Running time: 89 minutes
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Zoe Wanamaker, Freddie Highmore, Eddie Izzard, Norman Wisdom, John Sessions
Rating 5 out of 10
The It of this children's film is a sand fairy, voiced by Eddie Izzard and created by the Henson puppeteers, who, if treated nicely, can grant a wish a day to anyone that asks. Choosing Izzard is presumably aimed at bringing adults along with their kids to the cinema, but both are only likely to find this a moderately amusing affair. Well-intentioned, but rather old-fashioned in terms of style and subject and bound to turn up on the BBC as a holiday special.
It's World War I, five brothers and sisters are evacuated from London to spend the summer with their dotty Uncle (Kenneth Branagh) in his dilapidated mansion by the sea. The house is also occupied by Uncle's feisty housekeeper (Zoe Wanamaker) and his evil and podgy son Horace. There are rules in the house, notably that the children must work to pay for their keep, and they are expressly told not to enter the greenhouse. Kids being kids, they do exactly this and lo and behold they find themselves going through a tunnel to a glorious beach occupied by a nasty-looking creature who turns out to be their wish-granter.
There's fun to be had as the kids wish for their chores to be taken care of and a myriad of children, looking exactly like them, turn up to complete their tasks. Then they ask for buckets of gold to buy ice-creams and a car. Things take a more emotional turn as they think of their father, away in action, and when he is reported missing, they try and convince It to help them bring him home. In the meantime, fat Horace undergoes a typical character loop from antagonistic adversary to the lonely good guy.
If the theme of kids being away from home during the war sounds familiar then it's because the film is based on E Nesbit's novel of the same name, first published in 1902, but updated to a First World War setting. Nesbit was responsible for The Railway Children as well as The Phoenix and the Magic Carpet and the themes he explored, notably of children's imaginations while they are away in a strange location, are familiarly exploited in this new adaptation.
The children all perform enthusiastically, Branagh gives a typical absent-minded professor performance, while Izzard is allowed free reign to insert as many non-sequiturs as he sees fit, intended, one can only think, to please any fans that come to see the film. While the puppet work is up to the usual Henson benchmark, some of the special effect sequences will not convince even the youngest viewer, and all in all, this remembrance of films past seems a little anachronistic in the days of the latest animated modern features.
It's World War I, five brothers and sisters are evacuated from London to spend the summer with their dotty Uncle (Kenneth Branagh) in his dilapidated mansion by the sea. The house is also occupied by Uncle's feisty housekeeper (Zoe Wanamaker) and his evil and podgy son Horace. There are rules in the house, notably that the children must work to pay for their keep, and they are expressly told not to enter the greenhouse. Kids being kids, they do exactly this and lo and behold they find themselves going through a tunnel to a glorious beach occupied by a nasty-looking creature who turns out to be their wish-granter.
There's fun to be had as the kids wish for their chores to be taken care of and a myriad of children, looking exactly like them, turn up to complete their tasks. Then they ask for buckets of gold to buy ice-creams and a car. Things take a more emotional turn as they think of their father, away in action, and when he is reported missing, they try and convince It to help them bring him home. In the meantime, fat Horace undergoes a typical character loop from antagonistic adversary to the lonely good guy.
If the theme of kids being away from home during the war sounds familiar then it's because the film is based on E Nesbit's novel of the same name, first published in 1902, but updated to a First World War setting. Nesbit was responsible for The Railway Children as well as The Phoenix and the Magic Carpet and the themes he explored, notably of children's imaginations while they are away in a strange location, are familiarly exploited in this new adaptation.
The children all perform enthusiastically, Branagh gives a typical absent-minded professor performance, while Izzard is allowed free reign to insert as many non-sequiturs as he sees fit, intended, one can only think, to please any fans that come to see the film. While the puppet work is up to the usual Henson benchmark, some of the special effect sequences will not convince even the youngest viewer, and all in all, this remembrance of films past seems a little anachronistic in the days of the latest animated modern features.
