Five Children and It

In these days of blockbuster movies made especially for children, it is quite refreshing to see an old fashioned tale of magic and mischief. Children of all ages will like this film and take it at face value - it is an adaptation of a classic story. The special effects are reasonable but unremarkable and we are drawn mainly to the characters played by Kenneth Branagh and Zoe Wanamaker, the latter having the best role by far. The story skips along nicely to its inevitable and predictable ending. The storyline is sentimental; unfortunately the child actors do not add anything to this emotion and appear to be fairly wooden. The film is worth a viewing on a rainy afternoon but it is unlikely to draw in the crowds.

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2005. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture "…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life."

This is a movie in the tradition of "Harry Potter" movies and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events." It is a fantasy set in 1917 in wartime England. Five children are sent from London to the countryside for safety and security reasons. They are staying in a large, spooky, Gothic-like house with a math-crazed Uncle played brilliantly by Kenneth Branagh. His acting and make-up are so unique that there is no way you could possibly tell it was Branagh. The Uncle has many rules for the children including stay out of the greenhouse. Of course they disobey the rules and the greenhouse leads them to a secret beach where they find a sand fairy.

The sand fairy is cute and small and insolent and irreverent and funny. The children are off on adventures because the sand fairy grants them one wish a day. They soon find that getting what you wish for can be overwhelming and not welcomed.

The leader among the five children is not the oldest. The leader is a classic all-boy instigator, Robert, that pushes the story forward constantly by being curious and never reigning himself in. He is played by Freddie Highmore of "Finding Neverland" fame and he steals the movie with his character and his screen presence.

The children as a group are interesting. They are loyal to each other, they care deeply for their parents, and they develop a love for the sand fairy. And they learn from their mistakes.

This film has beautiful art direction and wonderful casting and acting.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Crystal Heart winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Searching through the movies on 'Sky' when I was off work with flu, I stumbled across the film 'five children and it', when I was a young kid i Remember watching a program of the same name on 'BBC' and really loving it, so in an effort to restore past childhood memories (or potentially risk damaging them) i decided to give the new adaptation a go.

It got me gripped from beginning to end and I could not believe this had not been 'in my face' more with advertising and marketing schemes, this has the feel of a real good old classic BBC children's drama that you would find on a Saturday afternoon and leaves you with a real good feel good factor.

The cast is a really good choice with not a sniff of bad acting and plenty of great script work with funny,emotional and sometimes hysterical pieces of dialogue. 'Kenneth Brannagh' for me leads the cast as the professor, really funny and keeps a smile on your face. The children are all equally good, putting in excellent roles and not looking lost for a minute.....you would think they are a real family! Eddie Izard is a real gem though, giving him the role of the psamiead with a dodgy accent at first gives you the impression you are about to be disappointed but I could never have been further wrong, he has an amazing role and keeps the punchlines coming and coming.

Overall I am a 21 year old guy and found this film to be a real treasure and would certainly tell my own kids one day to watch. I still think it is criminal that the film didn't do better than it did.

a real worth see.

This is a wonderfully sweet, innocent movie that parents and children alike will enjoy. This is a movie that brings us back to our childhood and the dreams and fantasies that were part of the innocence of children and of believing in the impossible. The five children in this movie are sweet and caring siblings - not argumentative and spoiled children, but siblings who clearly love one another.

The idea that make believe can come true is refreshing. Clearly this is a movie about love, hope and dreams. Freddie Hightower, the young star of Neverland, is just as good in this movie. He is joined in his acting ability by 5 other young actors, as well as the wonderful Zoe Wanamaker and Kenneth Branaugh - all of whom are wonderful.

The scenery is wonderful - the England coastline. This is one of those movies they don't make enough of - it leaves you smiling when you finish the movie.

I would think that this was one of those films whose director hadn't read the book it was based on, were it not for the fact that they are just slightly similar. It is certainly possible for a great film to be "based" very loosely on a book and this was certainly the latter but not the former.

There were a number of flaws. One was that it tried to be too much like the Railway Children, probably because adults would expect this, being from the same author. Another is that it also sought to be too like Harry Potter, down to the music and in overemphasizing the setting. I have nothing against J K Rowling or the films but the book is just nothing like the Harry Potter ones. I thought the Psammead, though very well voiced by Eddie Izzard and in character too, was almost gratuitously in a totally inappropriate environment. I may have missed something here, as the comments made about one of the characters' own books may have been a reference to the inaccuracy of the adaptation. There was also no need for the extra characters, and today's special effects could easily have been used to tell the story as it was written, but they weren't.

I saw this film with my two children, one of whom knows the book and the other of whom doesn't. The one who does know it thought it was all right but wasn't as enthusiastic as the one who doesn't. I'm not sure what this means.