Kyle Howard). Unfortunately, the stern Headmaster Knightslinger (Vicki Lewis) believes the UDM’s unconventional powers make them vulnerable to dangerous and evil “shadow magic,” so Nory and her fellow classmates must prove that upside-down magic beats right-side up.
Based on the New York Times bestselling children’s book of the same name, Upside-Down Magic also stars Max Torina, Elie Samouhi, and Alison Fernandez. The movie will also be available to watch on DisneyNOW beginning Saturday, August 1. Director Joe Nussbaum serves as an executive producer alongside Suzanne Farwell and Susan Cartsonis. Bill Boes is the production designer, Adam Santelli is the director of photography, and Barbara Somerville is the costume designer. Nick Pustay and Josh Cagan wrote the teleplay, based on the Scholastic book from novelists Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins.