Documentary

General Magic

Documentary

The ideas that dominate the tech industry and our day to day lives were born at a secretive Silicon Valley start-up named 'General Magic', which spun out of Apple in 1990 to create the first handheld personal communicator (or "smartphone").

Year

2019

Duration

1h 33m

IMDb

7.4

Trailer

Cast

SK

Sarah Kerruish

Director

MM

Matt Maude

Director

Tony Fadell

Self

Andy Hertzfeld

Self

Marc Porat

Self

John Sculley

Self

Megan Smith

Self

SK

Sarah Kerruish

Writer

JK

Jonathan Key

Writer

MM

Matt Maude

Writer

MS

Michael Stern

Writer

CT

Ceri Tallett

Writer

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Comments

10 comments

THE EGBADON’sMar 6, 2026

Nisha ThakurMay 29, 2023

source: General Magic

heembeautyMay 23, 2023

I'll try to watch again if you fix the mixing. You can't hear the dialogue over the music

Nana Ama KakrabaMay 23, 2023

First off, I watched this on Showtime and the sound was perfect. If you care about Silicon Valley history or are just an Apple fan, this is a must see. An excellent film that tells the rare story of the most consequential company to fail... but which was not really a failure, because the people and ideas, fueled technologies and devices that changed the world.

Suhaib Lord MgarenMay 23, 2023

I really enjoyed learning about General Magic. I wasn't aware of the vision this company had, it's seems like they were right about so many things. Very interesting and I would very much recommend this film.

mpasisetefaneMay 23, 2023

I can't remember when was the last time I sit in the dark and watch a documentary with watering eyes. The touching music, the uncut long analog video shots, and the classic tragic hero narrative, you can easily sense strong emotions from the filmmakers, who were supposed to be objective, distant. But who can blame them if they didn't fully control their personal feelings in such a story? In many ways, it feels almost like an elegy of the romanticism of the Silicon Valley and startup culture in 1980-1990s, where people used to work from a garage with an enormous passion for a vision of changing the world, rather than nowadays many companies are doing not B2B, not B2C but B2VC business. The General Magic was a group of the most brilliant kids playing their incredible imagination, they were just too ahead of everyone else. Whether if you have witnessed the great tech inventions in 1990s-2000s, or if you are a fan of the tech field or not, this is still a great film to watch, to see how our modern lifestyle was paved by these people in the film.

Pariss 🧜🏽‍♀️May 23, 2023

Great subject but the background music is louder than the interviewees! You simply can not understand what's being said due to the poor sound mixing. I never knew a movie could be so uncomfortable to watch because of the background music.

محمد رشادMay 23, 2023

This is a very interesting documentary about the development of technology as we know it today and how failure can turn into success. I learned a lot about the development of the smartphone. It tells the story of a technology company called General Magic and their struggle to make a smartphone, all while trying to keep it a secret from other companies that could steal their ideas. It is easy to understand. I like how they illustrate things. For example, they use ocean waves to describe the coming and going of companies. The story is told by former General Magic employees, who know best about what happened since they were a part of it. They frequently cut to show beautiful landscapes throughout the film. My favorite one is a beach, but they also show city skylines, forests and other interesting places. The music is very 80s and helps establish the time period. The message of the film is that sometimes, failure for one person can help another person to success. It has some very mild profanity and there is mention of somebody being naked, but it is never shown. I give this 4 out of 5 stars and recommend if for ages 12-18 as well as adults. Reviewed by Kayenta C., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic. For more reviews by youth, visit kidsfirst dot org.

Cherie MundowMay 23, 2023

Production team please take a note, this nice documentary was completely ruined by the noisy music. Please remix it again.

Une_lionne_du94May 23, 2023

Seriously, who signed off on the audio mix for this? I couldn't watch for more than 10 minutes due to the obnoxiously loud music. Half of the time I could not understand what was being said. Even when I could understand, the loud music was just too much to take and made me want to turn it off. I can only guess that something went wrong when this was handed off for broadcast, because I find it hard to believe it went out the door like this.