The Gruffalo's Child

A wonder filled sequel to Julia Donaldson's THE GRUFFALO, once again, using the animation wizardry of Magic Light Pictures and Studio Soi to fabricate the world of this trickster tale where imagination, curiousity and adventure dwell. Shirley Henderson joins an already stellar cast of voice actors enlivened by Rene Aubry's wonderful soundtrack. I give this film an 8 (wonderful) out of 10. {Animated Short Adventure}

Kinda scottish Gruffalo. 1. I read the grufflo in my class this year so then I came upon a dvd for this and knew I had to watch it. I like the second perspective we get from the Gruffalo after hearing about the mouse's perspective. I think it is really cool and can help younger people understand others as well. THis is just a wonderful children's story. I also really liked the animation or clay. It has soothing music with rhyming words. I recommend this movie along with that uprising children influencer lady with brown hair, who sometimes also teaches spanish. She is like the new blue clues for this generation.

As a big animation fan, I loved The Gruffalo's Child. It is not quite as good as The Gruffalo, which I also loved, but of all the programmes airing over the Christmas break The Gruffalo's Child stood out as one of the treasures. The animation is true to the illustrations and looks superb with sophisticated backgrounds and colours that look simply beautiful. The rhyming dialogue is droll and sometimes amusing, delighting any child, adult or even family watching, and the story while simple is very charming and heart-warming, in short effective in its simplicity. I loved the cute(and never cloying) characters as well, and the voice cast was great especially from Shirley Henderson, who was very whimsical and moving as the Child. Overall, wonderful. 9/10 Bethany Cox

What a cast! Some amazing voice talent on show, but we don't get that much of them, unfortunately. The animation isn't quite top notch, but the story is wonderfully engaging, with rich characters. Definitely recommended for all ages and family members.

Essentially reversing the plot of the original Gruffalo short, this time the squirrel tells her children a tale about the Gruffalo's child going into the woods to seek out the fearsome mouse that her father uses as a warning not to wander off. As before each animal encountered points the child onwards to a new threat and as before the result is a cute and enjoyable little short film even if it never really excels in a great deal. It probably helped by enjoyment that I recorded this and watched it later on Christmas Day – and did so after watching the rather disappointing and heartless Doctor Who special. In stark contrast this film is simple, quite warming and very easy to watch with its rhyming dialogue and simple characters.

It perhaps lacks the Pixar sense of humour or a cynical edge to appeal to adults specifically but it is hard to dislike it for just how simple a tale it is. The animation is impressive but yet retains the feel of a children's book – I feel no shame in admitting that I was watching this in a dressing gown at the end of a day of wine and food and it felt oddly comforting to be sitting being told this wholesome and simple little tale. The dialogue works well in this effect with it repetition and rhyming nature while the voice cast from the first film mostly return. Most of them only have a few lines apart from Shirley Henderson, who plays her usual "odd Scottish waif" role really well as the child – she was a good bit of casting and brought a lot of character to the child. As before Corden mercifully underplays and does good as the mouse.

Overall The Gruffalo's Child is not really worthy of comparison to that other animated Christmas favourite of Wallace and Gromit, but it engagingly pleasing in its simplicity and good-natured telling. It is written for young children but yet the film felt warming and easy for me in my mid-30's; how it would stand up on a bright summer's day I don't know, but as a nice little family film it worked really well on Christmas Day.