5 Children & It
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Movie Reviews of 5 Children & It
Movie Review: I loved it
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a wonderful movie to keep the kids (and quite possibly yourself) entertained during an otherwise-hectic holiday. I laughed, I cried, (really, I did) and I just really enjoyed it.Movie Review: Clever and amusing
Summary: 4 Stars
Cute little movie :) I enjoyed the book as a kid and was delighted by the fun of the DVD just a few weeks ago.Movie Review: "It" is on DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's Charlie, Freddie Highmore, Shakespearean actor Kenneth Branagh and er... Eddie Izzard's voice star in this remake of "Five Children and It", orignally based on E. Nesbit's novel of the same name. I haven't read the book (though I'd like to), but I grew up with the old TV serial, which I thought was great. Though it's great to see the story with a bigger budget and some fine actors, and its fine family entertainment, I wish it was more like that old serial.
In the midst of World War I, a father goes to war and five children are sent into the country until things cool down a bit in England's south. The kids are sent to their Uncle Albert's (Kenneth Branagh), an eccentric writer of maths textbooks who likes his rules and dislikes distrubances. One of the rules of the house is that they are not allowed into the greenhouse. Robert (Freddie Highmore) who is a bit of a rulebreaker, goes in anyway and discovers a beach beyond an old doorway. On that beach, he finds a sand fairy, the Psammead (voiced by Eddie Izzard). Sand fairies can grant wishes, which is a pretty good thing to have access to, even if the wishes often go wrong and only last until the sun sets. Still, the kids get up to all sorts of adventures thanks to the Psammead's power.
The film is very well cast for the most part. The boys are as they should be, the girls are loving and sweet, and Kenneth Branagh makes a brilliant Uncle Albert. I can't say I really like the idea of Eddie Izzard as the Psammead. It's the voice he chooses that bugs me. It's kind of British, kind of French, which kind of makes him a bit zanier and cartoonish than the sagely plump puppet from the TV serial. Doesn't make him seem as wise and ancient, which is something I used to love about his character. It might be just the script, but this film's sand-fairy is a bit more wise cracking too, which usually annoys me, but its pretty restrained here, so it isn't too bad. Like I said, I haven't read the book, but I'm sure the TV series wasn't as "Narnia" as this. A beach in a greenhouse cupboard? Was it really like that? I don't know...
Special features include an hour long making of documentary, featuring interviews from all the actors (Freddie Highmore, Kenneth Branagh, etc), and a couple of interviews from the crew on the more technical side of things. The kids seemed really nice from their interviews. There's also an outtakes montage, some unused audio improvs from Eddie Izzard's It, a featurette on merchandise from the film (pretty much a commercial), a storyboard gallery, a design gallery, a photo gallery and a series of trailers from both TV and the theatres.
A reasonable kids film, but I do prefer the old TV serial. Three and a half stars.
Movie Review: Read the Book Once a Year, watch the movie and enjoy both
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this book for my children in the 1980s as they became old enough to read. I read it back then and found it pleasant. In April/May 2008 I re-read it after noticing E. Nesbit was honored in the pages of one of my favorite books, Half Magic. My youngest daughter, as an 8 year old, read Five Children and It and told me she pretty much loved it until she saw this movie a year later, May 2008. Then she said she loved the movie more. Good for her. She isn't wrapped up in "rules" as I am.
The movie was shockingly different from the book, and I found myself endlessly comparing it to the book and being frustrated. I could've enjoyed the movie a lot if I had relaxed.
Did the movie include as much as 2 percent from E. Nesbit's book? Does anyone know? There was nothing about a war in the book. There was no train, tramp with suitcases, mansion, relatives, forbidden room, beach, and no enormous shell containing the sand fairy who tried running away.
The sand fairy's appearance, character and words were all dramatically different. He was endearing in the book. I missed his wisdom and vulnerability. You know how important it was that Gollum in Tolkien's books be done well for the movies? I feel like that about E. Nesbit's sand fairy. The movie sand fairy was lively and sarcastic and funny but he wasn't the book sand fairy.
The book had no crazy chore list, no clones, no broken vase, no testdrive of a car, no Germans, no ice cream man.
Everything having to do with wings in the movie differed from the book. In the book, the children agreed on wings and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. It was supremely glorious day. No problems until they got hungry and fell asleep. The book had charming realistic, practical dilemnas for their wings adventure. I loved that part of E. Nesbit's story. Sigh. The movie invented some conflict and drama and danger with their flight, but I much preferred the book's simple realism and good heart during that day's wish.
Everything to do with the children's father and his compass, birthday picnic, the near dissection, and the dinosaur didn't exist in the book.
I was especially bothered by the movie character played by Freddie. The movie character was rebellious, angry, passionate, and clearly the lead character. Not so in the book. I don't blame Freddie. As Jessica Rabbit would say, "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." I don't see why the story wasn't "modernized" to win a new generation, retaining the best the book had to offer. Who made the decision to change 98%?
E. Nesbit deserves to have her books made into first class movies. This can be done without having her plot and characters butchered/annihilated. How far can movie makers go with their "adaptations" and still credit a source? What a dilemna. She deserves the recognition.
I recommend you enjoy the book and enjoy the movie. They both are worth owning and worth re-reading/watching over and over. Just let go of thinking the movie will do justice to the book.
Movie Review: Fans of the book, stay away!
Summary: 2 Stars
What a disappointment! This dreadful little movie has practically nothing in common with the classic book of the same title by E. Nesbit. If you're a fan of children's literature and enjoy the wonderful tone and content of Five Children and It (the book) then find the other movie version of it, titled "The Sand Fairy." I believe it was done by the BBC. There is also a second, called "Return of the Sand Fairy."
Like everyone else, I loved Freddie Highmore in Finding Neverland (and as Charlie) and he's just as charming here, as Robert, the second oldest boy and the starring role in this version (Freddie gets top billing and Robert's part is much more central than in the book). It's not Freddie's fault that this script is a bad jumble of kid-movie cliches brought together by someone who obviously never read E. Nesbit's classic, or if they did, cared nothing for it. Nesbit is a wonderful children's writer, full of wit and magic. C.S. Lewis himself said he was inspired by Nesbit's work when he created his Narnia books. However, in this production, it's Lewis' classics that seem to lend most of the plot. The kids here are evacuated during the war (WWI in this case) and live with a "mad uncle" and his very odd son in a castle by the sea. It's as if they took several Lewis books, tried to add a Harry Potter feel, and then CGI'd a character (the sand fairy) for that modern flashiness. A few of the wishes from the actual story occur (wings, spending money) but the entire tone is one of "wacky adventure" as the kids run rampant and the sand fairy cracks jokes. Freddie has his touching moments, missing their father, which is supposed to lend a depth that this movie could never quite hold.
I have a high tolerance for children's entertainment, happily watching many a kiddy film, however I was bored from the first fifteen minutes. I did watch to the end, bound and determined to get it over with. As I did, I wondered what sort of person might be entertained by all this. My guess: one who has not been previously exposed to any of the great works that were badly ripped off here. One who is easily amused and has no need for consistency of tone or quality of script. One who has never heard of the E. Nesbit book and never intends to read it. If that's you or your kids, enjoy.