An animated revelation in the style of Card Toon

Overview

One of my all time favourite effects to perform is Dan Harlan's Card Toon.  Most people with some experience in card magic will be familiar with it, or will at least have seen it performed.  It's a special gaffed deck, used for a fun revelation: riffling through the cards produces a flip-book animation that culminates in a stick man producing a card out of a hat - the spectator's selected card.

Now from Bandung Magic Production comes Steve Marchello's Mini Me.  This offers a similar kind of animated revelation, but without the need for a gaff deck.  Instead it relies on a single gimmicked card, but it produces a very cute animation that is eye-catching and will impress spectators. 


 
Effect

The basic effect is straight-forward to describe: In advance you show an envelope, which you state has a helper inside that will help make the trick work, or that you can present as your prediction.  Your spectator then remembers a card selected randomly from the deck. 

Now you open the envelope and show a card that has a mini stickman magician pictured on the back.  The mini magician has his hand inside a hat, and your audience then sees this miniature stickman pull a card out of the hat, which is shown to be the 7 of Hearts - your spectator's selected card. 

As an added touch, you can even hand out the card for examination. See the official video trailer here.



What you get

The product comes with impressive packaging, which reminds me of the thick cardboard covers of a small book. 

Inside we find a plain playing-card sized brown envelope, which we'll use for storing the prediction, and which the spectator will safeguard while a random card is being selected. For the trick itself, three special cards are provided, including the key gimmick.

Finally there's a link with a password for the online tutorial, which can be viewed with streaming video or downloaded.  It runs for 22 minutes, and it's a 348MB file if you download it.



Impressions

●  The instructions

Probably since the creator isn't a native English speaker, subtitles are used on the video.  But there's no real issue in following what is taught, and the video itself shows multiple angles and uses good camera work. 

There are several handlings offered, including an explanation of how to switch out the gimmick at the end so you can hand out a printed card with the reveal that is fully examinable.  For the force that is required, several common forces are taught, but for most magicians these will already be in your quiver of skills, and you can use whatever your favourite method is. 

There are also some good ideas offered in the instructions about how you can accomplish the animation without physically moving your fingers or your hands. 



●  The gimmick

The gimmick cards are well constructed, and all three that you get use the standard red Bicycle Rider Back design.  The key gimmick is particularly well made, and works well.  The mechanism isn't unlike tricks that use cards with moving pips.   

I found it a little stiff initially, and you need to apply some pressure for the movement mechanism, but this does get easier over time.  Once you've used it a few times, the animation does move smoothly, and to a spectator it looks truly amazing to see a single card becoming animating. 

Being able to switch the main gimmick (a double backer is one of the included cards, to facilitate this) and hand out to your spectator a fully examinable printed duplicate really adds to the overall power of the effect. 



●  The method

I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that you'll be relying on a force, and that you can only do this with a single card, so you can't repeat it with a different selection. 

Most magicians won't be fooled by what's going on here, and will quickly figure out what is involved. But what you're paying for here is really a trick that's ready to go, with quality materials that you can use to achieve the animation. There's no way you'll be able to construct something like this yourself. 



●  The effect

This trick is really all about the effect with the cute animation, which you'll either like or you won't.  The gimmick is really just a tool that functions as a novel way of revealing a selected card. 

So while the core concept does use a common plot in magic (the magician finds a selected card), accomplishing this with an animation is something that makes it very visual and memorable.  It looks exactly as you see it in the video trailer, and if you like that idea, that's really the key factor that should determine whether or not this is for you. 

It might also be well suited as a revelation for a show performed on social media or over Zoom, because then there's less heat on the props and no need to worry about things being examined. 



Recommendation

Ultimately this trick is all about the visual effect.  It has good cuteness factor, and that's the real appeal here.  Mini Me is sometimes compared with Cardiographic by Martin Lewis, which I haven't seen.  The other product that invites obvious comparison is Card Toon by Dan Harlan.  Mini Me is in a similar vein, but fits a unique place in this niche because it works differently.

What you see in the trailer and in the pictures is exactly what you get.  Anyone who likes what they see and thinks it's worth the price-tag this sells for, isn't likely to be disappointed given the quality of the gimmick, and how easy it is to learn and use.



Want to learn more? You can get Mini Me from your favourite Murphy's Magic retailer.