It's always interesting when authors use magic as a form of navigation through our complex youth in young adult novels. For the most part, magic is there to be an interesting component of every day life, a way to make little tasks easier (depending on what book you're reading or what movie you're watching). What these books tell us, though, is that magic, like anything and everything we encounter in our lives, takes work, hard work, and a sense of deep understanding of ourselves at our very core.
I could talk about Harry Potter all day long, and how it takes years and years for even the most talented witches and wizards to master all manner of spells and potions. The Night Circus is no different. Celia and Marco are two... Magicians, I suppose it would be better to call them that, who train and are trained their entire life in two very different forms of magic for a competition that neither of them signed up for, yet one of them has to win. Without fully realizing why or what they're training for, they dive blindly into their studies in order to master their magic and in order to emerge from the competition as the victor.
Like most teenagers (though I think Marco and Celia are adults) the two characters are forced into "extracurricular activities" in addition to their daily life of growing into fully realized adults. Even though their extracurricular activities and the activities of normal every day teenagers are vastly different, the feelings are similar. During those years, especially if you've been doing those lessons for a long time, it can feel like it takes a lot of courage to go against your parents and back out. I think that's something that readers of the book can relate to. When Celia and Marco decide they don't want to participate in the competition, things get dangerous and they end up paying the ultimate price. Sure, we won't actually die if we decide to end our cello lessons or quit soccer practice, but it can sure feel that way.
Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits has interesting spiritual undertones. Although, I suppose they can just be tones, as the head honcho of the Time Bandit world is literally called the Supreme Being. He is God, or a god at least in that realm, and is complete control of Creation. The dwarves who Kevin accompanies on their adventures through time are his helpers.
The entire movie is spent wandering time and evading Evil (who I guess can be compared to the Devil) and trying to keep the Supreme Being from finding out they have the map, which, as it turns out, is completely moot. The Supreme Being already knew that the dwarves had the map, he, in fact, let them take it, like some handicap in a game they were all playing. He knew everything was going to happen and let it happen so he could test out his Creations, much like a god (I'm just going to accept the fact that SB is God and he's bored and toying with Kevin's little life for his own amusement).
The map of all that was and will be
Time Bandits tells us that we can have awesome adventures and choose our own paths but ultimately the Grand Creator (or Supreme Being) is the one in control and that was His plan all along. We are nothing but pawns for Him to test and play with. He knows how everything is going to play out and we are doomed to believe that we have free will and choice. We are even shown that He will punish us if we don't do as we're told (in this case, Kevin and the Dwarves forgot to pick up a piece of Evil once he was defeated and the Dwarves get a 16% pay cut, jobs they don't want and Kevin's parents exploded, rendering him an orphan).
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