I love the book by EB White and having seen Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web and really liking them, I looked forward to seeing The Trumpet of the Swan. Another reason why I wanted to see the film was because Carol Burnett was doing a voice on it, to this day I still love her as Miss Hannigan in Annie and I consider her a great actress and comedienne. On paper, Trumpet of the Swan had all the ingredients for a perfectly charming family film. A beautiful, charming book to work from and a great voice cast were the main attractions.
After finally seeing it, I felt that there were some good moments and everything, but at the end of the day it all felt bland. First of all, I highly appreciate the messages that the film had, learning the importance of reading and writing, overcoming disability, finding your own voice, honour and family love are great messages for kids and incorporated into the story in a simple yet effective way. Another redeeming quality is the voice cast, while I found the characters themselves bland I thought Jason Alexander, Seth Green, Reese Witherspoon, Mary Steenbergen, Joe Mantegna and Carol Burnett all do stellar jobs. Plus I think kids will find it very cute, there are parts where I certainly did find very sweet and well intentioned, as there are some touching moments.
However, there are also things that don't quite work. The animation I had mixed feelings about, some of the backgrounds are quite pretty with lovely use of pastel colours, but some of the characters are poorly drawn with some wonky movements. A lot less successful were the songs, they were sweet but they were also very sugary and forgettable and felt as though they were there to make the movie longer. Another component that didn't work as well was the story, there were some touching and humorous moments but the film's structure is somewhat episodic and rushed. That way I didn't relate to the characters as much as I would have liked, and that extra ingredient that made the book so charming was missing. Speaking of the characters while the protagonist was decent and Mrs Hammerbotham was likable in some ways, but some others Serena and the squirrels especially were rather cookie-cutter and the father did have moments where he annoyed me. Several of these problems lead to one major problem, the length, at barely over an hour the film was for me too short and that did affect how I felt about the characters and the story.
Overall, The Trumpet of the Swan certainly isn't a bad film as such, it just wasn't a particularly good one either. Kids will definitely like it, but adults may find it bland. 4/10 mainly for the voice work. Bethany Cox
