Horrible Henry, le film

I took my 8 and 6 year old children. My 8 year old is usually quite forgiving of a bad film if she has popcorn. We watch and enjoy a lot of children's films - this was the worst for a long time, since Space Chimps probably, and made worse by that it could have been so much better with a little craft to its direction. And from a director with so much experience as an Editor, it was really badly edited.

My 6 year old thought it was OK, but there lies the problem - the film is obviously aimed, in its semi-high-school American 'teen rock' music pretensions, at a much older audience. A porous plot, even to an 8 year old, and the embarrassing potential of the cast falls extremely flat. Mathew Horne seems only to have two expressions in his repertoire and is in extreme danger of having a bit part comedy career fade fast. Anjelica Huston's Scottish accent was insulting and embarrassing - like a sheltered American impersonating Mrs Doubtfire. Horrid Henry clean cut and Americanised, really wasn't very menacing at all. I was surprised we were spared the sentimental 'son, I got it all wrong but I will always love you' ending: it would have completed the American airbrushing.

It cracks me up when adults review films aimed at children and give them a battering. This does pretty much what it says on the tin - my 3 and 6 year olds have watched this many times and it's pretty bearable even as an adult. I am happy to be a little (!) older than the target audience. A decent effort with CGIs too to be fair. And can anyone tell me of a film where the 3D effects HAVEN'T been a gratuitous waste of time!?

In short, my six year old daughter now wants to be a rock star and considers herself to be too cool for school.

Oh, err, hold on a sec.... :-)

Horrid Henry: The Movie is a bad movie, but to be honest, I kinda like it?

It's predictable, looks more direct-to-video-worthy than something theatrical, has some downright bizarre moments and contains some of the worst CGI I've ever seen, but at the same time, it's got a charm to it that makes it hard to hate. Most of the characters are actually pretty likeable, mainly Henry and his friends with their comradery, the acting itself is actually not that bad, the soundtrack is alright and most of all, it's really faithful to the source material. You can tell that the people working on this film understood the source material really well.

Overall, I kinda have a soft spot for this movie. It's no masterpiece for sure, but rewatching it has given me some nostalgic vibes. There's much worse stuff out there.

I seem to have found myself reading a lot of other reviews for Horrid Henry the Movie and the general consensus is that it's only an 'okay' film at best.

Much of the criticism comes from the fact that (apparently) the child actors portraying the characters in the original Horrid Henry books/TV cartoons, don't look anything like the source material. My argument to that is - this is a film, with REAL people. If real children looked like the caricature-like drawings in the books and cartoons then I would be seriously worried about which freak show they were drafted in from! Then much has been said about how (apparently) it doesn't stay true to the 'spirit' of the original source material. My argument would be that this is a FILM. If you like the books - great - they're books. If you like the cartoons - great - they're cartoons. Keep on reading and watching them. A film cannot be like a book and, unless it's a cartoon-film, not much like the cartoon either. The film takes many of the ideas and inspirations from the book and cartoon and expands on it. It has to. How else would it be able to stretch it out to an hour and a half? Also, people have said that the plot/story isn't up to scratch. I feel I have to spell it out - it's a KIDS' MOVIE. If you want plot twists and character development followed by shocks and surprises, watch the DaVinci Code. This film is aimed at children. Therefore, it has a story that they can understand.

Did I like it? No. But then I'm nearly thirty-five. However, my six year old daughter dragged me to the cinema twice to watch it (the second time I even fell asleep). Now Horrid Henry the Movie is on my television screen at home and my daughter is demanding it for her birthday. In short, let the kids be the judge of it.

Note: special kudos to Anjelica Huston for her great performance as Miss Battle-Axe.

England's very first Kids 3D film turned out to be Horrid Henry The Movie. The Horrid Henry books became a big success in the UK alone. They created an animated series in 2006 and now they have created a movie in 2011.

I am a fan of the Horrid Henry books. I also thought the series wasn't too bad either. Then when the film came out I thought it would be good to go and see it.

The characters looked great. But the way the actors performed them was very disappointing. I would call this bad acting. The way they performed each role was very poor. Each one did look like the characters in the books and series, but most of them didn't feel like it was the characters you know in the books. The actual plot was poor as well. It felt like a plot that you would see in an episode of the cartoon series. They could have thought of something much better than what they chose.

I would say that there was one actor in this that did fit the part of her character. That person is Anjelica Huston who played the part of Miss Battleaxe. She really did play the part of Miss Battleaxe really well. She was only on for a few scenes and I think she needed to be in this film a bit longer than she was.

I would not say this is a family film. I would say this is just for kids younger than 8. It might be more entertaining for them than it is for anyone older. It was very disappointing for me; it was actually an insult to the books. I hate saying stuff like that about movies, but I'm afraid I had to say it.

Written By Jamie Foster