Room on the Broom

The witty words of Julia Donaldson and the wonder of Magic Light Pictures once again give us a delightful film. Brought to life by a treasure of voice talents from Britain's best (Gillian Anderson, Simon Pegg, Ron Braydon, Timothy Spall, Martin Clunes, Sally Hawkins, David Walliams) and the brilliant musical characterizations of Rene Aubrey, the story garners critical and award attention (Oscar, Cristal, Annie, Magnolia, TIFF). I give this film an 8 (delightful) out of 10. {Family Animation}

From the same team that did the last two Gruffalo films comes this season's animation for Christmas Day. The films fit into the slot traditionally filled by the Wallace and Gromit films and, although none of them (this one included) have ever got close to that standard, they do at least do the job for the audience and time they are on. In this film a cat and a witch are helped to locate some missing items but end up taking on passengers each time – all well and good perhaps but they do not know that a dragon is stalking the witch for his tea.

The music and the animation pretty much get you in the mood from the very start as they are slight, amusing in tone and non-threatening. The narration from Simon Pegg is good as it delivers the nicely paced gentle rhymes which form the structure of the film; they are repetitive in nature but this is the point of them and it works well. As the content is pretty simple, the animation adds plenty of amusing and funny moments whether in actual gags or in terms of little flourishes or moments of characterization. This is the main body of the film and it is this that helps it fill the time and stops it feeling too slow. The animation also makes the characters work because, as famous as the cast-list is, nobody really makes an impact beyond Pegg – it is the physical actions and reactions of the characters that make them work.

It isn't amazingly smart or hilarious but it is gently funny and warming while drawing you in with the animation and the nice tone and rhythm of the delivery. A good family short film for Christmas Day and will have legs beyond that very specific time slot.

Now you'd reckon a witch would be used to the effects of the wind by now, but nope - this one is constantly finding things blowing off and so she has to stop, each time, and find what she has lost. First it is her hat, and that is where she meets a dog who cadges a lift on the broom with her and her cat. Then she manages to lose her bow and before you know it she has accumulated a frog and a green bird too. Worse still is yet to come when they encounter an hungry dragon who is intent on some toasted witch for supper. Can she survive? This reminded me a little of the "chicken Licken, hen Len" story as this initially quite wary group grows to become friends thanks to their kindly pal with the pointy black hat. The animation engagingly relies on some fun facial expressions, some lovely chocolate-style glooping and there is a jaunty score to whizz it along for an enjoyably crafted twenty minutes that focuses on a good story with mischievous characterisations and it's certainly a great example of less-is-more for this genre.

My daughters (2 and 4) love the book, so I was excited when I saw a movie version on Netflix a few days ago. They have watched it over and over and over. So I'd say this short is a huge success with the target audience.

I get a kick out of the lower reviews marking it down for unsophisticated humor. But aside from my little ones loving it, I appreciate the sweetness of the story, which is essentially about belonging. Not fitting in, but belonging - two very different concepts. I also appreciate the simple and beautiful communication between the characters as there is very little dialogue.

While it is definitely aimed at a younger, more easily pleased audience, this is a very charming animation with cute characters that you can't help but find appealing.

It doesn't really take you anywhere, despite being a story about a journey, but I don't think that it was aiming to. It's just meant to be an easy and simple tale to entertain children and in that it succeeds.

I don't think it was worth paying for Gillian Anderson for the few lines she had though.

I have to say that I resonated with the cat, because I don't like to share my human either, but occasionally I can make an allowance to let others in.

I actually don't know any of the Julia Donaldson books from my own childhood, so these TV film shorts are my only reference to the stories and they seem to show what a great storyteller she is.

664.15/1000.