For me, this was an interesting as well as scary and imaginative childhood film. Young boy Max has an imaginary friend.His parents had become worried about this,considering him to old to have one.They tell him by his 7th Birthday he must 'get rid' of his friend, Ruggles, and so Max continues to do so. But on the eve of his 7th Birthday, which is coincidentally Halloween, Max makes a new friend in the form of Harry Houdini-'the greatest escape artist the wolrd had ever known' (apparently). Harry convinces Max that it is technically not his Birthday until 12am, giving him 2 hours to to still have imaginary friends.Houdini takes Max to The Magic Castle (which is incidentally a real place on Franklin California) where Max can see and learn about magic. But, like all childrens films, there is also the bad guy...the 'bad guy' comes in the shape of Black Star, an evil magician who practises black magic. he trys to steal Max away from Houdini,but to no avail. As no one else can see or hear Black Star or Houdini, Max can pretend to be a magician e.g. moving objects by magic etc.Black Star sees this as his big chance to become a performer again and gain an audience through Max, despite the obvious fault that he could not take credit for it. The film obviously ends happilly ever after,with Black Star being caught by a monster- the 'cellar monster' to be exact, of which he created. Ironic really, isn't it? I still have this video and watched it a little while ago,purely for the nostalgia.it is fairly entertaining for children,although may seem a little scary to them.